Afrihost & Mybroadband - what is happening?

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ezras

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:mad::mad::mad::mad:Afrihost & Mybroadband - what is happening?:mad::mad::mad:

I guess I'm one of the biggest fans of MyBroadBand.co.za - waiting in the morning for the news updates and constantly recall post of service providers who don't perform. Never do you see anything negative about Afrihost - every article very carefully written and with time you discover its all Bull.... especially when you research reviews about Afrihost. Even the MyBroadBand Forum is riddled with complaints about Afrihost, Hello Peter, and still no word from MyBroadBand.co.za.

One thing is for sure is that MyBroadBand have a very strong connection with Afrihost. WHAT IS THE CONNECTION?

Question: How true are the other news they feed us? They obviously not transparent - looking at the general code of conduct and guidelines for providing accurate news and facts to the public.

The past two weeks people lost millions with their constant down-time - around 300 Cloud Server + Re-seller Servers down and all we get is a "Medium" network fault. People post list and list of complaints explaining their experience with Afrihost. And no, its not only the Cloud Servers, its EVERYTHING!

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/578207-News-Coverage-on-Afrihost-problems

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...loud-down-again-and-again-and-again-and-again

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...r-never-never-use-Afrihost-for-a-VPS-solution

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/577637-Afrihost-cloud-server-environment-issues

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/587387-Afrihost-Support

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/581883-Afrihost-false-product-information

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...edicated-Server-Hosting-and-SUPPORT-PATHETHIC

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/577737-Afrihost-Servers-Down

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/570851-Afrihost-cloud-hosting-no-joy-no-support

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/567401-Afrihost-hosting-problems

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/562537-Afrihost-Continuous-Downtime
:mad:

And the list goes on.....

WE WANT TRANSPARENCY AND ACCURATE NEWS!​
 
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+1
Quite a few ISPs have had far smaller outages and they made the front page. Afrihost however gets their mobile data promo covered mid outage?
 
Have you contacted any of the mybroadband journalists or admins to request clarity? I have, and have been informed that they are investigating and a story is possibly in the pipeline.

This witch-hunt might be a little premature, don't you think? Especially if you haven't actually bothered to contact anyone at mybroadband...
 
DJ... said:
Have you contacted any of the mybroadband journalists or admins to request clarity? I have, and have been informed that they are investigating and a story is possibly in the pipeline.

This witch-hunt might be a little premature, don't you think? Especially if you haven't actually bothered to contact anyone at mybroadband...
Click to expand...

I actually did and still waiting a response.

DJ... said:
a story is possibly in the pipeline
Click to expand...

Possibly is not good enough and I'm sure there is many who agree with me.

Why wait so long anyway? These post date back since the beginning of 2013
 
ezras said:
I actually did and still waiting a response.



Possibly is not good enough and I'm sure there is many who agree with me.

Why wait so long anyway? These post date back since the beginning of 2013
Click to expand...

I did get a response.

And are they supposed to guarantee you a story each time? Who did you contact?

Hell, I'm on your side in this debacle and have suggested you guys take legal action against Afrihost, and I also suggest you look at various other complaints to various bodies, but expecting mybb to ask how high every time you tell them to jump ain't on.

Bottom line is that Jan is investigating this, and considering that I do not work for mybb, nor can anyone guarantee that a story will be run, the likelihood of a story is possible. Nothing more. What more do you want them to do?
 
I think the negativity is more about the principle then anything else DJ. Just looks like a spot or lack thereof on the home page can be bought.
 
Ipwn 4 said:
I think the negativity is more about the principle then anything else DJ. Just looks like a spot or lack thereof on the home page can be bought.
Click to expand...

I've often accused them of the same and had to eat my words, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. If by week-end there's nothing then I reckon you have a strong case to call it so...
 
The impression I get is that a lot of articles concerning businesses have a double up write in. The first article contains a complaint, problem or narrative and indicates that the enterprise has been asked for comment but did not provide same. The second article contains the word "truth" or "real story" or "x responds". A lot of articles contain recycled news content and so on. Now looking at it this way it is clear that you have a convenience and liability thing at play. MyBB almost never says anything for which they could be sued or taken to task - they report on things being done and the "XYZ :expert" type pieces are completely deficient of analysis. Similarly many enterprises have mastered an art of depending on a right of reply to set the narrative - the "true story" nonsense. A column would be awesome for this sort of case - the story, the reply (couched as truth), and the critique of the claims; but a column would cost money and require somebody who has thick skin and is prepared to field the wrath of several enterprises. Moreover MyBB isn't a newspaper and it doesn't have the luxury of hiding behind the "freedom of the press" shield in the way that a newspaper having its arm twisted by advertisers can stomp back. I think quite often the reporters need to get along and go along to get as much of the story.

The journalists at MyBB really do deliver some great stories and the work ethic is there but frankly the content side of things is thin at MyBB and about 80% of the content is in various ways cycling of content - quoting one person's opinion, presenting a company line etc ... - and this makes the news side of the business weaker than it should be. All and all I think RPM needs to seriously up the budget for investigative journalism and columnists but doing so would mean trimming other budgets (prizes for example) or upping revenue from somewhere. You also need to look at the overall quality of journalism in South Africa and locate the situation in that context.

And full disclosure I'd really dig it if they did rope in a few weekly columnists as a paid gig because I would definitely apply.

Now returning to Afrihost in particular. I get the idea that Afrihost work very well to reply to queries from MyBB journalists in ways that makes pursuing a story appear disproportionate to the issue at hand. Basically a nice reply that doesn't render a right to reply dead and would make an article look like a witch hunt.
 
TBH Paul, if you look at the "professional" journalism across the traditional newsmedia in South Africa, you will find that the level of journalism is shoddy and poor (this is disregarding the competency of having a grip on spelling and grammar). All online news (such as News24) are rehashed and thrown together without any facts. "Journalists" quote people without investigating, questioning or applying common sense. Then political interference washes out the actual story as can be seen with the 30bn Rand blown over the last year, Nkandla, the sign interpreter, Guptagate and all the other scandals which never found any closure.

I do think that MyBB does a better job at IT news reporting than most others (look at ITWeb - 90% of their news are rehashed or simply quoting someone for an "ego parade"). Having engaged with RPM in the past (the Woza story for example), I can honestly say, that they do provide a deep level of research. In most cases, the 3rd parties refuse to provide details or comment, hence news being thinner than it should be.
 
ezras said:
:mad::mad::mad::mad:Afrihost & Mybroadband - what is happening?:mad::mad::mad:

I guess I'm one of the biggest fans of MyBroadBand.co.za - waiting in the morning for the news updates and constantly recall post of service providers who don't perform. Never do you see anything negative about Afrihost - every article very carefully written and with time you discover its all Bull.... especially when you research reviews about Afrihost. Even the MyBroadBand Forum is riddled with complaints about Afrihost, Hello Peter, and still no word from MyBroadBand.co.za.

One thing is for sure is that MyBroadBand have a very strong connection with Afrihost. WHAT IS THE CONNECTION?

Question: How true are the other news they feed us? They obviously not transparent - looking at the general code of conduct and guidelines for providing accurate news and facts to the public.

The past two weeks people lost millions with their constant down-time - around 300 Cloud Server + Re-seller Servers down and all we get is a "Medium" network fault. People post list and list of complaints explaining their experience with Afrihost. And no, its not only the Cloud Servers, its EVERYTHING!

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/578207-News-Coverage-on-Afrihost-problems

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...loud-down-again-and-again-and-again-and-again

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...r-never-never-use-Afrihost-for-a-VPS-solution

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/577637-Afrihost-cloud-server-environment-issues

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/587387-Afrihost-Support

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/581883-Afrihost-false-product-information

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...edicated-Server-Hosting-and-SUPPORT-PATHETHIC

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/577737-Afrihost-Servers-Down

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/570851-Afrihost-cloud-hosting-no-joy-no-support

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/567401-Afrihost-hosting-problems

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/562537-Afrihost-Continuous-Downtime
:mad:

And the list goes on.....

WE WANT TRANSPARENCY AND ACCURATE NEWS!​
Click to expand...

We have no relationship with MyBB that influences what they write or don't write about. As someone in the thread pointed out, it could be that we've been very transparent with our clients and forum threads which makes writing a story moot. However, we've definitely had our fair share of front page stories in the past, and so have many other service providers. I don't think we expect or enjoy any kind of favour or bias at all.

Whether they decide to write something up or not is entirely up to them, and we respect them as a credible and very ethical group of journos.
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
TBH Paul, if you look at the "professional" journalism across the traditional newsmedia in South Africa, you will find that the level of journalism is shoddy and poor (this is disregarding the competency of having a grip on spelling and grammar). All online news (such as News24) are rehashed and thrown together without any facts. "Journalists" quote people without investigating, questioning or applying common sense. Then political interference washes out the actual story as can be seen with the 30bn Rand blown over the last year, Nkandla, the sign interpreter, Guptagate and all the other scandals which never found any closure.

I do think that MyBB does a better job at IT news reporting than most others (look at ITWeb - 90% of their news are rehashed or simply quoting someone for an "ego parade"). Having engaged with RPM in the past (the Woza story for example), I can honestly say, that they do provide a deep level of research. In most cases, the 3rd parties refuse to provide details or comment, hence news being thinner than it should be.
Click to expand...
Fair Point (TM)

But yes if we look at it even in the traditional newsmedia in SA (and globally) we are seeing shoddy and poor journalism - ignoring grammar and spelling where we all slip up. Online news in my view is particularly prone to being rehash etc ... And frankly the real problem is that when media outlets want to

The Kouga Express here in Jbay as part of the Media24 stable is a good example of this problem. The publication has a man (well a lady) editorial/reporter/content team with a little bit of infeed who also has to do some work for other publications. But there are 4 members of staff for advertizing sales etc ... So basically you have an editor who also writes (so no editorial split function) for a weekly paper.

I really do think that Jan is one of the best journalists I know in SA (and I actually know far to many journalists of different calibres) and that despite being a gamer Jes has salt. Unfortunately we can't clone the journo staff at MyBB and 7 members of staff on the editorial team for a effectively daily publication is cutting it quite thin. BUT to up that count - and especially to get experienced journalists - costs money and how valued is quality news and investigative reporting in SA really. With retrenchments at other publications there might be a bit more leg room but the principle problem remains.

And yes I don't believe that a single publication in SA has a better output of original content with 90-95% of tech content being churn in other publications. My 80% figure might exaggerate the case a little but the core issue remains, how many investigative articles can we actually expect a week from Jan (a proper article is intellectually taxing work) and everybody else in a fairly small team especially if one considers that RPM is really a managing editor. When you take what content can be expected and how much content is delivered I reckon that we are getting very close to the maximum amount of quality content that can possibly be expected from a team of the size and then all of the padding.
 
AfriMan said:
We have no relationship with MyBB that influences what they write or don't write about. As someone in the thread pointed out, it could be that we've been very transparent with our clients and forum threads which makes writing a story moot. However, we've definitely had our fair share of front page stories in the past, and so have many other service providers. I don't think we expect or enjoy any kind of favour or bias at all.

Whether they decide to write something up or not is entirely up to them, and we respect them as a credible and very ethical group of journos.
Click to expand...
And you can't even threaten them with unleashing the dog :p
;)
 
What really ticks me off. My clients, as many of yours, understand that we are acting as the go between of a larger Service Provider. They rely on the fact that they can contact/phone you directly for answers if there is a problem. Many times it is something simple, like the router is off or their internet is down. They don’t want to sit in a telephone queue for 20 minutes to get someone who does not know them or understands their regular issues. In most cases we can sort these problems in 1 minute flat. They are very grateful for the service we provide.
What Afrihost has done here is unforgivable. As they have not in any way tried to protect us by offering a page that we can refer our clients to that will explain that it was out of our control.
As many of you, I have been threatened will legal suites, lost many clients, been told the reason is because I have not paid my account and the list goes on....
AFRIHOST...make it public that it was not a minor glitch, but a huge fall out and your clients where not at fault. I am not asking that you accept responsibility, but give us something to work with here.
Although I have moved my clients, I am keeping my account live with you until the end of the month to calculate the extent of the loss of business.
What really ticks me off. My clients, as many of yours, understand that we are realining
 
connorlong said:
What really ticks me off. My clients, as many of yours, understand that we are acting as the go between of a larger Service Provider. They rely on the fact that they can contact/phone you directly for answers if there is a problem. Many times it is something simple, like the router is off or their internet is down. They don’t want to sit in a telephone queue for 20 minutes to get someone who does not know them or understands their regular issues. In most cases we can sort these problems in 1 minute flat. They are very grateful for the service we provide.
What Afrihost has done here is unforgivable. As they have not in any way tried to protect us by offering a page that we can refer our clients to that will explain that it was out of our control.
As many of you, I have been threatened will legal suites, lost many clients, been told the reason is because I have not paid my account and the list goes on....
AFrihost...make it public that it was not a minor glitch, but a huge fall out and your clients where not at fault. I am not asking that you accept responsibility, but give us something to work with here.
Although I have moved my clients, I am keeping my account live with you until the end of the month to calculate the extent of the loss of business.
What really ticks me off. My clients, as many of yours, understand that we are realining
Click to expand...

Very Very Very good point you make here.

Afrihost only started updating their status after all the people commented on the forum, about day 3 (week 2 - 3rd time they went down) . My staff refused to answer the phone, said they could not handle it anymore.

Wonder what comment MyBroadband will have about this.......

Guess.... Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla

Rest assure, the damage was done. Views of this post is already over 600 and the other one over 7,793.

And still MyBroadband say its not enough for a story....
 
connorlong said:
What really ticks me off. My clients, as many of yours, understand that we are acting as the go between of a larger Service Provider. They rely on the fact that they can contact/phone you directly for answers if there is a problem. Many times it is something simple, like the router is off or their internet is down. They don’t want to sit in a telephone queue for 20 minutes to get someone who does not know them or understands their regular issues. In most cases we can sort these problems in 1 minute flat. They are very grateful for the service we provide.
What Afrihost has done here is unforgivable. As they have not in any way tried to protect us by offering a page that we can refer our clients to that will explain that it was out of our control.
As many of you, I have been threatened will legal suites, lost many clients, been told the reason is because I have not paid my account and the list goes on....
AFRIHOST...make it public that it was not a minor glitch, but a huge fall out and your clients where not at fault. I am not asking that you accept responsibility, but give us something to work with here.
Although I have moved my clients, I am keeping my account live with you until the end of the month to calculate the extent of the loss of business.
What really ticks me off. My clients, as many of yours, understand that we are realining
Click to expand...

Well said. The community are quick to roast Telkom; but if you think about it. Not even Telkom has failed as badly as this. Plus, MyBB has not reported on this issue once in the last 6 months. We all know that although this was the worst, it was not the first in the last 6 months.
 
connorlong said:
What really ticks me off. My clients, as many of yours, understand that we are acting as the go between of a larger Service Provider. They rely on the fact that they can contact/phone you directly for answers if there is a problem. Many times it is something simple, like the router is off or their internet is down. They don’t want to sit in a telephone queue for 20 minutes to get someone who does not know them or understands their regular issues. In most cases we can sort these problems in 1 minute flat. They are very grateful for the service we provide.
What Afrihost has done here is unforgivable. As they have not in any way tried to protect us by offering a page that we can refer our clients to that will explain that it was out of our control.
As many of you, I have been threatened will legal suites, lost many clients, been told the reason is because I have not paid my account and the list goes on....
AFRIHOST...make it public that it was not a minor glitch, but a huge fall out and your clients where not at fault. I am not asking that you accept responsibility, but give us something to work with here.
Although I have moved my clients, I am keeping my account live with you until the end of the month to calculate the extent of the loss of business.
What really ticks me off. My clients, as many of yours, understand that we are realining
Click to expand...

I think we have tried to be very transparent about what happened and we've tried to communicate and reassure clients.

I think it's ironic for me to see this when in the thread where we were responding to comments we eventually were subjected to personal insults, rather than meaningful engagement. We eventually stopped responding on the thread when it became an all out troll fest because I honestly don't see any value for anyone in that. I just find it strange that people ask for more communication and discourse, but choose to use that platform in the way that the thread ended up.
 
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