In my years of experience in the hosting industry, I’ve seen a lot of fly-by-night operations. Some of the failures in the industry have turned out to be epic in their scale and their effects on their clients.

People shouldn’t have to deal with this anymore. One should only have to leave a host because they need to upgrade or because their business/Web site no longer exists. Today, I ask that every legitimate Web host sign the following code of ethical conduct and put it in a visible location on their Web site. If nothing else, to give clients additional peace of mind when deciding on their next host. (of course, you would change the names of everything below to match your company)

Code of Ethical Conduct

We, the staff at Thoughtbug Software, hereby promise that we:

1. Are a legitimate business, registered in the state and country where it resides, and will show such proof upon request.
2. Will not sell more than we are capable of supporting, either staff-wise or technology-wise. All client Web sites on a server should always perform at their best, regardless of the time of day.
3. Will maintain a minimum level of uptime consummate with the promised numbers in our Terms of Service, or provide adequate compensation in the event this does not take place.
4. Will respond promptly in emergencies and will respond to technical support questions within the maximum period of time listed in our Terms of Service.
5. Will perform daily backups of all client content and will keep such backups in a safe location in case restoration is required.
6. Have contingency plans in case of change of ownership, business termination or death/incapitation of management or owners. In such a case, all clients should be transitioned to alternate hosting and should not experience any downtime.

Please contact our support team if you have any questions regarding the Code of Ethical Conduct.

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BTW: Thoughtbug Software’s hosting service strives to meet the Code laid out above. We offer 99.9% uptime, daily backups (with retention for one week) and no overselling. If you need hosting for your Web site or business, come talk to us!