# New vpsBoard summer contest! Win some cash.



## MannDude (Jun 21, 2014)

Because the last contest went so well, I'm excited to announce the details of our new summer contest! Ideally, we'll be running contests every two or three months to give back to the community and allow you to win some money. The last contest had members submit tutorials and guides, and while it was a great contest it did isolate those who aren't as familiar with or capable with servers to be able to do advanced write-ups and tutorials. Because of this, I wanted this contest to be something _everyone_ can participate in.

*Cash Prize: *$250 (paid to you via PayPal or Amazon GiftCard, your choice)

*How to enter the contest:*


Write a _detailed_ review of your service provider(s). (See below for what we would consider a proper entry, and what we would consider to be a poor and invalid entry)
Respond to this thread with a link to your review that you are entering.

*Contest Rules*


This contest is for *existing members only*, anyone who signs up after 6/21/2014 at 2PM EST will *not* be eligible to win.
You *must* provide proof of being with with said provider. Due to the nature of this contest and to prevent abuse from providers, we may require you to submit proof beyond what WHT would require. (Since providers can simply create fake WHMCS profiles/dates/invoices/etc)
Your review *must* be for a service older than 3 months old to be valid.
You can enter as many reviews as you wish, assuming they're for different providers. If you have 3 VPSes for one provider, do not create 3 separate reviews for them. Mention those 3 VPSes in one review. If you have 3 VPSes with 3 different providers, feel free to review them individually.

Please be as detailed as possible. For an example of what is a *good*, _well written and detailed review_, see anything @wlanboy has written in the review section. An example of a *bad review*, one that would be disqualified is because of the lack of any useful details). Be as detailed as possible!

_Edit: When I say 'good' and 'bad', I'm not referring to the service itself, but rather the quality and content of the *review*. You can write a review about a bad service, just make sure it's a detailed, 'good' (well written) review. Hope that makes sense._

*Useful information to include is:*


Common benchmarks
What the VPS is used for, and how it performs serving that function.
How long you have had the VPS
Your experience with interacting with the company via the helpdesk or any support channel they may offer.
Service location, datacenter, etc.
Etc. It's a review. Be detailed, because your review should help others. Do not just write two sentences.

The contest will end 08/01/2014 at 1AM EST. That gives you a month and a week to submit your entries. We will select *one winner at random*, this will be done by adding a URL to an entry to a single line of a text file. Each line will have a different entry, and will be entered in the order they're linked to in this thread. I'll use a tool like http://andrew.hedges.name/experiments/random/ or something similar to choose a number at true random between 1 and X, with X being the number of entries. Whatever the number is, will be the line in the text file to the winner. Simple.

Questions? Comments? Let us know!

EDIT: Old entries are not valid for submission, only entries from today forward are eligible. Also, @wlanboy can't enter because his reviews are already sponsored by vpsBoard (We pay for the VPS servers and let him use them, in return he reviews them).


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## sundaymouse (Jun 21, 2014)

> 08/01/01 at 1AM EST


???


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## Hxxx (Jun 21, 2014)

some good cash there.


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## MannDude (Jun 21, 2014)

sundaymouse said:


> ???


Woops. Fixed it. August 1st, 2014


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## texteditor (Jun 21, 2014)

Why not just pay @wlanboy now instead of later


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## MannDude (Jun 21, 2014)

texteditor said:


> Why not just pay @wlanboy now instead of later


I already pay for the VPSes, which he uses for his own projects. He was one of the three winners of the last contest because he produced some good tutorials, but won't be eligible for this contest unless it's a non-sponsored review or something.


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## willie (Jun 21, 2014)

Do dedicated server reviews count?

What about VPS's that were kept for longer than 3 months and used in the past, but have since been cancelled for whatever reason?


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## tonyg (Jun 21, 2014)

@willie - Sorry my man, but you are not eligible for the contest since you were singled out as having the worst review ever posted online.


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## MannDude (Jun 21, 2014)

willie said:


> Do dedicated server reviews count?
> 
> What about VPS's that were kept for longer than 3 months and used in the past, but have since been cancelled for whatever reason?


Dedicated servers count 

Sure, I'll allow the old VPSes as well. I don't see why they have to be currently active, so long as you either have common bechmarks from them saved or data from them that'd be useful in a review.



tonyg said:


> @willie - Sorry my man, but you are not eligible for the contest since you were singled out as having the worst review ever posted online.


Haha, nah. His was just recently posted so it was an easy example to find. Uptime stats are good thing to include in a review, but I don't think posting the uptime of a VPS _alone _is a good indicator of a 'good server' or a 'bad server'. Was just an example, no hate on Willie.


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## wlanboy (Jun 22, 2014)

texteditor said:


> Why not just pay @wlanboy now instead of later


Thanks!



MannDude said:


> I already pay for the VPSes, which he uses for his own projects. He was one of the three winners of the last contest because he produced some good tutorials, but won't be eligible for this contest unless it's a non-sponsored review or something.


Just scolled through my reviews - not all are sponsored 

My own stuff (some canceled or dead):


VPSCheap OpenVZ 128mb unmetered VPS (canceled)
IPXcore - OpenVZ 128mb VPS (canceled)
FlipHost offsite MySQL database (canceled)
AnyNode OpenVZ 512MB (canceled)
Torqhost KVM 512MB (canceled)
TacticalVPS 1GB OpenVZ - TX (dead)
Tactical VPS 2GB KVM - FL (dead)
ServerDragon OpenVZ O128 (canceled)
BlueVM KVM 512 MB (CH) (canceled)
Tactical VPS 2GB - LA (dead)
DotVPS OpenVZ 64MB - UK
Secure Dragon OpenVZ 128 MB (Chicago)
Secure Dragon OpenVZ 128 MB (New York)
Review - AnyNode OpenVZ 1GB
BuyVM OpenVZ 128MB (NY)
RamNode OpenVZ SSD 128MB - WA
Catalysthost OpenVZ 128MB (TX)
RamNode OpenVZ SSD 128MB (NL)
RamNode OpenVZ SSD-Cached 256MB (ATL)
BlueVM OpenVZ 512 MB (CH)
Vpsboard stuff (only paid for one billing cycle):


RansomIT KVM 256 MB (Australia) [yearly]
Digitalocean KVM 512 MB (NY) [to be discontinued soon]
Vultr KVM 512 MB (NY) [to be discontinued soon]
Yourserver OpenVZ 256MB (Sweden) [yearly]
My Custom Hosting KVM 256 MB (NC) [yearly]
Host Mist OpenVZ 128 MB (ATL) [yearly]
Urpad OpenVZ 256 MB (LA) [monthly - private paid for Tactical replacement]
BandwagonHost OpenVZ 128 MB (NL) [yearly]
And of course I am not part of this contest.

Looking forward for new reviewers adding some additional monitoring parameters.


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## Schultz (Jun 22, 2014)

Will probably enter this, good prize!


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## drmike (Jun 22, 2014)

Mann and his good prizes, spoiling the kids he is.   Someone is supposed to tell him these contests are to generate interest, not cost him money. #yolo no prize fo'yo.

Best of luck to everyone.  I am looking forward to seeing some different stuff, different tests, different providers, etc.


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## Ivan (Jun 22, 2014)

How would I go about to providing proof of being with a provider, where the account details and stuff are under someone else's name and information? This is because I do not pay for the server but do everything related to it.


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## raindog308 (Jun 22, 2014)

MannDude said:


> You can enter as many reviews as you wish,
> 
> We will select *one winner at random*,


I think this combination of rules will encourage many shallow reviews rather than in-depth ones.


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## willie (Jun 22, 2014)

MannDude said:


> Dedicated servers count
> 
> Sure, I'll allow the old VPSes as well. I don't see why they have to be currently active, so long as you either have common bechmarks from them saved or data from them that'd be useful in a review.


Cool.  I might write something about my OVH dedi.  I'm not a believer in benchmarks in VPS reviews though.  I don't do them myself and I find them nearly useless in reviews written by others.  They measure the instantaneous performance of the VPS at the specific moment when the benchmark is run, and they're disruptive enough that it's generally not ok to run them very often.  The usual situation with an overloaded VPS is that it performs ok 95% of the time, and it's the other 5% that kills you.  I only use VPS for services with quite low cpu and network load for that reason.  For heavier stuff I've found dedicated servers to be incredibly liberating.  VPS users can only dream of kicking off a 5 day computation that runs at 100% CPU on 4 cores, and actually getting that 100% the whole time and not worrying about the host hassling you .  So for VPS reviews I mostly care about the configuration, support, billing, etc. and that's what I mostly write about (see my OVH VPS and Low End Spirit reviews).  Oh yes and of course uptime .


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## MannDude (Jun 22, 2014)

wlanboy said:


> Thanks!
> 
> Just scolled through my reviews - not all are sponsored
> 
> ...


Sorry, didn't mean to make it sound like all your reviews were sponsored ones. Your independent reviews are one of the reasons why I wanted you to do some sponsored ones, too. Actually, I don't see the harm in you entering so long as it's an independent review.  But that's up to you. 



Boxode said:


> Will probably enter this, good prize!


I hope you do!



Ivan said:


> How would I go about to providing proof of being with a provider, where the account details and stuff are under someone else's name and information? This is because I do not pay for the server but do everything related to it.


Hmm... good question. I suppose if you can provide proof of having utilized the server for 3months+ and upload a file to the server to prove you have access to it... that'd work. It's a unique case but we'll be able to figure something out.



raindog308 said:


> I think this combination of rules will encourage many shallow reviews rather than in-depth ones.


I sure hope not. Regardless of how many they enter, the idea is that each entry will still be quality. I want to see good content in the reviews mainly. Anything that is too vague, unclear, etc may be disqualified from the contest until the submitter can provide more details. 



willie said:


> Cool.  I might write something about my OVH dedi.  I'm not a believer in benchmarks in VPS reviews though.  I don't do them myself and I find them nearly useless in reviews written by others.  They measure the instantaneous performance of the VPS at the specific moment when the benchmark is run, and they're disruptive enough that it's generally not ok to run them very often.  The usual situation with an overloaded VPS is that it performs ok 95% of the time, and it's the other 5% that kills you.  I only use VPS for services with quite low cpu and network load for that reason.  For heavier stuff I've found dedicated servers to be incredibly liberating.  VPS users can only dream of kicking off a 5 day computation that runs at 100% CPU on 4 cores, and actually getting that 100% the whole time and not worrying about the host hassling you .  So for VPS reviews I mostly care about the configuration, support, billing, etc. and that's what I mostly write about (see my OVH VPS and Low End Spirit reviews).  Oh yes and of course uptime .


I understand the concern with benchmarks, they're certainly not the end-all source of a good or bad server. Though unfortunately they are to be expected in reviews nowadays. Even in offers here and elsewhere I have seen people sometimes want to see outputs of common commands or the results of benchmarks. Truth is, most these benchmarks are properly misleading and small differences in DD test results or network benchmarks, etc is likely to never really be truly 'experienced' by the end-user... but they still request them. 

Anyhow, I do look forward to your entries! It'll be nice to see some dedicated reviews here as well.


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## willie (Jun 22, 2014)

Here are a couple of other reviews that I wrote:





Do they count?


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## MannDude (Jun 22, 2014)

willie said:


> Here are a couple of other reviews that I wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Unfortunately:



> Old entries are not valid for submission, only entries from today forward are eligible


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## DomainBop (Jun 22, 2014)

> Your experience with interacting with the company via the helpdesk or any support channel they may offer.


There are a couple of providers I've been with over a year where my answer to that question would be _"How the f*** would I know? I've never had to open a ticket."_


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## MannDude (Jun 22, 2014)

DomainBop said:


> There are a couple of providers I've been with over a year where my answer to that question would be _"How the f*** would I know? I've never had to open a ticket."_


That's a good thing! Be sure to include that in any potential review you may enter.


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## GreenHostBox (Jun 22, 2014)

Are the reviews only for VPS and dedicated server providers or does it also include web hosting providers?


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## MannDude (Jun 23, 2014)

GreenHostBox said:


> Are the reviews only for VPS and dedicated server providers or does it also include web hosting providers?


I'd allow regular hosting providers (shared/reseller). Though it's not really our focus here, it's still relevant to the interest of some.


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## ChrisM (Jun 23, 2014)

Does it have to be about a vps from a vps provider? Does colocation count?


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## MannDude (Jun 23, 2014)

Chris Miller said:


> Does it have to be about a vps from a vps provider? Does colocation count?


Yes, that's fine. If it's relevant to the itnerest of the user base, I'll allow it.

To recap: Shared, reseller, VPS, Cloud, Dedicated, Colocation. Is fine. I'll go as far as allow hardware, devices and gear.


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## Ivan (Jun 28, 2014)

Any idea when this ends?


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## D. Strout (Jul 2, 2014)

Ivan said:


> Any idea when this ends?


@MannDude said it ends August 1st.


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## MannDude (Jul 7, 2014)

Remember, the contest ends in 3 weeks. No one has entered. In that case, ol' MannDude keeps the money.


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## D. Strout (Jul 7, 2014)

MannDude said:


> Remember, the contest ends in 3 weeks. No one has entered. In that case, ol' MannDude keeps the money.


I think many of us might have thought you'd just look at the reviews forum. I know I did. I see now we need to post a link, so here's my first entry:


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## drmike (Jul 7, 2014)

D. Strout said:


> I think many of us might have thought you'd just look at the reviews forum. I know I did. I see now we need to post a link, so here's my first entry:


Good point... should lump in all those reviews from start date until end date maybe... so no child gets left behind


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## MannDude (Jul 7, 2014)

D. Strout said:


> I think many of us might have thought you'd just look at the reviews forum. I know I did. I see now we need to post a link, so here's my first entry:



From my original post:



> *How to enter the contest:*
> 
> 
> Write a _detailed_ review of your service provider(s). (See below for what we would consider a proper entry, and what we would consider to be a poor and invalid entry)
> Respond to this thread with a link to your review that you are entering.





I'll go look at the review forum too, but as per the original rules please post the URL in here too which makes it easier for me.


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## gxbfxvar (Jul 8, 2014)

Here is my EDIS.at review: 



> You *must* provide proof of being with with said provider.


Any idea how to do this?


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## Aldryic C'boas (Jul 8, 2014)

```
echo "Hello VPSB, from gxbfxvar" > /var/www/hellovpsb
```


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## gxbfxvar (Jul 8, 2014)

Thanks, here is my proof: http://at.gxbfxvar.florist/vpsboard.txt (Name should resolve to 2a03:f80:ed15:37:235:63:165:1).


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## MannDude (Jul 11, 2014)

Thanks for the entries so far. About to do an email blast so don't pick a side of the coin yet you two, haha.


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## Ivan (Jul 22, 2014)

Here is my review. 

MannDude, can we PM in regards to proof of ownership?


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## MannDude (Jul 22, 2014)

Ivan said:


> Here is my review.
> 
> MannDude, can we PM in regards to proof of ownership?


Yes, please do. I may not respond immediately but I will (eventually)


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## johnlth93 (Jul 23, 2014)

Most the review came from wlanboy anyway, but well his review are very details.


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## gxbfxvar (Jul 24, 2014)

My INIZ.com review:  

Verification: http://iniz-la.gxbfxvar.florist/vpsboard.txt


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## D. Strout (Jul 24, 2014)

Finally starting to get more than one or two reviews in - maybe it's that big banner in everyone's face  Excellent reviews so far @gxbfxvar. Looks like I'm getting some competition, maybe I should write up three or four more


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## MannDude (Jul 26, 2014)

Thanks for the entries. Keep them coming, the contest is almost over!


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## fisle (Jul 30, 2014)

Ok ok here we go:



proof here


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## D. Strout (Jul 30, 2014)

MannDude said:


> The contest will end 08/01/2014 at 1AM EST.


So, basically Thursday at midnight, plus one hour? That is, on EST the contest only extends one hour in to August 1st?


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## MannDude (Jul 30, 2014)

D. Strout said:


> So, basically Thursday at midnight, plus one hour? That is, on EST the contest only extends one hour in to August 1st?


Well, _technically_ Friday morning at 1AM.... but yes.


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## D. Strout (Jul 31, 2014)

Here we go:











Each contains a link to a screenshot of an invoice. Let me know if you need more validation.


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## MannDude (Aug 1, 2014)

Contest over. D. Strout just dropped a bomb of reviews in the last hour.

I still need to touch base with some of you for verification, which I will start doing shortly. The winner will be announced in a new thread as well.

Good luck.


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## Ivan (Aug 1, 2014)

My chances of winning are smaller now... anyway good luck to everyone! i hope i win though


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## MannDude (Aug 1, 2014)

Sorry everyone, am a bit under the weather. I'll start working on this when I get off work this evening. Announcement should come tomorrow assuming those I PM for verification respond before then.


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## MannDude (Aug 2, 2014)

Okay, so not many entries this time around. Last contest had a ton of entries and contributors. Unsure if the criteria was too poor or if people just don't like writing reviews... Next one will likely closely resemble the first one since it was a success. 


1.) https://vpsboard.com/topic/4671-skytoaster-review/ - D Strout
2.) https://vpsboard.com/topic/4651-edisat-one-year-review/ - gxbfxvar
3.) https://vpsboard.com/topic/4810-incero-custom-dedicated-server-review/ - Ivan
4.) https://vpsboard.com/topic/4830-iniz-one-year-review/ - gxbfxvar
5.) https://vpsboard.com/topic/4892-iwstack-4-month-review/ - fisle
6.) https://vpsboard.com/topic/4916-urpad-ddos-protected-1gb-vps/ - D Strout
7.) https://vpsboard.com/topic/4915-serverhub-leb-3r/ - D Strout
8.) https://vpsboard.com/topic/4914-iniz-yearly-256mb-kvm/ - D Strout
9.) https://vpsboard.com/topic/4913-crissic-yearly-512mb/ - D Strout
10.) https://vpsboard.com/topic/4912-buyvm-128mb-openvz-nj/ - D Strout

If I don't have proper verification from you, I'll be PMing you tonight. Basically just want to see a screencap proving you've had the service for 3 month or more as per original contest rules. After I have collected those, I'll use a random number generator to pick a number 1-10, and whatever number is chosen is the winner and I'll give you $250 for your efforts.


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## MannDude (Aug 2, 2014)

Everyone is now verified.

Closing this thread as I am starting a new one to announce the winner.


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