There seems to be quite a few people questioning the motives of large free web hosting communities like our own host PlanetQuake.com. Recent claims include:

• That they are “hogging” up doman registration names via the internic for present and future game titles.

• That they are doing the webmasters they host a disservice because they receive the profits for our efforts.

• That fan based pages should not be affiliated with such hosting sites and instead operate individually.

• That these hosting sites do everyone a disservice by not allowing smaller sites to co-exist in a fair “market.”

Rubish.

I’ve been seeing this kind of stuff all over the net lately.  I think the people that are making this charges are either jealous of the internet presence of the big pages or their revenues.

Or, they’re just trying to stir some shit up. :)

I think we have to remember that these hosting services exist for a purpose and allow webmasters to put their life’s work TC or whatever on their domain for free.  Anything that’s free to one person costs someone else.  Places like PQ or Stomped or Telefragged or whomever don’t charge us to waste their space and their bandwidth on our new-little-tidbit-that-most-could-care-less-about.  Like it or not people, that’s the truth.

These HS (hosting services) also provide communities for all of our pages to exist.  One central location for gajillions of pages of different genres and focuses.  How many people would come to a page like this if it was merely at Geocities.  Not many.  Trust me, I’ve seen the counters on some of them.  The Guild has also been on a much smaller HS in it’s first incarnation and its hits were few and far between.  By moving to a major HS, we achieved the hits and the publicity so that more than 5 people a month actually read our stuff.  It gave us a reason to continue working on the page.  (And we all know how hard it is to continue sometimes!)

So, together we are many……..as opposed to 900 pages all by themselves.  By creating a community, we allow us sub-standard webmasters to do our stuff.  For free, I might add again.  We are open for someone that wanted to see something about a TC or a deathmatch trick the ability to read other cool stuff about Pooh or Women Gamers or other games all in one neat package.  Do HS’s do their webmasters a service?  You betcha.

Do we get paid?  Nope.  But is that why we’re all here?  Is it really?  If it is, then get your page off your HS and register your own domain and fend for yourself.  Good luck to you.  I started my page just to have a showcase for my idiocy.  Money was not a motivation and it never will be.  I just thought it was cool to be on a Quake server and have someone actually say “Hey, Figin, aren’t you the guy that wrote that story/editorial/poem?  That was enough for me.  I believe it’s enough for most of us.  But I’m getting off the topic again, I think…….

HS’s are businesses.  They are free to the webmasters to operate, but who pays for all that bandwidth and the hardware and the time?  The HS does, of course.  They do indeed use our content to generate their own revenues.  Revenues which are presently not shared among the content providers.  So what?  We were never promised anything when we signed up.  And again, if you’re upset with that, see the above paragraph.  But by allowing them to keep their money, we continue to have a cool place to post to.  We are exposed to cutting edge technologies and things you just can’t get at other places.  And I’ve never heard anyone ever say anything about a limit on our web space.

So do you really think the HS’s are ripping us poor webmasters off?  Again, I say definitely not.  Basty can keep his money IMHO.  Just keep doing what you’re doing, dude.  Provide me a home for my junk.

Now onto the domain registration thing.  This claim is ridiculous.  Anyone with $100 can register a name.  So, if you don’t want PQ to get it, then register it your damned self.  You want to make a page called QuakeRulesTheCozmos.com, then do it.  You pay the fees, secure a hosting service and pay that $50/month or whatever.  You negotiate your advertising possibilities with other companies.  You spend 20 hours a day on this shit 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  (See why I said Basty could keep his money?  I hate doing administrative bullshit like that)  I believe it is foresight on the HS’s part……..they are planning ahead for the next generation of games so that they don’t fall behind.  And what in the hell in our free market society is wrong with that?  Absolutely nothing, people.  Absolutely nothing.

This is how financial empires are forged, folks.  By having the initiative, the money, the idea and the time.  Do HS’s abuse their power at times?  I’m sure they do in one way, shape or form.  But it’s a small price to pay for the services they provide.  A lot of people dislike Bill Gates because he did this.  I think he’s a genius.  Sure, I hate it sometimes when Bill tries to take over my system.  But you can’t argue with his results……pretty decent products and stOOpid cash flow.

Are people jealous of these Evil Empires?  Most definitely.  Does that make them evil?  No.  It just means that we’re sitting back kicking ourselves because while we were figuring out how to find the RA on DM2, others were actually working their asses off to put their dreams in motion.

So, to all the complainers or doubters I say this:  If you’re not on a HS, then it’s none of your concern.  We’re not making any money, and it’s none of your concern.  And unless you plan on registering some of these domains, it’s also none of your concern.  Web pages in the gaming genre will continue to exist with or without you or HS’s.  People will continue to make money off of other people’s efforts.  And that’s likely none of your concern either.  Get over it and let us all get back to work, doing the things we signed up for, whether that’s making money or making someone else money.

By Da Figmeister

https://web.archive.org/web/20001011044743/http://planetquake.com:80/guild/works/namehog/index.shtm