Dear Trap17 Forums/Community,

Due to issues beyond my control, I have been forced to relinquish my free hosting here at Trap17, there are moral issues, the fact that I cannot stay active as required by the forums, and that the way that this place is going (no offense meant) but I have no doubt in my mind that this will very soon be not such a great place to have your website hosted. I was here when we still hosted and stayed active manually, now hosting credits and .asp scripts have taken over what was a fun cool place to be. Now I'm active because I'm forced to be. And if I take a leave of absence, It involves either constant rambling, or a want to spam the living hell outta this place. Currently, I cannot stay active and all this while I know what this place will be. In all fairness to the people here, Good Luck, and there's no doubt i'll be posting often, but not often enough to be hosted here.

Sincerely,
Tha Blk Panda

ya...it is pity that some members leave trap17 for the reason not keep be active always.umm,might you be ease to drop here,guy.like you,most of member here do not have much time staying here.however,you could treat active here as relaxing where you can get your host and chatting with many cool guys. ,June is coming,which means lots of exams will come,really busy.but i think that only several mins here could maintine yourself be active.if you mean to leave only by this reason,pity to say fellware to you.

I've been here for over 2 months, I've never encountered a major problem and posting and staying active in the forums is never a big issue, a couple posts a day can get the job done.

What people must understand is that Trap17 provides you with so much for free, but in order for them to do this you need to give something back, and that is posting in the forums. Trap17 gives me much more than I need, but as I learn more (thanks to everyone here in the forums) I'll be sure to use everything given to me.

Trap17 may require you to do more than you are currently able, but it is very clear what is asked of you to do. I'm sorry you don't have the time to stay active, but in no means do I think Trap17 is going downhill. Yes, I do think things could be improved, but I believe in due time things will improve, so sorry you may not be around to see it...best of luck to you.

Sorry to see you go.

I have just started posting here about a week ago and it does consume some time to get your credits up (I don't even have a hosting account yet, I'm going for the 30 one) I have an account at astahost though. I am going to transfer that over to this account because I like this forum better. I find it hard to post sometimes, but it really only takes about 2-4 posts a day to get your 1 credit. The only problem that I have with this is that when you go on vacation or are away from the Internet for a while you can get your website suspended unless you have an abundance of credits. I hope this never happens to me, but going away for a week or two is definitely going to pose a problem.

I think that there can be many things improved with this site though. I think that there should be multiple ways to get the hosting credits, so that the only way isn't just through posting on the forums.

Hopefully you will find another suitable host.

And what would those moral issues be? That Trap17 supports the clearing of Amazonian rainforests? Or maybe they employ child labour in SE Asia? Or perhaps dumping of oil in the North Sea? The right to choose for pregnant women? The acceptance of gay priests?

If you're gonna go bandying around terms like 'moral issues' you've really gotta provide better back-up for your claims.

I find it interesting that each of you gentlemen (except hulunes, whose english teacher must have hated him) and (I'm guessing gentlemen, you could be girls for all i know) haven't been here as long as I. And by simply stating that I'm no longer being hosted here I've brought up a volcano-like conversation with me sitting on the crater. The fact that i've been here longer than ya'll, brings about the fact that I know everything elevenmil can tell me, and especially any sarcasm tyssen could use on me.

I'd also like to remind ya'll that I despise posting just to be hosted somewhere. And that's what I FEEL trap17 has imposed upon me, once again, nothing personal, however one of you may feel differently. I've been here since December, and before. I had canceled another account a long time before. So the date shown isn't exactly accurate. But I've gained ~130 posts in the period of 5-6 months, while you gentlemen (specifically tyssen and elevenmil) have 100+ in the period of 1-2 months. I kept my account active before trap17 made the switch-off to hosting credits, just by posting daily, or bi-daily, whenever I could. But reverting to the credit system eliminated the human link in the chain, and henceforth completely deleted the sympathy in this system. Now it's mathematics. Post or you're gone.

When you have a life, as some of you may, I don't know, but you tend to get caught up in other things that exist, such as work. Or School, for those of you that still participate in that interesting pastime. And henceforth have no time to remian active around here. The only reason I wished to leave here is because staying active began to seem like a job, opposed to simlply waiting around your computer for the time to come to refresh/renew your hosting credits.

More or less, instead of preforming 'upkeep' on someone else's server (trap17.com) why not spend that time running my own? That is the main reason I left here, because I can run my own linux/apache server for.. let's see... nothing each month, each day. Zero cost, zero time spent on it. I rebuild a computer that's sitting around the house, and presto, my own webserver. While you will be posting @ trap17.com, i'll simply boot up comp #2, and the panda network is all over the internet.

My friend Tyssen, my moral issues are none of your business, and your sarcasm is completely un necessary. I'm glad you find my situation funny, but it's completely the opposite.

I wish you two a good evening,
Christopher Merchant
President and Co-Founder - Merchant Electric Co. Inc,.

P.S.
DanManIt, Good luck with trap17.com

I didn't find your situation funny, far from it. But, I'm always suspicious of people who use 'morality' as a reason for their actions when they can't actually substantiate which moral platform they're standing on. It always comes across as "I'm better than you cos I occupy a higher moral ground". And you playing the "I've been here longer, so therefore I am better than you" card kinda confirms what I was thinking. And this bit too:


So now we've fully established that you're more superior to us. Guess you'll actually be doing us lesser mortals a favour by not posting on here anymore so that we no longer have to stand in the huge shadow that you cast.

First off, I would give you a warning for flaming hulunes and everyone else here at trap17, but you are leaving, so that would be completely useless. Now, to respond to each aspect of your post:

Like I said, the flaming is completely uncalled for


You have to remember that this is one of the VERY FEW good and reliable free hosts out there on the net. As you may know, nothing is free in life. In order for this forum to stay alive, we depend on lots of members, and we have that. The better hosting service we provide to all our members, the more visitors we will get because the members will tell their friends, and words will spread. The more members we get, the more money we will generate . When that happens, trap17 gains more money and is able to provide better hosting packages. It's all reciprocal. Instead of asking for your money, we ask for your time (5 minutes a day), and just to give your opinion about a particular subject, or just to help a member out. It's not hard at all to get hosting credits. Take a look at all the good free hosts that do not ask for anything in return. What trend do you notice? They all went down within months. Ask Nils for the lists of those hosts. You might recognize a few of them that you have tried yourself.

Several things here. First, we are not reverting to the hosting credit system. Reverting means going back. Trap17 initially used post count in exchange for free hosting. Now, if trap17 used hosting credits originally, then your remark would be correct. It's all about word choice here.

Hosting credits ONLY eliminates those who are not willing to make decent posts. They eliminate spammers. They eliminate those are are impatient. They eliminate those who do not understand that there is nothing free in the world. They are the people who we try to weed out when we created the hosting credit system. The people who I just mentioned are not every single human in the world, is it?

How is math and "post or you're on" related? Math is 1+1 and sin(3*pi/2). It has nothing to do with posting. Now, there is math involved in the hosting credit script, but I don't think that's what you meant. Also, you don't have to post every day in order to stay alive. We give you a period of a month to be idle and still have your files intact in our servers. After a month of no posting, then you're gone. Why? If we do not eliminate those who do not participate in the forums, then everyone would take advantage of our services because one wouldn't have to do anything - not even post. What would happen then? You guessed it. Trap17 would no longer exist.

Are you implying that our members do not have a life?? We have a handful of hosted members who are well over 18, have a job, and still find time to come and post. School and/or work does not take up 24 hours, now does it? I have friends who have an active social life, who are taking Advance Placement classes, and who have work, but they all find time to come online and talk to me.

Posting should not be like a job to you unless you're a moderator at this forum, and you're not a moderator. All you have to do is make a decent sized post, like the one that I'm quoting, and you should gain about 3 - 5 hosting credits. Enough to keep you idle for a work week.

One last thing about the quote above, your hosting credit refreshes/renews instantly - you don't have to wait around your computer for the time to come back.

Again, back to the old proverb that I have been using. "Nothing in life is free." That includes running your own server. Why do you think companies charge upwards of $50 a MONTH for a decent server? That's because if you plan to have loads of visitors to your site, you will need a reliable internet connection - one more than 10 times faster than DSL or Cable internet. Do you know how much those cost? Google "T1 prices" or "T3 prices" to find out. And an internet connection is not even important. I see you're the president of some company. Kudos. Ever think what would happen if you made enemies? They would find ways to hack your server and deface your company website completely. That's why you need a good firewall and security to go along with it, and finding the right firewall to secure your website can be costly.

I believe he was using sarcasm as a literary technique to emphasize a point - that you did not provide anything to prove your point. If you want somone to believe something after you made a point, you have to use examples to back it up. Anyone in this forum will agree with me on this.