About [ Astahost ]

[dhanesh1405241511 0]

I dont know if this one was the right place but if it aint, Mods please shift this thread.

 

I was over at Xisto the other day while asta was being shifted to another server. I was going through a few posts and tried searching for the word "Xisto". Many topics came up with the word Xisto and many of them ( believe me ) were very encouraging, as asta is said to be one of the most intensive Information Sharing forum. May it be Computers or anything related to Life.

 

One Post that caught my attention, and i am sorry Opaque if i disobeyd any rules in this. I mean no offence to anyone, but just wanted members to know what went through in the making of Xisto.

 

Its long , but its worth the read !

 

(OpaQue @ Nov 25 2004, 08:17 PM)

 

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.

I saved this in a text file, and thought of posting it when asta opens up again, so here goes. Well. i have nothing more to say, just that Keep up the good work, to all the Moderators, and Admins of Xisto. We, or atleast I would make an effort to help this place in whatever way i can. I appriciate all the work and troubles you guys take for us. And a big THANK YOU to all you guys of Asta

 

Regards

Dhanesh.

[saxsux 0]

That's really interesting! I wonder if Opaque has a similar story to tell about Xisto....Hmmmmm...

[NAchi 0]

It's interesting indeed! That sure is a long history of Xisto.. very tough! Awesome work, Asta staffs!

[mayank 2]

Yeah it is really intersting story...but I think it wiould have been great if you've named it..i mean tittled it "About [Xisto]" because this is the story of Xisto and I think OpaQue must tell us about Xisto as well!

[finaldesign1405241487 0]

Yes, I remeber that, since Im with Xisto and Xisto, almost for 1 year now, I saw this post somewhere at Xisto forums before...

[infamousflame 0]

Yup, asta staff really deserve a round of thanks, nice post dhanesh

[iGuest 3]

I didn't realize that Xisto had such an intresting history behind it.Though I havn't used Xisto but by the looks of it,Xisto is an awsome web-host just like Xisto!

[amitbhandari 0]

Its really good to read that one dude...an encouraging story of success. I would say Xisto and Xisto a success after being recognized as one of the best free hosting providers with so much options...thanx for keeping up such a good resource on Internet and sharing it for free!!

[Chesso 0]

It's nice to see realistic story's like this, bit of a success story and obviously he and others went through quite a bit to get there too, certainly well deserved.I have been unsure of how Xisto and Xisto linked together so to speak since I first found my way here and this does make things a little clearer.Great work everyone involved an i'm sure everyone here is would be very proud of OpaQue for not packing it in.NOTE: Iv'e just scrolled right back up and noticed this is old, hope nobody minds.

[dhanesh1405241511 0]

Nope Chesso .. its all cool .. besides, where ever you are .. Xisto or Asta .. both forums are a place to be in. Maybe somethings you learn in Xisto u may not learn in asta .. vice versa ..

 

Glad that its almost 2 years for asta now .. and will become my 1 year soon .. (yippiee) .. hey umm ... do get like a asta cap or a coffee mug ... lol .. newayz .. Keep posting guys .. and thankx for making asta what it is today.

 

Regards

Dhanesh.

[austiniskoge 0]

That's amazing! All of that just to keep Trap 17 alive, and to eventually create Xisto.That is really an inspirational story.Keep up the good work, admins, moderators, and posters!

[blackfox 0]

It's good to see so much dedication.A great eye opener to see how much work it costs to create such a thing and more important, to maintain it.It shows the value of this piece of hard work, to see which obstacles you all have came over.Many people say this is a superb hostingsite and I fully agree with them.(It's fun to see people making "proud to be hosted by Xisto/Xisto" banners, it shows how good you are).Keep up the good work.

Edited June 1, 2007 by blackfox (see edit history)

[divinity 0]

Interesting, took me forever to read, but its a fine post.

[Atomic0 0]

An interesting and fantastic summary of how Xisto was born! After reading the post, I realised that it must have been hard work and dedication needed to setup Xisto and finally now Xisto, not only financially but physically and mentally.