I'm just popping in to say a few words. Peace be with everyone!
First, everyone has to respect that each hosting company has it's own policies. When you're running an operation larger than one person it's necessary to have protocols otherwise there is chaos. Sometimes this means that personal interaction before "taking action" doesn't always occur. Ultimately, safeguards like what was triggered at XFR are in place to protect the sanctity of each hosting company's clients. You have to respect what XFR did because it wasn't unreasonable. They're pretty slick if they had alerts pop up due to that small of a mailing being sent out. Besides which, it's easy to get jaded as a host when people are always inventing new ways to screw you.
Was Ian spamming? Based on my years of knowing and hosting him I know he wasn't. However, it's not fair to expect a new host to be a psychic since he hasn't obviously known Ian for any period of time. Perhaps if a policy was in place was to disable the sendmail but not the sites it would stop the immediate problem until it could be investigated while not affecting website uptime.
You know, when I read the other thread that was linked to in the first post I didn't see Ian's question to Amp to be all that unusual. Since when does someone asking if someone else has hit a bandwidth cap and been turned off become an attack? Besides which, the average viewing audience dosn't know who is hosting with who and where people used to host - only those involved do and end up taking these things personally.
I'm missing where Ian said he would not pay you whatever amount was due? I read the transcripts you linked to and I don't see him saying that. There's nothing wrong with moving hosts so the 'to do' about him jumping ship... well, fuck anyone for giving him shit for deciding to change hosts. People do it all the time, Ian just happens to be a bit of a loudmouth about his issues so of course he deserves some board beating for that. It was nice of you to offer a discount on his overage, not all hosts would do that, Ian should appreciate that.
As long as he pays what he owes what is the current problem? I haven't been as current on GFY the last few days so it's possible I've missed something somewhere.
Ian has always been poor - he was poor back when he hosted with me for such a long time. It's the ongoing plight of Ian the brilliant artist but somewhat cursed businessman. We had quite a few spirited arguments... if I'm not mistaken one of them was about him eating Ramen Noodles for dinner and me eating steak or something like that. However, not a single bill ever went unpaid in my tenure hosting him.
All I can say for certain is that Ian was reasonably forthcoming about moving hosts. So that you know Smegma, Ian was not in a rush to move and took several weeks to make that decision. He expressed to me that you had done an excellent job accomodating him and that the hosting performance was solid. If he's got dual personalities, it isn't my fault. Why he ultimately chose not to stay, only Ian knows.
When all is said and done, the hosting client owes his host whatever is properly invoiced and not much more.
I'm not popping in here with any agenda, I just wanted to say what I've said because I trust Ian's character.... not always his judgement, but yes his character. XFR has a positive reputation and nothing I've seen so far has detracted from that. I, like you and others, object to his saying so much public in forums because it's often inappropriate and unnecessarily destructive.
Ian is a good person but obviously can easily turn into a host's worst 'board' nightmare. If he doesn't pay his outstanding bill with you, please send me the invoice.
Cheers,
Brad