Introduction to LES

CharityHost_org · November 24

Hi LES members! I just wanted to introduce myself to get started on the right tone here at LES.

CharityHost.org is a relatively new org started last year and was a change of brand from SpectroHost.com while maintaining all the customers. The concept is established to help support web hosting needs for charities and ngo/nonprofits and schools. We have a free hosting level for those to start up, and at cost plans otherwise as they scale. That's not all though because we really do provide services for personal and businesses even then at great price points and great quality performance. Anyway that is just a short on what we are doing. We provide web hosting, VPS, and dedicated servers, some services surrounding WP and websites as well. We fully own all our server hardware and currently colo in Houston TX US area, but looking to expand to other colo as we scale. We have no brick and mortar central office, operate internationally, and are fully remote other than colo on hands.

Reach out anytime even just to chat or say hello!

Thank you

PS. Not promoting here, this was an intro suggestion by an LES moderator.

Amadex · November 24

Welcome

yoursunny · November 24

Where is the company registered and what's the registration number?
Do you own the IPv4 prefixes?
Do you offer IPv6-only BGP session?
Do your shared hosting servers have IPv6?
For dedicated servers, is the IPMI on public network or behind VPN?
Will you release $6/year VPS dealz if you are approved for provider tag on Black Friday?
Do you plan to ask customers to bump your offer threads for double bandwidth?
Do you permit service transfers to another billing account?
If a service has been transferred to another person and then the original buyer initiated a chargeback for the last invoice paid on that same service, would you suspend the server that is now in the recipient's account or would you absorb the loss?

skorous · November 24

There we go ... Now we're off to the right start.

You own your own server hardware. What about the network related infra and ip space?

CharityHost_org · November 24

Some Q/A's here

Where is the company registered and what's the registration number? https://wyobiz.wyo.gov/Business/FilingDetails.aspx?eFNum=233052059247024225233234019114177207192252054080
Do you own the IPv4 prefixes? Yes. ARIN /24
Do you offer IPv6-only BGP session? Not currently
Do your shared hosting servers have IPv6? Yes.
For dedicated servers, is the IPMI on public network or behind VPN? No VPN out of the box.
Will you release $6/year VPS dealz if you are approved for provider tag on Black Friday? Maybe. Had not thought of it but perhaps for a few first orders. Limit 1 per order.
Do you plan to ask customers to bump your offer threads for double bandwidth? Maybe, I have not determined what to offer at LES yet.
Do you permit service transfers to another billing account? Currently yes. $2 fee for a transfer right now.
If a service has been transferred to another person and then the original buyer initiated a chargeback for the last invoice paid on that same service, would you suspend the server that is now in the recipient's account or would you absorb the loss? I would have to say that's not something we would do. It's not the fault of the new customer that a chargeback ocurred. We would just pursue the dispute against the fraudulent transfer original buyer.

Wonder_Woman · November 24

@CharityHost_org said:
Do you plan to ask customers to bump your offer threads for double bandwidth? Maybe, I have not determined what to offer at LES yet.

This is a trick question because this practice is against the rules here:

Providers: Don't encourage spam, i.e. require customers to post a comment in order to get benefits ("double bandwidth" and similar stuff).

https://lowendspirit.com/discussion/26/rules-rules-rules-rules-rules-info-updated-october-9th-1935/p1

FrankZ · November 24

@CharityHost_org said: Do you plan to ask customers to bump your offer threads for double bandwidth? Maybe, I have not determined what to offer at LES yet.

Just so you know, we don't do that here. From the rules.

Providers: Don't encourage spam, i.e. require customers to post a comment in order to get benefits ("double bandwidth" and similar stuff).

EDIT: NM as I see that @Wonder_Woman beat me to it.

More good news is that there is also this rule:

Customers: don't spam the offer threads. Use them to post questions related to the offer(s). If you wish to share feedback, it's best to write in the review section or post a link to an existing LES review.

yoursunny · November 24

@CharityHost_org said:
For dedicated servers, is the IPMI on public network or behind VPN? No VPN out of the box.

JungleSec warning.

imok · November 24

Welcome!

CharityHost_org · November 24

@yoursunny said: JungleSec warning.

IPMI is secured differently for dedicated servers. Either port is off and by request opened, or has integration with the client area for power options and sometimes kvm depending on the dedi server.

curiouswanderer · November 24

Welcome. I have a VDS from you and I’m pretty happy with it.

FrankZ · November 24

Going through your TOS, from a potential customer point of view, I had some questions.
(By the way whoever wrote that TOS did a good job of protecting you)

Section 2: CharityHost.org reserves the right to change its rates during any renewal term by notifying Customer at least thirty (30) days in advance of the effective date of such rate change.

Please clarify "during" in the above statement.

Section 3: snip ... All payments required by this Agreement are exclusive of any national, state, municipal, or other governmental excise, sales, value-added and occupational taxes and other fees and levies, all of which Customer shall be responsible for and will pay in full,

What taxes or fees specifically might be added to the price shown in your offers ?

Section 6a: snip ... We do not permit illegal, illicit, or R-rated activity on our servers.

In the context of R-rated activity, would saying "Fuck" or displaying not to be viewed at the workplace memes (that are not porn) on a forum violate this provision of you TOS ?

Section 6b: snip ... “Service Misuse”). This includes, but is not limited to, material in violation of a copyright, material legally judged to be threatening or obscene, material protected by trade secret or material that is otherwise deemed to be proprietary or judged by CharityHost.org to be inappropriate or improper, such as unsolicited commercial e-mail messages.

How is "inappropriate or improper" applied beyond sending spam ?

Section 7c : snip ... ALL LIABILITIES ARISING FROM ANY SUCH ERROR, INTERRUPTION, OR OTHER FAILURE. CUSTOMER ACKNOWLEDGES THAT AN INTERRUPTION IN SERVICE(S) DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND THE REASONABLE CONTROL OF CharityHost.org, SUCH AS A FAILURE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS OR NETWORK SYSTEMS NOT CONTROLLED BY CharityHost.org, SHALL NOT BE CONSIDERED A SERVICE OUTAGE OR SERVICE DEFICIENCY FOR PURPOSES OF ANY REMEDY PROVIDED IN AN APPLICABLE SLA.

Does this basically mean that Section 20A applies

Section 20A. CharityHost.org reserves the right to terminate the Agreement or any affected Service Addendum upon notice to Customer in the event that (i) CharityHost.org cannot maintain, despite reasonable efforts to do so, its regulatory approval necessary to provide the Service(s) and/or enter into this Agreement; and (ii) CharityHost.org’s underlying vendor is unable or unwilling to provide some or all of the Service(s) required for CharityHost.org to continue this Agreement.

And there is no SLA recourse for your clients if your upstream providers refuse to do business with you for whatever reason ?

Section 11: This Agreement shall not become a binding obligation of CharityHost.org until it has been executed by an officer of CharityHost.org.

Can you clarify how this would be conveyed to an end user.

From the AUP...

You also acknowledge that you may not:

Use the Services as part of any effort to compete with us or otherwise use the Services and/or the Content for any revenue-generating endeavor or commercial enterprise.

We are not all non-profits. Can you explain why this clause is in your AUP ?

Except as may be the result of standard search engine or Internet browser usage, use, launch, develop, or distribute any automated system, including without limitation, any spider, robot, cheat utility, scraper, or offline reader that accesses the Services, or using or launching any unauthorized script or other software.
Disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the Services.

Trust me members will write bad reviews and/or disparaging comments if they are deserved. Care to comment further on this ?

cybertech · November 24

yaaaaaas frankz is back

tenpera · November 24

@CharityHost_org, so where is $6/yr deal?

FrankZ · November 24

@tenpera said:
@CharityHost_org, so where is $6/yr deal?

No deals can be posted before a provider has a provider tag approved by LES staff.

adly · November 24

If planning to offer free or at cost plans for charities and non-profits, would a non-profit or public benefit corporation not be more appropriate? Personally, I find the name rather misleading given the intent.

huntercop · November 24

@tenpera said:
@CharityHost_org, so where is $6/yr deal?

I need a 20% discount

FrankZ · November 24

For those of you who never read the AUP here is what is defined as Fair Share.

Fair Share Resource Abuse
Virtual Dedicated Servers (VDS) accounts are allowed 100% CPU allocation 24/7.
Virtual Private Server (VPS) accounts can burst to 100% CPU
VPS with constant overuse above 35% sustained use of CPU total cores on the VPS can be flagged for abuse and will be reviewed via ticket.
Network burst to 1 Gbps is allowed
Private network burst to 10 Gbps is allowed.
Any sustained public network use saturating bandwidth above 50 Mbps sustained can be flagged for abuse and will be reviewed via ticket.
Bandwidth abuse by any customer that calculates sustained network use to match the total VPS bandwidth allocation (approaching, close to, or over) can be flagged for abuse and will be reviewed via ticket.

CharityHost.org holds the sole discretion on whether it is acceptable use or not and has the right to suspend or terminate the plan or account at any time for any reason.

We work with you to make sure you can get the best performance and stability possible. Fair share resources is pivotal to maintaining the hosting ecosystem we manage.

Seems pretty fair to me.

vyas · November 24

So… is the “Fair use” criteria reasonable or generous or restrictive

CharityHost_org · November 24

@FrankZ said: Please clarify "during" in the above statement.

Means rates can change anytime. We have only lowered them ever, but it's variable in case it's required.

@FrankZ said: What taxes or fees specifically might be added to the price shown in your offers ?

There are none right now, but again, you never know how things change.

@FrankZ said: In the context of R-rated activity, would saying "Fuck" or displaying not to be viewed at the workplace memes (that are not porn) on a forum violate this provision of you TOS ?

This means really X-rated because we service nonprofit service orgs, charities, and some churches even. Cursing is not X rated. I will work on changing it from R-rated to X-rated.

@adly said: If planning to offer free or at cost plans for charities and non-profits, would a non-profit or public benefit corporation not be more appropriate? Personally, I find the name rather misleading given the intent.

It was our intent to make the org a 503c but it is time consuming, difficult to find qualified board members, and even expensive to get sponsored or straight up apply for 503c successfully, that was what we found. As to being misleading, well, we service charities/ngo/nonprofits. It's not the first time hear this, and we may rebrand due to that nuance, we have not determined yet what is best.

@FrankZ said: And there is no SLA recourse for your clients if your upstream providers refuse to do business with you for whatever reason ?

I am not sure what you mean. My upstream providers have no reason to refuse. We have a good standing relationship.

@FrankZ said: Section 11: This Agreement shall not become a binding obligation of CharityHost.org until it has been executed by an officer of CharityHost.org.

Can you clarify how this would be conveyed to an end user.

This probably needs to be edited. Thanks

@FrankZ said: We are not all non-profits. Can you explain why this clause is in your AUP ?

That's specifically for nonprofits. You are correct about that. Will review to edit it if it's misunderstood.

@FrankZ said: Trust me members will write bad reviews and/or disparaging comments if they are deserved. Care to comment further on this ?

I understand that. As much as members can do that, they can also not sign up or cancel. It's fine. I am proud to provide the best support and quality services possible, that being said any abuse is flagged and ticketed for discussion. If it's blatantly abusing and obviously intentional, then we suspend and ticket for alignment. We follow rules and laws that are bound to by states and US laws, so DMCA take downs, and abuse complaints, we review all that.

FrankZ · November 24

Thank you for taking the time to answer my long list of questions.
For clarity, I am not judging you or your company. just the TOS and AUP terms.

@CharityHost_org said:

@FrankZ said: Please clarify "during" in the above statement.

Means rates can change anytime. We have only lowered them ever, but it's variable in case it's required.

To me in the TOS it sounded like you are reserving the right to change the price at anytime during a contracted period, not at the end. IE: If I had contracted services for a year, it reads like you could change the price after 3 month.
What I think/hope you mean to say is you can change the price at the end of any contract term and that a renewal contract price is not guaranteed to be the same price as the old contract price.

@CharityHost_org said: I am not sure what you mean. My upstream providers have no reason to refuse. We have a good standing relationship.

I'll drop this one. It's not a likely issue. Sometimes I dig too deep into contracts.

@CharityHost_org said: I understand that. As much as members can do that, they can also not sign up or cancel. It's fine. I am proud to provide the best support and quality services possible, that being said any abuse is flagged and ticketed for discussion. If it's blatantly abusing and obviously intentional, then we suspend and ticket for alignment. We follow rules and laws that are bound to by states and US laws, so DMCA take downs, and abuse complaints, we review all that.

No problem. I just wanted to clarify that you were not going to terminate members because they made disparaging comments about your company if it was deserved. I fully agree that no service provider can or should tolerate abusive clients on a shared service like webhosting or a VPS.

CharityHost_org · November 24

@FrankZ said: To me in the TOS it sounded like you are reserving the right to change the price at anytime during a contracted period, not at the end. IE: If I had contracted services for a year, it reads like you could change the price after 3 month.
What I think/hope you mean to say is you can change the price at the end of any contract term and that a renewal contract price is not guaranteed to be the same price as the old contract price.

No it's just the standard practice. If price changes, changes on renewal (end of the contract).

CharityHost_org · November 24

Thanks for looking at all this. It's good to track from others perspectives specially when hosting management work is slammed and busy with customer support and technicals. Thank you!

tenpera · November 24

@CharityHost_org, so where is $6/yr deal?

Dasabo · November 24

Welcome @CharityHost_org

Introduction to LES

Comments

For those of you who never read the AUP here is what is defined as Fair Share.