The Trap17 Story

[velma 6]

Hi,Wow this is one story,I had read this once , My boss had showm me this page. But at that time I could not put up a post but now that I am a member and I saw the link in the shoutbox. I remembered that I wanted to post a long time ago So anyway CONGRATULATIONS.... It is an inspiring thing to hear your story.Cheers,

[jaynevada 0]

Wow, great story. Your an inspiration. Congrats on your success. Cheers,Jay

[ghostrider 0]

That is one hell of a story. Congratulations on your success and thank you for providing such a great service.

[matak 2]

I often wondered about the name Xisto, and about ppl behind it. Now when i read this story i'm really amazed. Good work opaque, and great that you pulled it of, and that you are now just progressing and upgrading this community features. About the name Xisto, i figured out a meaning of that name to myself, and it's kinda similar to your story. I guess most ppl here that are now developers, have once been game addicts (personaly i played sc, duke nukem, q1, war2 etc). since i got bored of gaming i'm into programming and stuff now, and time i wasted on games i waste on something more usefull.really great story, it's so cool to know the truth behind this respectful site. keep up the good work, and best wishes for the future. I hope i'll live to see 1Gb storage soon

[Zachy2411 0]

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.

If it wasn't for Xisto, I would have been just like you! When my old host went down, I wanted to make my own, but I came upon you guys and now I'm about to get the best free hosting! Thank God for Xisto.

[Corcyn 0]

Wow, what a great story, you really persevered where many would have faltered, good job. The way you've set it up is ingenious, it develops a good community, and maintains itself without putting ads on the hosted pages, something which most other free webhosts cannot boast. It's not common to find a webhost that actually cares about it's users.

[onyxgem 0]

wow that must have tooken forever to right anyways Xisto been through alot

[ImageFilez.com 0]

Congrats... Opaque, I am so proud today after reading your story.

[9block 0]

I would like to see an update of the story, a part two with everything that has happened since the end of 2004 to mid 2007. You seem like your going good, hopefully your profiting now. Hopefully you grow large enough so you dont have to work a 9-5

[chewy123 0]

Wow, what a story. Its amazing what people go through to make things great. I was also wondering what Xisto meant as well, but now its all clear, thanks for that. Your an inspiration to people everywhere in that story, thanks for posting.

[Atthack 0]

Great story, and (so far) happy ending :XD:I'm curious too though, what KEPT on growing / helping Xisto.After all i know so many who keep on and on with trying to sell hosting and get CRUSHED down by competing it's almost annoying me.Free webhosts DIE one day, and 10 others launch again.It's just really good to see one that is NEVER going down. It's the kind of label you can find anywhere, but that no one but this site (and a FEW others) can KEEP.Thank you!

[BuffaloHelp 24]

Honestly, there isn't some magical formula that says which hosting business survives the terrible competition.

 

I believe Xisto's continued success is purely on the word of mouth. We have in the past, and continue to do so, people trying to deface and bring down our forum and free web hosting, no ads services. But the greater general will come and test out our hosting because it takes little effort to try it out.

 

When they see the offerings from Xisto they will judge for themselves if Xisto really stands up to the claim. Xisto simply offers free web hosting, no ads period!

 

It was not so long ago that the board founder even decided to remove advertisements on this forum for all registered forum members. The priority of serving free web hosting, no ads out weighs revenue and profit in this forum.

[thugsmoke058 0]

i read all letters written there and i understand what it means then i realize that people must do there best and trust each others.oh... nice story and i love it :XD:

[Soby 0]

Seems like you've been through trying time eh. One hell of a journey you've had with the server. I am glad you finally made it though.The best thing that I like of the forum is that it give the community feel to it. People really participate and keep the forums running rather than a dull place. they do it out getting their hosts running or for the sense belonging here but either way it's really great. Keep up the good work and hope 'we' prosper more in future.

[megabytemb 0]

pretty cool story. please don't shut down