Mistikpso 0 Report post Posted July 16, 2005 wow due u went through alot for all of us *applauding* thx, we all couldnt be here with out ya Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Acidify 0 Report post Posted August 5, 2005 wow sad sad story lol.If I wasnt a kid I would make loads of donations for that one.I am glad that trap still stands and pity on those fools who put trap down andThanks too all the nice admin that helped keep trap up.I didnt know you were the owner of trap lol but you have done a good job and if Xisto closes it will close with a lot of support and loads of history and we will never forget Xisto and then name doesnt scare me Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wassie 0 Report post Posted August 5, 2005 and an old admin (me) now came back to Xisto :Dand wil try everything in his power to make this a better communitie. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kraam 0 Report post Posted August 7, 2005 That is a true Story. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
puya 0 Report post Posted August 13, 2005 nice story i ike it Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OpaQue 15 Report post Posted August 13, 2005 Woah, I used to be with Dymihost. I remember when I had to make 50 posts. Then they said that my posts lacked content so I had to keep going until they gave it to me when I reached like 200 or something. 158616[/snapback] Ohh.. I hope the moderator who told you to post again was not me. I was a mod there Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dark Aphalite 0 Report post Posted August 15, 2005 Wow, OpaQue. I'm amazed by your perseverance. In times like before when most people would just give up, you kept going. I was even amazed that you worked through part-time jobs and did everything in your powers to keep Xisto going. And the most amazing thing about that is you did it for us, not for yourself! If it was me, I'd just pack up and tell my members to complain to a brick wall.I'm proud of you, OpaQue! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bmxpunker2005 0 Report post Posted August 29, 2005 wow OpaQue, thaks a million for making the comittment. I really do love this site and these forums. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sonorama 0 Report post Posted August 29, 2005 Wow that is very impressive!! I guess that's why Xisto is quite important to you. I mean, lots of people just give up and that's it. But you had perseverance (is it the right word?) and persistence. Well I definitely think you REALLY did it man! This is the place most of those freewebhosters would love to manage! Cheers once again! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
moldboy 0 Report post Posted September 14, 2005 Amazing story, I just have one question, In the story you said google pulled the ads, yet I see them on the top of the page? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
frc 0 Report post Posted September 21, 2005 wow! what an amazing story!!! yeah this is my first time using this site, so i will have to wait and see, hope it luck in the future Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tdktank59 0 Report post Posted October 7, 2005 Ive tried many hosting companies... My dads friends so far has been the best but i was too lazy to get my dad to get me a folder on there for my clan site... (its also running low on space) so i tried some other ones so far they all have had some sort of ads...Then i met KuBi he posts on these forums... I am in his diablo 2/sc/wc3 clan and made his website work and all had a few rough times with him when i accidently deleted the whole public html folder lol... but we recovered cause i kept local files for backup and burn them to disk every so often for updates and *BLEEP*!!!now i started my own clan and i needed a host without ads. so i remeber here trap 17 and started posting and getting credits!!! Got my 30 credits and got a host!!! (thank you) now im here and wont be going anywhere. Its nice to see waht people can do for us!!! kinda gets anoying with ads eveywhere but heh it works dosnt it free webhosting for posting on forums very nice set up herebest regards,Trevor Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
frederick.ding 0 Report post Posted October 10, 2005 Wow! I just have several questions. Firstly, did I understand it correctly that your initial intention was to launch a free hosting site? If so, then why is it that Xisto still requires users to "pay" by seeing so many ads and by contributing nearly everyday possible?Also, wouldn't the site revenue increase if the forum software was upgraded? (Personally, I prefer Invision over PhpBB.)Still, the story is very touching, and very impressive. I just hope that the site will continue to expand, but not so much that so many people use it that it can't be managed anymore. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rob 0 Report post Posted October 10, 2005 I got hundreds of PM's asking what the hell is Xisto, how did I get this name, what does it mean.. there is also a thread open regarding this. While most of the people are still wondering, what does Xisto mean ?? Ok! Time to open up the secret! I used to play CS in a gaming zone at my place called Xisto. I used to waste 8 hours out of my life,everyday in that place and I kept doing it for about 2-3 years! After which that gaming zone was converted into a Gaming Shop where now Game CD's are sold. Its name was changed from Xisto to Cobra! My friend and I used to miss (bunk) our college lectures and play CS. And after that place closed down... We were really disappointed. I wanted to keep that name up and soon after I registered that domain. Like most of you guys, I was looking out for free web hosts. Some of them, whom I tried are freedom2surf(which is now a paid hosting site), compactvision, dymihost, chromehost etc.. of which most of them either closed down or used to put ads on top of the page. Dymihost ( which has quite better than trap in terms of BW and space ) closed down suddenly. I had written more then 350 php programs and stuff. This was really a huge blow and It was like all my work was gone in a flash. Things were crappy and It was hard to find a good free host. I soon thought about starting my own free hosting. I made a small crappy site initially with my remaining programs and stuff.. Started free web hosting as a side feature.. and then I really started getting a good response. I signed up for google ads and I saw the revenue was quite satisfactory to keep up the web hosting requirements. The site which I had started more like a personal one was getting a reputation of a professional site. and soon people started critsizing the personal website, tiny programs and registration systems that I had created. I removed all my site data and made Xisto a dedicated free Web hosting site. To keep up with low expenses and stuff, I had a very simple design actually.. the only member whom I remember to be with Xisto from a very long time is WASSIE ( co-admin ) Soon I realised that, Xisto was falling behind as it was not having a proper presentation and template.. Lurk ( admin of http://lurk365.com/ ) donated the main template of Xisto.com and from that day, things really changed.. To keep the service as reliable, fast, secure and cheap as possible, I was testing out many servers. Old members may remember that Xisto had also lost the forum contents due to these server transfers.. things were difficult in the begenning. But the this was only a begenning... when finally my Google account was disabled! Due to a member who tried to spam on the ads. Frankly, at that time, the first thing that hit my mind was to Close down Xisto. But it was only the responsiblity of so many members and the feeling that I had at the time when my site was closed, I decided to keep up the site. Till now [26 Nov 2004] I have been covering up the expenses from the money I made out of my part time job.. At that time ( when I got my google account disabled), I met another person who had an advertising company. I partnered with him and he in turn introduced my to other companies. Xisto's Traffic statistics were pretty much impressive and It attracted a lot of attention. soon I was accepted by that company and I started a partnership deal to trade off the expense of the site by selling of the top advertising space at Xisto forums. Soon the partnership was terminated, but it did not make much of a diffrence because till then, I was introduced to many advertisers... so there after I Stopped running behind google ads and stuff ( even though they can fetch up 20 times more money that what I am earning of these ads ) but my main motive was to keep the server up and also to keep the site running. Even a little amount enough to keep this site up was quite satisfactory.. ( I haven't made any profits or even any money of this site .. Because all my google accounts were disabled at the last moment when I was actually expecting my payments ) I had registered about 2-3 google accounts and placed them on other sites.. so that I could atleast make some money off those. But Google Disabled them too saying that a Publisher who has been disabled is not allowed to participate in the adsense program. and when I saw my ad-tracker stats, I noticed that someone was purposely trying to get my account disabled. because everyday, I used to see a huge set of clicks from a single ip address. One by one all my google accounts were disabled. And I lost all of the money I had with google. 2 of my server charges have been paid by my pal who is from Canada. I still owe him more than a $100. But I think I can repay him back soon because, I will start getting the money of my advertisers after december. I hope to recieve before it, but it may take time due to shipping and stuff. I really thank that guy a lot, his name is Wen. It was because of this guy that this site continued to run. If I hadn't met this guy, this site would had been closed 2-3 months back.. Initially because of the name of the site and stuff, I also had to fight through a hell lot of bad reputation! This was the worst chapter for Xisto.. I dont know why, but members were afraid of the name or something. Or may be the competitors. Bad words, news etc are were spread about Xisto. (for eg. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ) Issues were made out of small things like the MySQL hookups. Couple of members were also trying to spam the MySQL server ( the main reason that was and That is for the MySQL hookups )... But these things are practically un-avoidable. Haden't I recived funds, I could had ensured to get another chip of ram for my server, but due to financing problems. I could not upgrade. Xisto survives because of the members.. The Traffic and the popularity. The only thing that holds this community is its popularity. The reason for this success inspite of so many difficulties was simply that We did not make this site for profits at the first place. I am satisfied with whatever small amount I make to keep the server up. eg. 4discuss.com, one of the biggest competitor closed off his site, removed all the user accounts after he lost google ads. And gave an excuse saying that the server has been hacked! That guy did it, because his intension was profit. While I, even though I wanted to do it ( because I had lost my main source of income) , I simply could'nt. Xisto has gone through many difficulties initially... more than one can imagine. the ones listed out above still fall short. Very old members actually know what trap had been through before it reached the this successful position. I remember working for about 18 hours a day for my site! I used to literally sleep in front of my pc. All day, I used to search for advertisers, manage my forums, lookout for better servers and monitering them etc... But, now, I am able to concentrate only on financial, marketting and other professional aspects. Thanks a lot to my admins who have really taken the load off my head regarding the forums. After being with Xisto for a long time and helping it out sincerely, I finally gave Wassie the server rights and direct access to it for making and editing user hosting accounts. Then I gave it to Spectre ( one of the only members of Xisto who has helped us without any specific intension. ie. without requesting any hosting account ) . Here is the place where I guess we prove the amount of trust we have in each other in this community. After getting this site to work on a full swing, I launced Xisto.com for members who were very highly talented and were feeling un-confortable at the Xisto forums. And then due to the requests for paid hosting, I and one of my chat friends ( the former manager of freenukehosting.com forums ) launced a paid hosting site ( http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ) We belive we have one of the highest competitive and cheapest rates available on the internet. We are still young and learning ... I hope this site keeps growing ( umm.. well without those difficulites ) and continues getting loads of new members day by day. So that we may serve as many members as possible.. Thank You for all your time ( for reading this article ) and your support without which Xisto was simply not possible... Warm Regards, OpaQue. 31230[/snapback] wow that was a great story i bet you went through some emotional times keep up the hard work ps your site is really cool Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
guangdian 0 Report post Posted October 31, 2005 opaque,i have the same college adventure as you had ever experienced.on the college,everyday's life is like that:1.before the sunrise,went to the netbar for the CS.2.after the stars rise,went back to the students loggage.it's really wasting so much time and energy,now i am becaming failure.i just so regret for the foolish life on college.guangdian Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
