I have actually been reading that thread, currently at 12 pages, since it surfaced at WHT. The bigger problem, however, is not how Lunarpages steals their customers’ 404 pages — mind you that in my book, using an iframe to open a page on Information.com (ads provider for domain squatters) is even lower than just populating it with Google AdSense for search (HostGator). The bigger issue is how they perform the damage control. Sure, there is a fire that they need to put out, but I don’t think the tactics like changing the web hosting ToS, mass deleting forum threads, limiting customer communication between each other, etc will win anyone’s heart.

Instead, it back fired, created a lengthy thread on WHT and possibly other web hosting forums, and even other hosting companies have taken noticed and acted cleverly (btw, good one Josh!)

You gotta wonder — how much money does those 404 pages generate, to a point that Lunarpages is unwilling to back down, apologise and reverse the change? Actually I do not think any amount is worth it for their reputation. I wonder whether there is some contract with the spammers at Information.com/Oversee.net so they cannot easily reverse the change.

Update: 2007-10-12: Lunarpages have commented on DreamHost’s blog post. Looks like there’s a lot of bad blood between the arch rivals. Still, no public apology.

Humorous value aside, I think it is also a great starting point to educate the customers what to look out for in web hosting. Some of mine here:

1. Their NS1 and NS2 are on adjacent IP addresses in the same class C. Worse, they are actually on the same IP address!
2. Your host is run by a 15 year old during his spare time. Then summer comes and the web host goes off-line because he is going on school vacations.
3. The only way to upload files is by FTPing in plain text, and it does not support passive mode, and your router doesn’t like active connections.
4. uptime produces load average: 57.63 48.24 42.10
5. The web host gives you virtually unlimited storage and bandwidth, but TOS says you can only store HTML files.

What about yours?

Finally, I am not sure how long did it take Amy and Joe to come up with 60 reasons, but I am very certain that they can write a post on “60 reasons why web hosting customers suck!” in 1/3 the time! :)