New Clueless Users?

I have only been on this site for a month or two, but recently I have noticed an influx of new users that are clueless. I'm not trying to offend anyone but why are there so many people using direct admin for their VPS/Dedicated servers that have absolutely no clue what they are doing?

Just wondering as I have never seen this on other control panel sites, I'm not saying it's such a bad thing, but it seems very out of the norm for so many people to be so inexperienced with linux and trying to run a dedicated server from the ground up.

It's the same on the cPanel and Plesk forums. Unfortunately people think maintaining a server is easy and don't give any thought to what might happen if they leave it completely neglected.

I haven't been on plesk's forum in a long time and cpanel only a little bit lately... maybe it's because I'm spending more time here trying to learns all the ins and outs of DA that I have noticed this.

I agree though, and there is going to be (if not already) a large amount of servers out there running that can and will be taken over and compromised due to lack of skill or knowledge of proper setup and maintenance.

Thats because...

You can get rich running a web hosting company and just sit back and watch the money come in!!
This is the main reason my company will NEVER offer reseller accounts!
You really do need a wide degree of skills to keep things going. Unfortunately like many other businesses on the internet, bookmark the users site and click on it in a year... I bet they will not be live.

This is the main reason my company will NEVER offer reseller accounts!

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I have to disagree with this statement. The majority of my business is from resellers. Most of them are very talented. You are missing out on a H-U-G-E market share by not offering reseller accounts.

i had trouble only because im so used to cpanel, directadmin is a total new language for me! lol

What language does Cpanel use?


Also since resellers are not running the server then it really does not apply to this thread. The thread is about new clueless people running whole servers with no clue which is very dangerous. A reseller who is clueless at worst will give you a lot of support calls.

If you don't like resellers then that is fine too. But the thread is about clueless server admins.

Martyn Day said:

i had trouble only because im so used to cpanel, directadmin is a total new language for me! lol

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You were not one that came to mind lol you actually did listen and knew how to follow along lol

We were all clueless user's at on time or another.
Switch to a new panel that you have never used if you need a reminder.

I wasn't referring to learing a panel, I was referring to running a server or hosting company in general without basic knowledge of linux, dns, e-mail, ftp, ssh, etc......

OK who is the idiot???

This thread referred to clueless people, That as far as I am concerned refers to someone that rents a server or virtual server.
It also refers to people that have NO business in the web hosting business....
Therefore, someone that a few months earlier was an unhappy godaddy reseller customer is the kind of thing I was referring to.
I stated I did not want to offer this service because my market is the end small business user, and having a bunch of $20 a month resellers that offer exactly what I am at the lowest price with "unlimited everything" does not make sense... especially when I have to provide all the support any way!
THIS RESELLER COMMENT was pertinent.... without this, there would NOT be even 1/4 the clueless people here!!!... They would be our clients instead.
I too find that there are too many "rats" in this maze and nothing to act as a "check" to keep out the weak.

jdlitson said:

We were all clueless user's at on time or another.
Switch to a new panel that you have never used if you need a reminder.

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We are not talking about simple switching to a new control panel.

What we are talking about is like someone who has never driven a car being allowed to buy or rent a car and go out onto the open highway with everybody else. Needless to say he is going to be a danger to himself and others. He should first learn how to drive a car off of the general public roads on some private property somewhere so that any damage he causes will be limited.

Someone who has never administered a server before and buys or rents a dedicated server and is allowed to be on the open internet is both a danger to himself and others. He should first learn to operate a server off of the internet and on a private network so that any damage he causes will be limited.

Yes we have all been clueless at one time. But only the stupid ones try to learn on the public internet.

Nexxterra: I can appreciate that you do not want one of your own resellers competing with you and providing support for them. However that does not mean they are clueless. Unless we are at the top we are all resellers for somebody in this business. Whether you want resellers or not is your business and business plan and I am not one to judge that. However the OP specifically mentioned people who have VPS's and dedicated servers. If you want to include resellers in your own thread then that is fine. But I don't believe you should hijack this thread and include other things that the OP did not intend.

R1Lover: What are your feelings about resellers? Do you include them in your original post? I thought the point was about clueless people running an insecure server being dangerous. People who only have hosting reseller accounts cannot do that so I believed they should not be included. However this is your thread as far as I am concerned.

I don't offer reselling because I limit my customers to a very small group. 75% of my customers are managed dedicated server customers. I do offer semi dedicated shared hosting as well, but these are also customers I manage there complete site for as well. This allows me to monitor and understand each site and it's needs so I can ensure 100% performance and basically 100% uptime as I don't have customers running crazy scripts or programs causing harm to the server load.

There is a place for resellers but it's on a typical shared hosting environment imo. One that will have issues from time to time and one that needs support 24/7 as well. At this point for me it's not something I'm interested in... but I do believe the noobs should be resellers on shared hosting rather then jump off the diving board without knowing how to swim. (After all that's how I got started many years back as well)

It's fairly cheap or free even to use an old box at your home and install linux to play and test.... I wish more would do so.

Nexxterra.com said:

You can get rich running a web hosting company and just sit back and watch the money come in!!

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I'm going to remember you said that .

Jeff

Sarcasm....

Floyd
Do you think that the servers/VPS that the people get through here are not through a reseller that supply the DA panel and the basic configuration???
You have wasted way more of this thread with your useless bitching about my post and added nothing useful.
But any reply you have ever made to a post of mine was totally useless!!!
MY POINT.... because you can not read between the lines is if you as a company offer packages or services that enable someone who barely can install windows to get into the hosting business, you are part of the problem...
If everyone can do something it cheapens the quality, price and service level for the industry....
So yes, I was on topic and answering his question.... its too f%$#^%g easy to get into this business, sorry you could not comprehend that from my post.
I will use smaller, direct to the point posts in the future!
And maybe you can talk about Direct Admin and not ME!

Jeff
Hopefully you will still be around when it happens!
My goal to be filthy rich by age 29 has passed a bit....
But soon.... very soon!

Do you think that the servers/VPS that the people get through here are not through a reseller that supply the DA panel and the basic configuration???

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They may be reselling DirectAdmin if its a owned license. And they may be reselling other services such as VPS/dedicated servers.

But on this forum we normally think of reseller we think of the way it is set up in DirectAdmin which does not give a client access to administer the server and make it insecure.

MY POINT.... because you can not read between the lines is if you as a company offer packages or services that enable someone who barely can install windows to get into the hosting business, you are part of the problem.

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I totally agree with you. But that is not a reseller account. Here is a page which shows you what resellers are able to do http://reseller.site-helper.com/

The only thing we seem to disagree on is the definition of a reseller. So I don't know why you are turning this into some kind of argument. I agree with everything you have ever said in this thread except on what a reseller is. I don't know what I have said that has made you so angry.

Clueless in Dallas

I'm one of those clueless users. Seems, once I made one website for a fellow author, I was asked to make more, and asked about hosting, and so on, until it behooved me to become a "reseller" with Dixiesys. I am a newbie at this and don't understand a lot, but I'm slowly getting more clients and having to learn more. I'm often very lost LOL. Thanks to all helpers out there, esp the customer service peeps who put up with me . So it wasn't started intentionally, but something that I stumbbled into and fund a niche for. I can use all thee help I can get Alley

alleypat: You are not one of the clueless users we are talking about since you do not administer your own server or VPS. I am sure you just have a reseller account on a shared server.

I think it's time to close this thread; if there are specific issues or questions which need to be addressed, let's please do that on either a specific pre-exisitng thread, or a new thread devoted to that specific issue or questions.

And let's try to define a reseller the way DirectAdmin does, in discussions on this forum, which afterall, is (or should be) a DirectAdmin-specific forum.

To close of the thread, here's my take on the first two posts:

Yes, lots of people become VPS users and/or Dedicated Server users, as they outgrow reseller accounts or need more flexibility. My guess is that maybe we providers are helping sell that mistake, because mistake it may very well be.

Thanks all!

Jeff