What's Missing?

[Fran]

Customer Tutoring

I realize most of the customer base is advanced, and that there are some FAQs available, but is there any value is providing an area for customers only that provides more information? There are a lot of sites that provide this or that specialty area for various applications, but perhaps a single source aimed at hosting disciplines might be of value.

Such guides could take the form of short tutorials or step-by-step procedures so that a lot of man-power isn't required to sustain them. Extra features that are worth something but cost the orgnization little are a draw for many firms. That sounds like where you would like to go with your question - and it's a very valid question as it displays your committment to your product.

These tutorials would be contributed by users or written by support guys. It's an area that could be unendingly expansive and of real value as I see the same questions repeated in various forums.

A reference guides (perhaps a FAQ database) might be an opportunity to advance the knowledge base of your customers and perhaps even expand it for those wishing to learn in a helpful environment. I don't wish to take anything away from the forums, they're an important part of the process and a resource for anything not found in the FAQs.

Regards,

- Fran

[AndrewT]

I realize most of the customer base is advanced, and that there are some FAQs available, but is there any value is providing an area for customers only that provides more information? There are a lot of sites that provide this or that specialty area for various applications, but perhaps a single source aimed at hosting disciplines might be of value.

Such guides could take the form of short tutorials or step-by-step procedures so that a lot of man-power isn't required to sustain them. Extra features that are worth something but cost the orgnization little are a draw for many firms. That sounds like where you would like to go with your question - and it's a very valid question as it displays your committment to your product.

These tutorials would be contributed by users or written by support guys. It's an area that could be unendingly expansive and of real value as I see the same questions repeated in various forums.

A reference guides (perhaps a FAQ database) might be an opportunity to advance the knowledge base of your customers and perhaps even expand it for those wishing to learn in a helpful environment. I don't wish to take anything away from the forums, they're an important part of the process and a resource for anything not found in the FAQs.

Regards,

- Fran

What bits of information might you be referring to that aren't already covered here in our forums - specifically the FAQ forums?

[medwards]

I would love to see RV Skins added, also CPSKINS does not keep up as well as Fantastico seems to with adding new software.

Of course after I post the above CPSKINS updates....

http://www.cpskins.com/autoinstall.php

Will you update us Andrew?

[AndrewT]

Of course after I post the above CPSKINS updates....

http://www.cpskins.com/autoinstall.php

Will you update us Andrew?

Yes I'm aware of the update, it will be installed in a week or so. They tend to have multiple releases due to bugs found so we'll just wait a bit.

[Tycho]

I like the idea of being able to buy some extra space/bandwith .
But i would love to see cpanel17 upgraded !

[AndrewT]

I like the idea of being able to buy some extra space/bandwith .
But i would love to see cpanel17 upgraded !

All servers will be upgraded in due time. cpanel09b is next and will be done within the next week or so.

[medwards]

All servers will be upgraded in due time. cpanel09b is next and will be done within the next week or so.

yes!!!

[Fran]

htaccess

What bits of information might you be referring to that aren't already covered here in our forums - specifically the FAQ forums?

I just attempted a search for the keyword htaccess using the broadest search parameters. Nothing turned up. Searching on the forums, there were some hits, but after reading through those, I see nothing of a basic nature.

Again, I realize there are a million places to find things and references to htaccess and its uses are available. The intent was to ask if this was something that might be of benefit to have locally so customers would not have to search the net rather than stay on Dathorn and feel they have everything they need right here.

- Fran

[AndrewT]

I just attempted a search for the keyword htaccess using the broadest search parameters. Nothing turned up. Searching on the forums, there were some hits, but after reading through those, I see nothing of a basic nature.

Again, I realize there are a million places to find things and references to htaccess and its uses are available. The intent was to ask if this was something that might be of benefit to have locally so customers would not have to search the net rather than stay on Dathorn and feel they have everything they need right here.

- Fran

But what specifically about .htaccess files? I mean in all honesty there's any number of ways that they can go but the two main reasons for needing them are available in an automated manner via cPanel - password protection and redirection. Beyond that shared hosting limits what can be done with them, the only other thing I can think of right now would be using mod_rewrite, though clearly that just isn't something that we can attempt to teach/explain as would be necessary.

[-Oz-]

Fran, also, if you ask you will recieve, and then we can make tutorials out of posts, but if no one asks then we see no need.

[Jim]

What about adding an "adult" server with limited adult content. I'm not talking about membership sites, movie sites or anything crazy, but something along the lines of adult product sites.

I've had to refuse a couple of offers to host an adult store because of the current DIS TOS...and I'm not foolish enough to think it would be at current prices. The prices suggested for "overselling" enabled accounts would be reasonable.

[AndrewT]

That maybe something to offer further down the road, but right now there's just not enough demand to justify it given the fact that these accounts would have to be placed on their own server seperate from the other accounts.

[AndrewT]

Here's a quick update as to what's been done regarding the suggestions that have been made.

Fantastico/CPSkins - for the time being we are going to be sticking with CPSkins as the two of these offer a very similar set of scripts. The CPSkins auto-installers were just updated on all servers early this morning as well which includes many more scripts than before.

RVSkin - This is something that we would like to add to all servers within the next 2-3 months.

cPanel Pro (Boxtrapper) - cPanel Pro is currently in Beta stages, once it is fully functional and in standard release form we will look into adding this to our servers.

Urchin - cPanel's integration is about half way complete, once some additional options are added we will likely offer this as an addon for around $0.50 per domain.

Additional Bandwidth & Disk Space - these options are now available and you can submit a trouble ticket to order these. It's $0.50 per GB of bandwidth and $1.00 per 200MB of disk space. It's still cheaper to upgrade your plan to the next level than it is to pay for the additional resources but this pricing is meant for those that may fall in between plans.

Dedicated Servers - this is still something that is being discussed as we really have to iron out a lot of details if we plan on offering these.

[Fran]

Andrew and Oz,

Apologies for the late reply, I've been away. As you indicate, I've asked in the past and have received assistance, all of it helpful.

I was digging for references to htaccess here in the forum and the faqs. I was confused why the file became invisible, wasn't sure if one was already there or what was in it. (You're dealing with a curious novice here, not foolish enough to play with files he believes detrimental to the server.)

I did go out and find references, but it would have been great had they been here. It boiled down to a simple description of what htaccess files were and what they did. Nothing fancy, just some definition and description.

I'm not sure what you might do with this observation as an encyclopedia is not the goal. But I do appreciate you listening and considering additional services to add to the value you already deliver - and very well I might add.

- Fran

Fran, also, if you ask you will recieve, and then we can make tutorials out of posts, but if no one asks then we see no need.

[AndrewT]

Fran, many FTP clients and other file viewers, by default, will hide filenames that begin with a period as they are generally system related files that shouldn't be modified (.bash_history, .lastlogin, etc.).