Suggestion AND Feedback

Markup · 2nd May 2008, 10:25 PM

I suppose this comes under both of the forum headings...

... I just went to respond to an evilKurusi thread that was complimenting you guys on your level of service - the thread was closed.

Earlier on this evening I went to respond to Alan Rowley's thread, in which he was inviting opinion on whether to sign up to UNITEDHOSTING - the thread was closed.
I really had good things to say that would have given him good and honest guidance based upon my own (short term) experience.

Having worked online (and in my early days in epr, where I seeded forums on behalf of clients) for many years I have not encountered this in any situation other than abuse or completely off topic direction.

This really is a breath of fresh air as far as service is concerned (OK I have been with you short term, but I said that already) So why do you close the threads guys? You could treat your selves to great exposure if you do not.

UH-Matt · 3rd May 2008, 12:43 AM

Hi Markup

Any threads in the "sales" or "support" sections of the forums are closed once we have dealt with them. This is a way of signing off an issue as dealt, much like a support ticket, as these are the two official areas of the forums.

Any threads in other areas of the forums are left to find their own way to a close.

Hope that helps explain what you've seen, and thanks for the feedback as always.

Markup · 3rd May 2008, 09:09 AM

Thank you Matt

I suppose I will learn as I go along in a trial and error fashion - as is usually my way

UH-Matt · 3rd May 2008, 09:12 AM

Whichever way works best.... trial and error is good

fluxman · 5th May 2008, 11:19 AM

I'll add to this by saying there have been a few occasions since I started using this forum where i really wanted to post a relavent and useful reply to a topic, only to find the thread closed.

Markup · 5th May 2008, 12:15 PM

Hi Fluxman

I found it very strange, until Matt responded as he did, and once he did I saw the logic of closing that type of post as a way of keeping clutter to a minimum.

I think what I will do if I have something to say re a closed thread is start a fresh one, then either quote from the closed one or refer to it via a link.

I'm finding this a great place to be by the way, I'm not the most technical of people so some of the stuff I've picked up in a very short space of time just by reading is going to stand me in good stead for my time with UH in the future.

UH-Matt · 5th May 2008, 08:43 PM

I agree sometimes its annoying to find a thread closed when you want to add your 10 cents, but thats why we have all the other areas in the forum for free discussion, its only two areas we want to keep official and clutter free from discussion, because otherwise it can be daunting to some posters who have a question they want to ask SUPPORT and spark a discussion which can go off on a tangent. While those who WANT discussion can post in the other areas knowing thats what they are going to get

Markup · 5th May 2008, 08:51 PM

In full agreement Matt.

As I say, once you put me straight on the matter I recognised the good housekeeping aspect of the policy.

Cheers
Mark

Vger · 5th May 2008, 10:31 PM

As this post uses the heading "Suggestions and Feeback" can I put my two pennies worth in?

The new UH forum homepage which shows the Login box when I'm already logged in, and doesn't show me as being online until I click away from the homepage is very annoying!!

Vger

MrBen · 5th May 2008, 10:54 PM

That might be a cookie thing - assuming you use a favourite/bookmark to access the site, does that take you to http://unitedforums.co.uk/vb/ but then once you move away from the homepage do you find you're using http://www.unitedforums.co.uk/vb/ ?

Ben

Vger · 5th May 2008, 11:01 PM

Yes, I have always used http:// without the www - have changed that now! Thanks.

Vger

pursuit · 5th May 2008, 11:43 PM

i have two here:

1. on the home page, when you click on say, support (ticket), it opens a new windows (or a new tab if you choose to). i would rather it open in the same window/tab. it seams UH website has a bad habit (IMO) of opening anything in a new window/tab.

2. a more serious one: given the forthcoming upgrade, could anything be done that makes the two website stats, ie, one in the ensim panel the other awstats, consistent. currently, there's up to 40% difference between the two, eg, on the awstats, it says, eg, 10GB (including viewed or not viewed traffic), but in ensim, it says 14GB. i know the ensim takes into account everything ie FTP, email etc. i have seen sites that dont use FTP/email at all yet the big difference is still there. what I would like to see is, the two should show very little difference unless one uses FTP/email that can be measured in GB or 100s of MB (when the BW usage is small, eg, around 1 or 2 GB).

UH-Matt · 6th May 2008, 02:55 AM

Awstats and ensim show different types of usage, so there is nothing that could possibly be changed.

Awstats = web traffic
Ensim = ALL traffic

There would be no way of changing how this works, as its simply displaying a statistic which is accurate for the purpose.

pjrobertson · 6th May 2008, 06:44 AM

I'll second the idea of keeping thread open (at least a little) longer.

You could use a flagging system or something similar to say when a topic has been solved or dealt with.

I've been in the situation where someone has answered my request, and I haven't had enough time to get back to the topic and say thank you before it's closed!

I wanted to post in evilKurusi's thread to say thanks to United Hosting and their top notch support as well.

AndyRoberts · 3rd June 2008, 02:08 PM

Ensim seems to be clunky and lacking some essential features. Are there any other site management tools available here like Hsphere, CPanel, Fantastico ?

MrBen · 3rd June 2008, 02:10 PM

In a word, no.

Ben

AndyRoberts · 3rd June 2008, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrBen

In a word, no.

Ben

thanks for the word.

What would be a usual way to do basic file maintenance then, like installing mediawikis and WordPress, unpacking themes and plugins etc.

Vger · 3rd June 2008, 02:41 PM

There's Ensim Power Tools - but their versions are usually so out of date as to not be worth installing.

Having said that, automated installs are very much the 2nd best option anyway with a manual install of the very latest version of software being the best option.

I do agree that Ensim is clunky, however don't underestimate the value of it when running sites in High Security Mode as a jailed cgi. It's far more secure than cPanel which regularly gets hacked.

However, in the not too distant future, I do expect Ensim to change. Now that it is owned by the same company that owns Plesk I think the future will be one where Ensim becomes more like Plesk, with Plesk taking on a few attributes of Ensim perhaps - resulting eventually in one product.

Way before then I expect Fantastico, which is available for Plesk, to become available on Ensim.

Vger

Tim · 3rd June 2008, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyRoberts

What would be a usual way to do basic file maintenance then, like installing mediawikis and WordPress, unpacking themes and plugins etc.

Good old FTP

Markup · 3rd June 2008, 05:13 PM

Had a niggle today (that turned out to be my own bad housekeeping) and was absolutely flabbergasted that not only did Wilson answer me in under 2 minutes, he had the solution to my wants first time around...

...so as feedback goes - thank you very much guys for a sterling response and action time!!

Hey, my site does not go live till July 4th but I have a landing page up that I am just using to drive a little traffic through the domain via google msn etc - can I put a link in my sig yet or does protocol mean I should wait a certain amount of time...