Like any business, they did the number crunching. They looked at what clients are costing them money. I bet they hope to lose those clients to competitors. Those hosting companies claiming unlimited are just using it to get clients in their door. I bet the same will happen with another host. Time will tell. Another article on Bluehost.com _http://www.tuaw.com/2009/07/20/stars-in-your-pocket-for-free/_ (http://www.tuaw.com/2009/07/20/stars-in-your-pocket-for-free/) Michael Andrews ASC Minnesota I too share your disappointment and have warned Larry Flesher that we may hit the same problem in MOGENWEB. I've also attempted to let the Bluehost president know of the problem and impact of this new unadvertised policy. Time will only tell if I really got through. If the policy remains the same, it's going to cost them literally hundreds of accounts in the world of genealogy. I suspect a similar impact will occur in other areas. And if they don't get that limit posted for new users, I will feel impelled to stop recommending them. I am looking at other hosting options in preparation for a potential move of MOGENWEB. IDGENWEB appears to currently be well within the limit. I'd greatly appreciate hearing from other states about their experience with other hosts. And by the way, this does break my heart because I've been a long time Bluehost user and have a good number of accounts. The performance, features and service have been great. I can't say the same about half a dozen other vendors I used before. It's been somewhat like rolling the dice before I came to Bluehost. There were massive downsides on every vendor I had used. Mike St. Clair SC - IDGENWEB

It's not the dozen or few dozen state GENWEBs that will hurt them if lost. It's all the personal accounts of genealogists who are coordinators or visitors of USGENWEB. For example, I have four Bluehost sites, only one of which exceeds the file count limit. I also know of at least a dozen folks who have gotten accounts there because of my good experience. If MOGENWEB moves because of this issue I'll likely move my other accounts as well to allow me some consistency in my administration. So it's a leveraged thing. Multiply the genwebs that move by some number of CCs and genealogy users by some number of accounts and I think it's a bad thing for Bluehost. I believe the law of averages does indeed give them a reasonable account target size within a general demographic (like genealogy) even though there are a few that are outsized. They absolutely have the right, but they didn't implement this in the manner that I see them make most changes - that is, with reasonable notice and usually grandfathering existing users. They still have not, at this point, documented that restriction anywhere online that prospective account holders will know about it before they exceed the limit and are abruptly given two weeks to comply. That's not typically of the way they have handled changes in the past and that's one reason for their tremendous growth. They have always taken care of their customers, and that makes their reputation grow. This has not been the norm for Bluehost. Market analysis can't assume every individual account is totally independent. And you have to treat your customers right or the word gets out. Pretty much all of the big hosting suppliers now provide "unlimited" disk space, which has become very cheap to supply, but those who have limits on the number of files (a good many) provide that number to prospective clients. Mike -------------------------------------------------- From: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 11:03 AM To: <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [STATE-COORD] Hosting plans & file limits > > Like any business, they did the number crunching. They looked at what > clients are costing them money. I bet they hope to lose those clients to > competitors. Those hosting companies claiming unlimited are just using it > to get > clients in their door. I bet the same will happen with another host. > Time > will tell. > > Another article on Bluehost.com > _http://www.tuaw.com/2009/07/20/stars-in-your-pocket-for-free/_ > (http://www.tuaw.com/2009/07/20/stars-in-your-pocket-for-free/) > > Michael Andrews > ASC Minnesota > > I too share your disappointment and have warned Larry Flesher that we may > hit the same problem in MOGENWEB. I've also attempted to let the Bluehost > president know of the problem and impact of this new unadvertised policy. > Time will only tell if I really got through. If the policy remains the > same, it's going to cost them literally hundreds of accounts in the world > of > genealogy. I suspect a similar impact will occur in other areas. And if > they don't get that limit posted for new users, I will feel impelled to > stop > recommending them. > > I am looking at other hosting options in preparation for a potential move > of > MOGENWEB. IDGENWEB appears to currently be well within the limit. > > I'd greatly appreciate hearing from other states about their experience > with > other hosts. > > And by the way, this does break my heart because I've been a long time > Bluehost user and have a good number of accounts. The performance, > features > and service have been great. I can't say the same about half a dozen > other > vendors I used before. It's been somewhat like rolling the dice before I > came to Bluehost. There were massive downsides on every vendor I had > used. > > Mike St. Clair > SC - IDGENWEB > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message