I recently worked with a guy who was offering inexpensive domains and sites for small businesses and non-profits, so I know exactly what the numbers look like. He folded. It's hard enough when charging money (within the budgets of your small customers). I cannot imagine trying to do it for free. I had thought the ad revenue was higher than 2-10% though, especially since the ads appear to be targetted on post content.

This kind of site lowers the bar for Internet participation and provides a type of content which would simply not be possible otherwise. That being said, I operated or helped operate free bulletin board systems when I was younger; I can understand the urge to provide it and try to make it work. Nothing insensed me more than seeing one of our boards taken down or defaced by punks who thought they were cool or people complaining about the quality of their free service (when it was operating roughly within specs). Other times, "Those %#^$%$% racoons," became a common phrase in the area. In the winter, racoons had a habit of trying to nest inside substations where they were warm. It would usually end with the substation blowing up and taking a chunk of the grid, fuses and breakers with it.

At that time, I usually traded programming and admin services to the boards in exchange for privileges, so the idea behind Astahost struck me as perfectly normal.

This post has been edited by evought: May 5 2006, 07:59 PM

Someone had a bit too much to drink...

I don't particularly know how they make money, although the bootom line hosting, is free with ads, and maybe Astahost get a small commission if someone buys a product through their service, and I bet the ads on the homepage are helpful.

Most other companies were scams, but I truly believe this is fraud safe.

It is safe, because it all ads up in some way. First of all, you have ads on the forums - by posting, we (the members) create more and more pages for ads to be displayed on. But this is just a small income. The main one is www.computinghost.com - and it's not rare that someone from Astahost/Trap17 switches to Computing Host after he realizes his site is getting bigger and bigger And so should you, if this ever happens!

Yeah, in the game I play because updates are weekly people think they take a week. They've finally made a announcement saying they take months with many at a time.

And why don't I see your quote when I quote you?

I do not have a web hosting service and cannot imagine the intricacies involved, but I can understand the frustration when users demand the world in a hosting service.

But can we blame them? Sure, it is unreasonable to complain and bicker for more bandwidth, hard drive space, less posting requirements, or whatever the case may be. On the other hand, we as a society have developed the mentality that everything Internet-related and computer software should be free. Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo compete for our attention by providing more and more features for less ... er, I mean, no money. The open source movements have pushed forward the concept that quality software can and should be available free to users. In a contrasting, but relevant, thought, computer-related piracy holds a firm grip on the social conscience about personal rights to software or services.

By the way, I am not saying that the people who complain about free hosting are justified in their actions. I am just trying to share why I think it is not all surprising that people clamor for more and more. Hey, we all search for the best values out there.