To colinangus and webdesignunlimited : One, DO NOT SPAM! And this is not the place to post these questions. Posting is done by clicking on the obvious "New Thread" button.

Suggested addition to the FAQ:

[Q] : I just got my hosting account activated and now my account is suspended and I have no credits. What happened?
A : When your hosting account is activated or you upgrade your account, your credits are zeroed, *no matter how many you have*. As soon as you have enough credits, request your account or upgrade, because you will not keep the extra points. Be sure to be active on the day you receive your account so that you can build your credits back up.

With all due respect, the instructions are necessarily quite long. While I certainly am happy to have it all explained in one place together, I would like to ask: What message does it send to a new member like me (this is my first post) if you have to wade through an explanation that long, with so many ifs and if nots?

Are we here to collect credits only by brown-nosing the ones in charge in order to get credits or are controversial views permitted?

Definitely permitted, as long as you don't get outright insulting or try to flame someone. Any controversial views presented in a decent manner and with all due respect is highly regarded here.

Also if you don't wan't to wade through all of it - the same info (more or less) has been broken up and listed as a series of FAQs which can be accessed at: http://faqs.astahost.com or by clicking the link on top of the main forum page.

Thanks for the FAQ Opaque - now I can rip off some off your cool questions and add them to the main FAQ too

Regards,
m^e

Hey Opaque,
Nice explanation, but I still have one question. I have noticed that when I accidently wait 1 day too many to keep my account active, my credits aren't
-0.xx, but are at least -3. Why is this? I understand that you don't want people to let thier sites bounce between active & inactive, but I thought that just needing a certain number of positive credits to get an account un-suspended was enough. Why is there the additional penalty of losing credits when your account hits zero?

Thanks

-YungBlood

If I always take part in the forum at least once a day, will my points grow more and more. The deduction of points are only if I'm not active on that particular day izzit?

What time zone do Astahost server follows? Because I'm in Malaysia so I not sure about the time zone? Or is it follow my own Malaysian time?

You lose one credit a day once you have hosting no matter what. By being active everyday, if you accumulate more than 1 credit a day (with quality posts) you will gradually build up a nice reserve.

~Viz

Viz,
I understand that part. Here's where I'm confused: if my credits are say 0.5, and I wait one day before I post (letting my credits run out) mathmatically, I should have a balance of -0.5. However, I have found that the moment I let my credits run out, I get a penalty of (I think) 3 credits. None of the FAQ's on the credit system has even mentioned this. It says that you have to get your credit balance up to +4 (if I remember right) before they re-activate your account, but they don't mention taking credits from you.

The reason I noticed is because I don't have an internet connection at home. I get 1 hour a day at the library (except sundays) for *ALL* my internet needs. Sometimes I just don't have the time to post.

Hopefully someone can explain this part better

-YB

This post certainly improved your situation Yeah, all of it is a little bit confusing at the first moment and it takes a while until you really know all the bits and pieces of it. I guess I will be in for a similar surprise sooner or later.

Having said that, I would like to add that IMHO, who ever tried to write a comprehensive tutorial or a help file will agree that this is a never ending job - similar to writing code. The moment you think you did it finally, all the aspects and possibilities have been covered, a situation pops up that you have not included in your thoughts. So you go and write version 1.0.1, and the moment you finished that and want to reward youself for your good work with a beer, ... see above. It's like a vicious circle. And as far as I can see there is no cure for it. That's how things are in this world, it's not perfect.

curare

Haha.. tell me about it curare - am writing the help file for my software at the moment, and oh man... err.. better not start on those lines.