Funny "review" Sites..

[Defcon|Rich]

Sorry guys. I have to ask... What's the deal with these websites that either offer "unbiased" reviews of other GSP's or simply have a top list and their site is listed on "top" forever..?

 

The review site I spent a few minutes checking out is sponsored by and my guess owned by the same GSP and according to the tagline the sites mission is to offer unbiased reviews of GSP's which in my opinion is misleading at best and being a GSP I would think it is a conflict of interest to be affiliated with a site of this nature..

 

That in itself sounds like a noble cause if you have an IQ bordering on retardation or simply believe everything you read.. but for us higher life forms that insist on doing our own research to make informative decisions it's plain to see after a very short time the site is a marketing ploy aimed to generate business for a select few and unless you praise one of the 2-3 providers the site agrees with you either don't know what your talking about or get dumped on by the little posse that hangs out there..

 

My question is what the heck kind of backwards nazi review site is this and do people really get fooled so easily? Maybe I'm from a different school where you put out a decent product and let the customer be the judge. I cannot understand the idea of tricking or deceiving potential customers by double talking on a forum that promises "GSPTruth" which is at best morally wrong.

 

 

/rant. Sorry I was bored..

[JasonF]

That reminds me of when Sony pictures got busted posting reviews of their own movies with bogus movie reviewer names.

 

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950CE3D91431F935A25755C0A9679C8B63

[adamnp]

Exact reason I dont even visit the site, I completely agree with all points you presented. I once toyed with the idea of doing the same type of site, however willfully dumped the plan.

 

A site like this shouldn't offer any 'industry insider' advertising, and should absolutely owned and operated by an unbiased figure....I don't see that the site gets very much traffic, or appeal anyway though tbh.

[JasonF]

You guys have to email me the site because now you have me curious.

[trev-gdr]

I visit the site from time to time, and honestly when I first posted here that was one of the site I was referring to when you witness owners bashing other owners. Some threads in there are comical, but for the most part just make me a tad angry.

 

I think the owner is actually an unbiased figure, it's just there is only one GSP who has bought up the advertising banners so far, so it may appear to be owned by them.

 

Hope I'm referring to the right site .

 

EDIT: I see they took down their advertisement.

[JasonF]

Thanks to whoever PM'd me the link.

 

My opinion on the web site -> seems cheesy. Regardless of who owns it, how do you discern which posts are legit/non-biased. I could register under a alias and blast other GSPs for the sole purpose of promoting my company.

[Defcon|Rich]

Exactly, You simply cannot in good faith sponsor a site that promises unbiased reviews of your competition and then proceed to give your opinion when someone posts a review.. Besides the point that out of the 3 top posters 2 now work together and- they both rent servers off the 3rd person so it's a weird dynamic..

[NRTServers]

Gezzz...never a dull oment...now I want to know the site also...I will go make a fresh pot of coffee...:0

 

dstanley@nrtservers.com

[Spartanfrog]

I know which one it is....(Rich said its name in his first post ). There not bad people over there and the owner does definitely not own a GSP. The real problem is fake reviews and companies bashing other companies. Sometimes it borderlines pathetic.

[swish]

Fine ill do it since nobody else will...Bash me at will!!! MUHAHAHA

 

http://www.gsptruth.com

[HGN-Daniel]

GSPTruth isn't owned by any GSP (I think it's affiliated with a web host though -- Allure Host) Currently, I believe we are the only GSP that advertises there. (it's only $5 a month or something)

 

They used to do their own reviews on GSPs but I believe they now lean towards user-based reviews much like WHT. If it were ran by a GSP and its sole purpose was to be a marketing ploy then I agree with you that it is morally/ethically wrong, but you seemed to have made some (wrong) assumptions.

[Defcon|Rich]

I believe I said it "appeared" to be a marketing ploy and frankly I don't see too many user reviews so that assessment stands. From briefly looking through the forums I see about 80% of the posts are made by GSP's and the other 20% are the same GSP's bad mouthing their competitors so how exactly could this be called a user review site? The members list looks like a who's who in the GSP world..

 

At the very least I find it in poor taste to sponsor/advertise a site that's goal is to give honest reviews of your competitors. Having your banner hanging there gives the wrong impression in my opinion. If you feel this is a worthy cause and a good thing for the community to have then the best thing you and the other GSP's who visit there can do is simply not post because as you said it's a place for users to post their experiences with providers. As a provider you shouldn't get involved in that process. If you have a good product you shouldn't have to say anything.

 

Hope this helps.

[HGN-Daniel]

Well if it appeared to you to be a marketing ploy isn't that basically assuming?

 

Advertising runs the interwebs.. we thought this site had good potential to grow so we decided to advertise on it. Word of mouth can only get you so far.

 

I know you're fond of Web Hosting Talk.. so I hope you realize that some of those things you said can apply to WHT as well.

[Defcon|Rich]

WHT is a very different animal so I'm not sure I follow you? If it was a forum devoted to rating GSP's or rating providers in general it would be a good point but that's not the focus. WHT is a general forum to -discuss- the web hosting business not rate them.

[HGN-Daniel]

GSPTruth's sole purpose isn't to rate GSPs (or at least thats what I've observed.. I wouldn't know the purpose in the owner's point of view). It claims to be the "#1 Game Server Provider Community." I think the ability to post reviews as a client is just another feature that goes along with the website (kind of like WHT)

 

I myself like WHT.. but I'm using it as an example to show that GSPTruth and WHT are similar in some ways. Since WHT doesn't want to "honor" game hosting by making a forum dedicated to it I'll take my posts to GSPTruth and remain a lurker on WHT.

[Defcon|Rich]

Seriously Daniel I'm not trying to single you out or stir anything up. I tend to look at things a different way and on occasion share some of the interesting things I find along the way.

 

One thing noted on this particular outing was If you go to gsptruth and look at the user reviews section you will see an odd number of posts concerning fragn and hypedgaming which in itself might not seem like a big deal but if you understand that on most of the forums I personally browse those two names aren't ones that come up very often you will see where I'm coming from. I hope you can respect that train of thought and not take it the wrong way. Just an observation.

[HGN-Daniel]

Yeah.. 3 is an odd number.. it also happens to be the number of reviews there are on our company... out of 79 threads

 

There are a few more fragnservers posts but all of them were pre-merger and most of them are also quite old.

 

I guess you must be wondering why I'm so eager to defend GSPTruth. It's not that I, or HypedGaming, am affiliated with them, besides us being an advertiser on their website, it's because I saw that some of the things you said were unfortunately false. It's a great website.. I guess you're so used to the "kiddies" that you assume this site is a marketing ploy or something.. but from what I've observed the admins do their best to keep their reviews objective, and their users' reviews free from self-advertising GSPs. It's a good place to chat. The GSPs even get their own private forums seperate from regular users (good or bad thing depending on your point of view)

[trev-gdr]

GSPTruth's sole purpose isn't to rate GSPs (or at least thats what I've observed.. I wouldn't know the purpose in the owner's point of view).

 

From gsptruth's front page.

 

We are currently planning on migrating GSPTruth from a community forum to a custom review site. Development has already begun on the backend. The review site would feature a standard review form that users would have to fill out, along with their thoughts on the company and create a ranking system.

 

If they come up with a good system for reviewing that does a good job of filtering out biased reviews that are not skewed by powerhouse gsp's, I'm all for it. If it goes the way it appears to be going now, then I hope it doesn't stay up long.

[HGN-Daniel]

From gsptruth's front page.

 

 

 

If they come up with a good system for reviewing that does a good job of filtering out biased reviews that are not skewed by powerhouse gsp's, I'm all for it. If it goes the way it appears to be going now, then I hope it doesn't stay up long.

 

I think the community will still be the main feature of the website. The reviewing part will only be a secondary feature offered to members.

 

I don't see the site being flooded with fake reviews.. unfortunately a few pop up here or there but I think the majority are legitimate. I'm either too optimistic or you guys are too pessimistic.