# Q4 2013 Lowendtalk Top Provider Poll Results



## drmike

Congratulations to: RamNode, Prometeus and Iniz for their in order top vote getting for Q4 2013 LET Top Provider Poll.


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## drmike

Damn, someone over at the other site still is counting    

Top 10 vote getters by points under the new schema of allocating 5 points per voter (to inflate votes of course as to make vote numbers look more in-line with older and busier LET):



Code:


Place   Provider Points
1	RamNode	244
2	Prometeus	146
3	Iniz	74
4	Crissic	43
5	BuyVM	42
6	Backupsy	36
7	Digital Ocean	31
8	WeLoveServers	28
9	QuickPacket	24
10	Fliphost	21
11	BlueVM	21


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## MartinD

and as always, that provides a measure of precisely diddlysquatfuckall.


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## maounique

MartinD said:


> and as always, that provides a measure of precisely diddlysquatfuckall.


I believe the grapes are sorrow.


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## maounique

Sorry, I mean sour, no-edit as you know it


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## AuroraZero

I still did not make the list. ^_^  Makes sense I would have to be a provider first though probably. Congrats to the top 10.


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## MannDude

Did you... just do someone elses job? Haha.

Lets see if their numbers match yours. 

Also congrats to RamNode, Prometeus, Iniz, Crissic and BuyVM and the rest of the top 10.

I'm using 3/10 of those, may have to look into the others too. Crissic on the up and up! Congrats Skylar.


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## KuJoe

Thankfully we didn't make the list. Ever since I stopped visiting LEB/LET and people stopped mentioning us there our DDOS attacks have completely stopped. If I had a hat of the tin foil variety I would say that the attacks were carried out by another provider who wants a stranglehold on the LEB/LET community but I'm just going to say it's a complete coincidence that all DDOS attacks directed at us stopped when I switched from LET to vpsBoard last May.  ^_^


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## Aldryic C'boas

KuJoe said:


> Thankfully we didn't make the list. Ever since I stopped visiting LEB/LET and people stopped mentioning us there our DDOS attacks have completely stopped. If I had a hat of the tin foil variety I would say that the attacks were carried out by another provider who wants a stranglehold on the LEB/LET community but I'm just going to say it's a complete coincidence that all DDOS attacks directed at us stopped when I switched from LET to vpsBoard last May.  ^_^


I'll add to the tinfoil.  The amount of fraud and abuse I've had to deal with on a daily basis dropped _drastically_ once we left those slums.  I couldn't begin to tell you how many stolen CCs we had pushed at us from Velocity IPs.


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## clarity

drmike said:


> Damn, someone over at the other site still is counting
> 
> Top 10 vote getters by points under the new schema of allocating 5 points per voter (to inflate votes of course as to make vote numbers look more in-line with older and busier LET):
> 
> 
> Place Provider Points
> 1	RamNode	244
> 2	Prometeus	146
> 3	Iniz	74
> 4	Crissic	43
> 5	BuyVM	42
> 6	Backupsy	36
> 7	Digital Ocean	31
> 8	WeLoveServers	28
> 9	QuickPacket	24
> 10	Fliphost	21
> 11	BlueVM	21


If voters are given 5 points per vote, I think that someone really needs some help with their addition skills. All of these should end in 0 or 5!


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## maounique

That is true, there is a lot of abuse from people there. However, they only visit you once if you manage to switch them off fast. 

Also manual provisioning helps. 

As for chargebacks and fake CCs that is not much of a problem lately, but abusers.

I said it there too, hopefully htey understood, I hope they did.


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## maounique

DifferentOpinionsNotWanted said:


> If voters are given 5 points per vote, I think that someone really needs some help with their addition skills. All of these should end in 0 or 5!


Umm what ? 

5 points in total, they can give all to one provider, but unlike here, not everyone is so bent on one pet provider only. Many split it in 5.


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## maounique

drmike said:


> Top 10 vote getters by points under the new schema of allocating 5 points per voter (to inflate votes of course as to make vote numbers look more in-line with older and busier LET):


Math is in shor supply here. Before there were 6 points per voter now are 5, how would that inflate the number of points ? 

Was 3 for 1st, 2 for 2nd and 1 for third, total 6, now are 5 in total, but you can split in 5. I like new version better, it gives more choice. HM were not so used now.


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## Eased

DifferentOpinionsNotWanted said:


> If voters are given 5 points per vote, I think that someone really needs some help with their addition skills. All of these should end in 0 or 5!




Yea, wtf...? Seems like this election was rigged out of the gates.


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## Patrick

Eased said:


> Yea, wtf...? Seems like this election was rigged out of the gates.


Hi, good to see you here. Aren't you the one that rage quit LET trying to rip off LET members/couldn't follow simple rules?

http://lowendtalk.com/discussion/10890/

Anyways...

Q4 LET poll was slightly different, people had 5 points to use. They could choose 5 hosts and give 1 point each or 3 pts to one host and 2 pts to another etc. (add up to 5)


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## perennate

Mao_Member_no_signature said:


> Umm what ?
> 
> 5 points in total, they can give all to one provider, but unlike here, not everyone is so bent on one pet provider only. Many split it in 5.


Shh, look at his username, he doesn't want different opinions.


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## Eased

Follow simple rules probably, but rip off members no. Back your statements up with proof or go home Patrick, I remember you now.


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## bizzard

When I saw the topic, I thought the results were out at LEB and rushed there, thinking this might be just some discussion.

@drmike Is this kind of a sweet revenge? Announcing the results of some poll happened elsewhere, before they calculated it?

Congratz to the top 10, I am having VPS with 5 of them. Personally glad to see Crissic on the top 10 list for the first time, as @SkylarM has been doing great.


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## perennate

bizzard said:


> When I saw the topic, I thought the results were out at LEB and rushed there, thinking this might be just some discussion.
> 
> @drmike Is this kind of a sweet revenge? Announcing the results of some poll happened elsewhere, before they calculated it?


Who cares?

It's nice to see poll results earlier?

Where does it say anything about revenge???


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## bizzard

perennate said:


> It's nice to see poll results earlier?


Yep. That's true.



perennate said:


> Where does it say anything about revenge???


Mentioned no where, but that's what I felt like, on seeing this post, taking into consideration the terms between @drmike and LET.


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## Patrick

bizzard said:


> When I saw the topic, I thought the results were out at LEB and rushed there, thinking this might be just some discussion.
> 
> @drmike Is this kind of a sweet revenge? Announcing the results of some poll happened elsewhere, before they calculated it?
> 
> Congratz to the top 10, I am having VPS with 5 of them. Personally glad to see Crissic on the top 10 list for the first time, as @SkylarM has been doing great.


Doesn't really matter, you just need to have a lot of free time on your hands and you can count it yourself


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## perennate

Patrick said:


> Doesn't really matter, you just need to have a lot of free time on your hands and you can count it yourself


Good point, poll results have been out for a while now


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## bizzard

Patrick said:


> Doesn't really matter, you just need to have a lot of free time on your hands and you can count it yourself


Yep, But I am curious why I haven't thought about counting it myself.


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## maounique

Actually, it involves a bit more than that. 

Admins are able to see who voted and didnt have the right, who used more accounts and things like those. It is unlikely the results will be exactly the same but similar, nevertheless.


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## bizzard

Mao_Member_no_signature said:


> Actually, it involves a bit more than that.
> 
> Admins are able to see who voted and didnt have the right, who used more accounts and things like those. It is unlikely the results will be exactly the same but similar, nevertheless.


I haven't thought about that. @mpkossen told in LET that he might delay the results. But, I don't expect much of a change. BTW, has anyone done this before? Calculating the poll results, rather than being satisfied with what the admins announce as results?


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## bizzard

perennate said:


> Good point, poll results have been out for a while now


Was this published any where else? I can't find any thread in LET.

Also, just noticed that Hostigation is missing in the top 10.


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## clarity

Mao_Member_no_signature said:


> Umm what ?
> 
> 5 points in total, they can give all to one provider, but unlike here, not everyone is so bent on one pet provider only. Many split it in 5.


I don't visit LET. I have no idea how the voting works. I was just making a joke based on the information that was provided by @drmike. I am sorry that I offended you for not knowing how voting works on a forum that I do not visit. I will really try to do better next time.


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## Aldryic C'boas

bizzard said:


> I haven't thought about that. @mpkossen told in LET that he might delay the results. But, I don't expect much of a change. BTW, has anyone done this before? Calculating the poll results, rather than being satisfied with what the admins announce as results?


All the prior times were Liam, from what I recall.  There never really was any reason to doubt his word - LE* hasn't seen honesty like his since Scott.


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## SkylarM

4th? I'll take it


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## raindog308

Mao_Member_no_signature said:


> I believe the grapes are sorrow.


I think this was pretty meaningless when it was at LET.

Why?


No real criteria
Providers with more geographical coverage get more votes
No validation that voters are even customers
Only qualification to vote is having a LET account - and anyone can have an unlimited number of them.  (Don't talk to me about recording IPs - these are LET readers and everyone has a half-dozen self-run VPNs 
Numbers are small enough that if someone is mad, their negative votes have an impact.  E.g., if you canceled my VPS because I was abusive, I can vote against you.  Is that really a valid vote?
It's LET.
Etcetera.  

Now that virtually all the quality posters have moved to vpsboard, it's even more meaningless.

No slight to some of the providers mentioned there - I don't know them all but there are some good ones.  However, there are also some good ones that aren't there.


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## MartinD

^ exactly.


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## Awmusic12635

Just barely made it in, ill take it.


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## MannDude

Wait...

So on LET, if you run multiple brands your votes are combined, correct? Combined into one rating for these polls?

Then how come on LEB each sub-brand is treated individually and posted as such? LET = same brands so they're combined into one. LEB = different brands.

I'm confused.

Seems easier to just calculate the votes each brand got individually instead of merging them together. Doesn't seem fair when some folks run multiple companies that the parent one gets all the votes and is compared to someone with just one.


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## Awmusic12635

MannDude said:


> Wait...
> 
> So on LET, if you run multiple brands your votes are combined? Correct. Combined into one rating?
> 
> Then how come on LEB each sub-brand is treated individually and posted as such? LET = same brands so they're combined into one. LEB = different brands.
> 
> I'm confused.


Not sure, though to be fair ispirto's offers on LEB typically combine more than one brand into the same post.


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## drmike

DifferentOpinionsNotWanted said:


> If voters are given 5 points per vote, I think that someone really needs some help with their addition skills. All of these should end in 0 or 5!


A voter now is GIVEN 5 points.  The voter = the person placing votes.

Unlike reality voting (usually) you can actually vote 5 points for 1 provider or 1 point for 5 providers or anything in between.  

So the totals are what the are and massively inflated in points.

Top 3 by POINTS:


1	RamNode	244
2	Prometeus	146
3	Iniz	74

Top 3 by actual individual votes:


1	RamNode	101
2	Prometeus	50
3	Iniz	36

The points sure make things look far better, busier, more "votes", etc. 

Average points per vote:



Code:


RamNode   2.415841584158
Prometeus 2.92
Iniz      2.055555555556


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## MannDude

Fliphost said:


> Not sure, though to be fair ispirto's offers on LEB typically combine more than one brand into the same post.


Yeah, not really complaining.

If anything, I think LEB should limit posting multiple offers from companies that are owned by the same person in a short time period. Whatever the rule is for someone with one company should be the rule for those with many. If it's once per 2 months, then one sub-brand per 2 months instead of 4 different offers from 4 different sub-brands in a 2 month period. (No idea what the actual rules/restrictions/guidelines are for that... just posting an example).

But on LET, since it's a provider poll each provider (I think) should be counted separately. If Provider A also owns HostB and VPSHOST-C then it's not a fair representation if HostB and VPSHost-C's votes get calculated towards Provider A's grand total. Is that is what is happening for this poll or am I lost?


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## drmike

bizzard said:


> Was this published any where else? I can't find any thread in LET.
> 
> Also, just noticed that Hostigation is missing in the top 10.


No the results haven't been published "officially" by LET.   I tabulated them here, although my Enron accountants haven't audited the numbers that Miss Fatbottoms input.  Could be a typo or two.

Hostigation --- well interestingly enough, they may make the Top 10.  But to do that you need to go and corrupt the votes as the counter.  That is to say you have to realign the cast votes for them to also include HighSpeedWeb votes too, since they own that brand.

And yeah that's what the clown posse at LET has been doing, supposedly, for some, for a while:



> Liam Moderator
> 6:40PM
> 
> 
> Have some patience. It is not a simple process. Each vote is vetted to see if the account or voting looks suspicious. *Then some companies like Prometeus operate a few different brands, so their votes have to be amalgamated together. *Spelling mistakes, voting more than once etc also contribute to the time required.
> 
> 
> Trust me, I know how complicated and long it takes to do, as I use to run it.


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## Aldryic C'boas

Anytime I get linked to LEB, all I ever see is all of the CC sub-brands, with the occassional independant provider mixed in.  If they actually imposed some sort of limit based on ownership, you'd see weeks, if not months, roll by between new posts.


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## Awmusic12635

drmike said:


> No the results haven't been published "officially" by LET.   I tabulated them here, although my Enron accountants haven't audited the numbers that Miss Fatbottoms input.  Could be a typo or two.
> 
> Hostigation --- well interestingly enough, they may make the Top 10.  But to do that you need to go and corrupt the votes as the counter.  That is to say you have to realign the cast votes for them to also include HighSpeedWeb votes too, since they own that brand.
> 
> And yeah that's what the clown posse at LET has been doing, supposedly, for some, for a while:


Hmm, interesting guess that means Cloudshards + Fliphost votes will combine


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## drmike

MannDude said:


> But on LET, since it's a provider poll each provider (I think) should be counted separately. If Provider A also owns HostB and VPSHOST-C then it's not a fair representation if HostB and VPSHost-C's votes get calculated towards Provider A's grand total. Is that is what is happening for this poll or am I lost?


As soon as I posted the results, like within minutes I received a PM from one of  the folks who has multiple brands running on LET/LEB noting that I need to combine all his votes/points under one company for him.

I lol'ed.  Mind you I like the provider and all, but that's shady.

If voting for your country president went down like this, those hanging chads in Florida and dead people voting would be the least of the corruption.   This is outright vote sliding and shows the CONTINUED reason that any who wants traction on LET/LEB must create multiple front companies, especially where you are not the house brand.


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## drmike

Fliphost said:


> Hmm, interesting guess that means Cloudshards + Fliphost votes will combine


If the counting folks are being consistent, yes.

I am wondering if they count ChicagoVPS (CVPS) + GreenValueHost (GVH) since this intricate financial interest by the house in both.


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## MannDude

Meh, oh well. That's why that place is... that place.


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## Awmusic12635

drmike said:


> If the counting folks are being consistent, yes.
> 
> I am wondering if they count ChicagoVPS (CVPS) + GreenValueHost (GVH) since this intricate financial interest by the house in both.


Just curious, would you happen to have the CS numbers?


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## drmike

Fliphost said:


> Hmm, interesting guess that means Cloudshards + Fliphost votes will combine


So under the logic applied in Liam's post = yes = combo happy meal for Cloudshards + Fliphost.


Provider Points Votes
Cloudshards 10 4
Fliphost 21 13
------------------------------------------
31 17


By themselves CloudShards ranked 28th and Fliphost 10th.

Combined = 31 points.  Same amount as-is for Digital Ocean which is 7th. 

So combo company = 7th (absent comboing votes for other companies).


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## Awmusic12635

drmike said:


> So under the logic applied in Liam's post = yes = combo happy meal for Cloudshards + Fliphost.
> 
> 
> Provider Points Votes
> Cloudshards 10 4
> Fliphost 21 13
> ------------------------------------------
> 31 17
> 
> 
> By themselves CloudShards ranked 28th and Fliphost 10th.
> 
> Combined = 31 points.  Same amount as-is for Digital Ocean which is 7th.
> 
> So combo company = 7th (absent comboing votes for other companies).


Awesome thanks


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## Aldryic C'boas

I still can't read that name without thinking 'Cloudsharts'


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## drmike

Now one of my big points with this is....

LET combines votes for a provider's many shell company / fronts.

LEB treats the offers / entities as separate / different.   Mostly to circumvent the time between posting offers nagging rule for their friends.


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## mikho

In all fairness, each brand should be calculated one by one.


If I have a backupsy for backups I wouldn't want my vote to be counted towards winity since I've never used it.


Doesn't feel right.


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## perennate

mikho said:


> In all fairness, each brand should be calculated one by one.
> 
> 
> If I have a backupsy for backups I wouldn't want my vote to be counted towards winity since I've never used it.
> 
> 
> Doesn't feel right.


Yes it could just as well be the same company offering two different product lines. It wouldn't make sense to combine these companies in LEB posts and then separate them out in voting.


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## mikho

perennate said:


> Yes it could just as well be the same company offering two different product lines. It wouldn't make sense to combine these companies in LEB posts and then separate them out in voting.


In one way it makes sense, there is one person who represents multiple brands who sends in a bunch of offers to LEB.


But you as a customer often only sign up with one product.


If you combine all votes, you actually vote for the people who owns the brands, not the brand itself.


This is my point of view, not saying it is the right way to do it.


I could also go as far as suggest posting offers from completly different companys in the same post. Perhaps as a common denominator of the week/month?


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## drmike

So from the unaudited totals:

551 total votes cast.

218 different voters.

So LET Q4 2013 poll results were decided by a mere maximum of 218 people.

RamNode the top vote getter received 101 votes or 1-in-every-5.5 votes...

Prometeus (just that brand) received 50 votes or 1-in-every-11 votes....

Iniz received 36 votes or 1-in-every-15.27 votes...


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## mikho

drmike said:


> So from the unaudited totals:
> 
> 
> 551 total votes cast.
> 
> 
> 218 different voters.
> 
> 
> So LET Q4 2013 poll results were decided by a mere maximum of 218 people.
> 
> 
> RamNode the top vote getter received 101 votes or 1-in-every-5.5 votes...
> 
> 
> Prometeus (just that brand) received 50 votes or 1-in-every-11 votes....
> 
> 
> Iniz received 36 votes or 1-in-every-15.27 votes...


Care to count the number of votes in previous polls? If you have nothing better to do.


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## drmike

mikho said:


> Care to count the number of votes in previous polls? If you have nothing better to do.


Oh, I have plenty better to do.    Counting the priors will probably happen in due time.

This quarterly got attention/love cause of the new vote inflation racket and my prediction that it was to inflate the totals for the Top 3 vote getters to make them look more in-line / consistent with prior contests.  I was right    Big drop off in voters and total votes to the top 3:

Q4 2012 - 148 + 138 + 99 = 385


Q1 2013 - 235 + 180 + 154 = 567


Q2 2013 - 187 + 132 + 57 = 376


Q3 2013 - 150 + 126 + 60 = 336

*Q4 2013 - 101 + 50 + 36 = 187 (counting pure votes cast like prior)*

Q4 2013 Top 3 total will obviously be increased as they lump #2 Prometeus votes from their shell companies.

50 (Prometeus) + 6 (iwStack) + 2 (IperWeb) + ??? = 58 total Prometeus votes...  or as they now count it:

146 (Prometeus) + 12 (iwStack) + 2 (IperWeb) + ??? = 160 total Prometeus votes ---

*Q4 2013 = 244 (RamNode) + 160 (Prometeus) + 74 (Iniz) = 478 * (new counting schema)


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## drmike

My favorite vote, and there were several contending, had to be GreenValueHost voting for HudsonValleyHost (their special "partner" / upstream / who deals with them).

For those at home, raw data on votes cast (not the inflate fivver schema - pure votes):



Code:


rank	name	votes
1	RamNode	101
2	Prometeus	50
3	Iniz	36
4	BuyVM	29
5	Digital Ocean	25
6	Backupsy	23
7	Crissic	19
8	BlueVM	13
9	Fliphost	13
10	WeLoveServers	12
11	Hostigation	11
12	Inception Hosting	9
13	QuickPacket	9
14	EDIS	9
15	Lowendspirit	9
16	Torqhost	8
17	OVH	8
18	GreenValueHost	7
19	DotVPS	7
20	CatalystHost	7
21	ChicagoVPS	7
22	IPXCore	6
23	OpenITC	6
24	iwStack	6
25	Hosthatch	6
26	TacticalVPS	6
27	MyCustomHosting	5
28	VPSDime	5
29	FTPIt	5
30	drServer	4
31	Cloudive	4
32	HTTPZoom	4
33	BandwagonHost	4
34	CloudShards	4
35	Onepoundwebhosting	3
36	SecureDragon	3
37	MaximumVPS	3
38	FAPVPS	3
39	ProviderService	3
40	Castlegem	3
41	Fusioned.net	2
42	MiniVPS	2
43	RoseHosting	2
44	SupremeBytes	2
45	IperWeb	2
46	OneAsiaHost	2
47	Highspeedweb	2
48	FitVPS	2
49	StarryDNS	1
50	Universev	1
51	Gametown Projects	1
52	CloudAtCost	1
53	Swiftway	1
54	Colorhost.de	1
55	AlienLayer	1
56	Winity	1
57	AnyNode	1
58	Bitaccel	1
59	CDN77 	1
60	Hudson Valley Host	1
61	Increhost	1
62	Flipperhost	1
63	James Hadley	1
64	EndofReality	1
65	VolumeDrive	1
66	Leapswitch	1
67	Kazila	1
68	lkoula	1
69	Filemedia	1
70	Crowncloud	1
71	Errantweb	1
72	SouthBendVPS	1
73	KGOVPS	1
74	Terafire	1
75	cloud3k	1
76	KVMShell	1
77	Contabo	1
78	Ultimate Hosting	1
79	BuyMyVM	1
80	sshVM	1
81	PhoenixVPS	1
82	Burst.net	1
83	ServerCrate	1
84	AllSimple	1
85	Xensmart	1
86	GinerNet	1
87	DelimiterVPS	1
88	McMyHost	1


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## jarland

Mao_Member_no_signature said:


> I believe the grapes are sorrow.


Lol love the username.


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## maounique

I am not sure what you mean @drmike.

If you say that before people were given fewer points you are wrong. It is now that the points are less.

The 1st ranked in the vote would get 3 points, the second 2 and the third 1, total of 6 points per voter.

Now they are given 5 points per voter but they can distribute as they please, one per provider (voting 5 providers which is quite common since many people have VPSes from many providers) or all for only one provider.

I didnt vote this time at all.

As for more geographically diverse getting more points, if that would be true, Edis would have won by default and last time when prometeus didnt have other locations would have lost by default. It is obviously not so. Also Ramnode doesnt have that many locations either.

Aggregating on brands is normal, you vote for provider, not for the web site.

While I agree on LEB the websites are listed, mostly, whether you have a cloud or storage VPS from a provider is irrelevant, if the product is good and your tickets were handled well, then you will vote the provider, not the product. There is no such thing as an independent product, it is only as good as the provider is.


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## Spr

Hey guys, take it easy  All this should be taken more or less for fun. It's nice to say some nice words about hosts we use, express gratitude, but to take it as some serious race to death? Come on 

There's a lot of "what if.." but does it really matters? Some of my personally favourite hosts does not make it even in top30 but who cares. Its still nice to name them there, to say something positive and this is it.

btw. drmike _(damn I hate to use this nickname for you remembering good ole' doc)_ good work on analyzing data. It's really cool to see it. Thanks.

S.


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## drmike

Mao_Member_no_signature said:


> The 1st ranked in the vote would get 3 points, the second 2 and the third 1, total of 6 points per voter.
> 
> Now they are given 5 points per voter but they can distribute as they please, one per provider (voting 5 providers which is quite common since many people have VPSes from many providers) or all for only one provider.


So, for how long has this been going on Mao  ?  

1st = 3 points

2nd = 2 points

3rd = 1 point

BTW:  Glad to have you on board / still here.

Makes sense that some folks were allocation 6 points and others were saying WTF.   I NEVER realized this 

This makes number far more troubling basically.  Because there has been a point inflation "issue" for quite a while, just done a tad differently.  Both though, inflate total points.

What I care about and everyone else kind of should is how many votes were cast, how many votes did each provider, what does the average vote point allocation end up looking like and ability to compare real numbers across providers vs. the end points.


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## budi1413

Congratulation Prometeus, Uncle Sal and Mao.


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## maounique

drmike said:


> So, for how long has this been going on Mao  ?
> 
> .


I am not sure, but Liam started it, I would say an year or so.

TBH, it gives more flexibility and is adapted to the place.

Many people there (most ?) have VPSes from 3+ providers and it is fair to give them more chances to rank those. It also gives a chance for the new/smaller hosts to get some points. I am not sure here, but I would think this place has also people with multiple VPSes from different providers besides the "staple provider".


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## perennate

We should be able to do 0.1 points to X, 4.55555... points to Y, 0.344444... points to Z.


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## drmike

perennate said:


> We should be able to do 0.1 points to X, 4.55555... points to Y, 0.344444... points to Z.


That's funny.

One person in the voting did like 1.5 point votes to 2 providers...  Again, I have no clue how management over there counts.

There were people with invalid vote allocation too.  Like gave away 6 points or more.


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## maounique

drmike said:


> There were people with invalid vote allocation too.  Like gave away 6 points or more.


Yes, I am sure also that some had no right to vote or were simply accounts of a provider this is why it takes some time to check everyone. Also waiting for the offers to be sent.

I was merely pointing out it is not this simple but it is likely the final count will not be very different.


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## drmike

Mao_Member_no_signature said:


> I was merely pointing out it is not this simple but it is likely the final count will not be very different.


Oh we are good Mao = same page on this.

Concerning that votes get tossed and there is no public declaration of such and why.   I see a few votes I would take issue with and should discard.   Things like that should be public and frankly, people smacked for cheating/poor behavior.

Results on the top 3 aren't going to change rank or anything.  Too many points between them and others.   The comboing is going to raise Oktay's little kingdom up, CloudShards and Hostigation.


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## SkylarM

According to mpkossen I ranked 6th, compared to the vote here I was 4th. Curious to see why I was bumped two ranks, if it was combining multiple brands or something else.


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## Patrick

SkylarM said:


> According to mpkossen I ranked 6th, compared to the vote here I was 4th. Curious to see why I was bumped two ranks, if it was combining multiple brands or something else.


Some votes were probably not counted ie. new members or something a like


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## SkylarM

Patrick said:


> Some votes were probably not counted ie. new members or something a like


Most likely. I can't complain, we got 6th first time anywhere top 10. We don't ask people to vote for us, so I'll take 6th for not really asking


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## lbft

mikho said:


> In all fairness, each brand should be calculated one by one.
> 
> 
> If I have a backupsy for backups I wouldn't want my vote to be counted towards winity since I've never used it.
> 
> 
> Doesn't feel right.


How is that any different to, say, someone having a BuyVM Storage KVM VPS in Las Vegas not wanting their vote to be counted towards BuyVM OpenVZ in New Jersey?


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## perennate

lbft said:


> How is that any different to, say, someone having a BuyVM Storage KVM VPS in Las Vegas not wanting their vote to be counted towards BuyVM OpenVZ in New Jersey?


Yes, we should vote on our favorite product with specific location, RAM, etc and see which one gets more than one vote!


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## jarland

It's like the hanging chad all over again.


I demand a recount, said Al Gore.


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## lbft

I voted for Kodos.


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## mikho

lbft said:


> How is that any different to, say, someone having a BuyVM Storage KVM VPS in Las Vegas not wanting their vote to be counted towards BuyVM OpenVZ in New Jersey?


Still sold under the same brand. We could also as suggested, vote for each location and different virtualization and ram and disk and bandwidth. 
Hows that for over reacting?


Don't forget that you also have to specify your favourite support person and if you prefer working afternoon or morning.


AND include if it should be tea or coffee.


Edit: change color to purple wherever you like inside this post.


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## Aldryic C'boas

mikho said:


> Don't forget that you also have to specify your favourite support person


Heh, since Fran doesn't do tickets directly, and clients primary deal with Anthony and I... we'd be pretty fucked on that one   _"Choose your favourite between Hitler or Stalin..."_


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## MannDude

lbft said:


> I voted for Kodos.


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## MannDude

Oh well, I think they'll have their results posted soon. I don't think the top 3 will be different and I believe Martten said they'll use a more logical counting method in the future that doesn't favor multi-brand companies.

Realistically would be nice if people listed the reason they're voting the way they are. Some of the 'top 10' (as reported by Dr. Mike) rarely ever have offers published, others do insane discounts and coupon codes when a quarterly poll begins with lots of offers posted . I don't think the comments should mean anything other than just being there for reference, just something interesting I noticed when looking at the list and reading the LET thread and this one here.


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## qps

We are 10th according to the PM I received.


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## Virtovo

qps said:


> We are 10th according to the PM I received.


Congratulations.  drmike where did you place QPS?


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## MannDude

Virtovo said:


> Congratulations.  drmike where did you place QPS?


9th, according to this:


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## Virtovo

MannDude said:


> 9th, according to this:


I looked that table up and down before posting.  Shame on me!


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## perennate

MannDude said:


> I don't think the top 3 will be different and I believe Martten said they'll use a more logical counting method in the future that doesn't favor multi-brand companies.


Every company has multiple brands, some use different websites and maybe actually different companies while others just have different product lines. Not sure what you mean?


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## MannDude

perennate said:


> Every company has multiple brands, some use different websites and maybe actually different companies while others just have different product lines. Not sure what you mean?


I'm saying that if I have a server with (for example) JustHost, and a server with BlueHost, I don't want the votes for these two brands to just be combined and tallied under 'Endurance International Group'.

I may like JustHost and dislike Bluehost. Just because the two brands are owned by the same parent doesn't mean that the services will be the same, or that a vote for one equals a vote for another. I hope that makes more sense than how it was worded before. I just think they should be listed independently from each other. 

But it's not my poll and not my concern. Was just stating my thoughts.


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## maounique

That wont fly very high in our case.

Prometeus di Daniela Agro and Iperweb LTD are more than being owned by the same person they buy/sell to each other, hvae same support and share same servers.

One is Italian, the other registered in UK and Iperweb LLC is registered in US, but they all operate the same pool of servers, the same customers most of the time and have the same people supporting them.

The resons for being separate companies are complex, but they offer choice, for example the UK Iperweb is VAT exempted, it gives a choice for EU people to have services without paying VAT, of course LLC in US is also without VAT but for other reasons and some americans will like to do business with an american company, with ARIN IPs and all. BTW, Iperweb LLC is 17 years old it is not something we invented now.

As for separate sites, well, we do have a wide range of products, from low end (budget) OVerZold and XenPower to full IaaS products, we even have a separate site for big discounts...

The separate brands theory might work for others which were aquired through mergers and aquisitions, have separate staff and organization, but not for us.


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## perennate

Whatever the policies for posting offers on LEB and such are regarding multiple brands/companies in one group, the same policies should be used in the quarterly polls. You can't complain on opposite sides in both cases.


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## maounique

They dont care, their brands wont make top ten anyway.


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## DomainBop

Mao_Member_no_signature said:


> They dont care, their brands wont make top ten anyway.



That's because every single vote received by providers in the top 10 was from little keyboard warriors  who were jealous of Fabozzi & Co.'s huge success (not to mention being jealous of his Kohl's discount card) and decided to make the Buffalo boys look bad by voting for anyone but them in the poll.  Fact. 

Anyone who tries to tell you that poor customer service and a lack of quality and reliability was the reason their brands didn't make the top 10 is A. a liar, and B. a jealous competitor.  Fact.

I never troll. Another Fact.


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## mikho

perennate said:


> Whatever the policies for posting offers on LEB and such are regarding multiple brands/companies in one group, the same policies should be used in the quarterly polls. You can't complain on opposite sides in both cases.


I fail to see the logic in that statement. Whatever is posted on the offer side has nothing to do with the poll.


Say that a post is made on LEB with offers from 3 different providers, where the location (a rare location or not, doesn't matter) is the only common denominator). Should those 3 providers be grouped together in the poll based on your logic?


Actually, I don't care much about those results. I think I voted once and everyone is entitled to one mistake.


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## Amitz

Mao_Member_no_signature said:


> Prometeus di Daniela Agro


This is something I always wondered: Who is this Daniela Agro? Just curious...


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## mikho

Amitz said:


> This is something I always wondered: Who is this Daniela Agro? Just curious...


Wife?


Think Sal explained it some long time ago.


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## Amitz

mikho said:


> Wife?
> 
> 
> Think Sal explained it some long time ago.


I also thought about his wife. Over here in my country (within the EU), when a wife is the registered owner of a company that is obviously mostly run by her husband (without her being involved), we normally take it as a sign that the husband went bankrupt once and she had to take the responsibility for the legal part. The other option is mostly that the wife had the money and the husband had the skills.

Not saying that any of this is the case with Salvatore too and, of course, stating that this way of thinking is a bit "old-school", but I would however be interested in the story again. Do you have a link for me?

Maybe we should spread the love to Aunt Daniela too and not only to Uncle Sal...


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## mikho

Reading a few old threads on LET I get the feeling that she handles the financial part and Sal the technical.


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## prometeus

Daniela is my wife, she is very little involved into the vps stuff 

Prometeus was opened under her name because at the time there were some tax benefits for companies opened / owned by women

She own 51% and I 49%


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## texteditor

I suppose that;s much better than starting a VPS company in your ex-wife's name without her knowledge, as some have been known to do...


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## mikho

texteditor said:


> I suppose that;s much better than starting a VPS company in your ex-wife's name without her knowledge, as some have been known to do...


If are talking about UG and I got the timeline correct she wasn't the ex when it started.


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## maounique

Hello !

Daniela was more involved in the past in the billing and financial part.

When I came onboard, I took over part of her role and Salvatore some other part. However, the taxes and banking are handled by her still just not the everyday interface with customers.

My own company is not in my name either and I dont even hold 1 share because it would complicate things as many papers would need to be signed twice. We also needed to register it some place other than Bucharest due to how crowded it is here and she owns a house there.

This has no bearing on the operations, we have an accountant there which handles the papers and most things are done online. It is a bit like an off-shore company


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## drmike

mikho said:


> If are talking about UG and I got the timeline correct she wasn't the ex when it started.


Relationships don't end quickly, especially when married and with multiple small children.

Company started in November, relationship a goner and someone moved/kicked out/whatever in December.

As far as that all being kosher, it wasn't and asshat was sending he's soon-to-ex's photo ID all over, pretending he-was-a-she.   This sort of deception continued to UGVPS customers until the wife spoke out.

There is a lot more ugliness in the UGVPS saga and I suspect round #2 is forthcoming.


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