Slicehost

51 Comments

1. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM ayush

   I’d put myself up on the waitlist around a week back with a 1024 slice and 12 months payment. That had been showing up as 4 weeks wait for getting the slice.

   I’m confused about what exactly this announcement means to me… Does it mean that it will now take more than the original 4 weeks for me to get the slice? What would be a revised/realistic time frame?

2. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM PickledOnion

   ayush,

   One of the reasons we took this action was because the estimated wait times were wrong.

   They were too long and there was no way of adjusting the automated system to take into account the new back end roll out which should happen this week.

   It is my expectation that the wait time will be a lot less than the 4 weeks you were expecting.

   We can’t be more specific than that as the new roll out may experience a hiccup along the way.

   PickledOnion.

3. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM ayush

   Thanks for clarifying and good luck with the upgrade. Looking forward to getting sliced :)

4. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Lex

   Is there any chance that this new rollout is the one that will include the ability to provision extra IPs?

5. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Ryan

   Great news, I’m crossing my fingers that the wait will drop so I can finally get my hands on a slice of the action :P

6. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Dustin Weber

   Growing pains are such a bittersweet game aren’t they?

   Just be sure to stay ahead of the game guys. Major growth can signal a turning point for your company (either good or bad).

   You offer a unique service here and serve it up with a much-needed attitude that’s lacking in the industry (honesty), so I’m confident in your future success.

   Just be sure and stay on top of your game! I look forward to grabbing my slice as soon as it’s available.

   Meanwhile, don’t forget your families and friends when working those late hours (if applicable).

   Dustin Weber

   http://www.dustinweber.com

7. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM PickledOnion

   @Lex: Yes, multiple IPs will be available once the roll out is complete.

   @Ryan: The wait list will drop – there is no doubt about that. What we can’t do is give specific days/dates, etc.

   @Dustin: Thanks for the words and the advice :)

   PickledOnion

8. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Matt Shepherd

   Guys, you’ve got a great reputation and in my opinion, doing things the way you’re doing them (not overloading your servers for short term gain etc) is just right. I’m encouraged, not discouraged.

   Good luck with the upgrades & I’ll sit back and enjoy the wait!

9. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Ian

   Argh.

   Good luck … am anxiously awaiting my slice (as I have been for a month now).

10. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Al Brown

    Thanks for explaining the situation and good luck with the upgrades.

11. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Lex

    :D

12. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Vijayakumar K

    I have been waiting for a slice for more than 3 weeks.

    I decided to get a slice considering your excellent support forums, and honesty.

    I think you guys are doing an excellent job.

    Awaiting my nice slice :-)

13. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Luis Ventura

    Come on

    But I will keep waiting

14. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Inhibit

    Ah, thanks for the update. I’d been wondering why the wait time actually got longer when I checked back in a couple times :).

    Can’t wait to get up and running over there!

15. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM johan

    Good luck with the upgrade, I can’t wait for my slice (reserved in August) ...

16. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM don

    Like the last commenter, I’m also 2 months into what was (for me) originally a “2 weeks” wait. And I’m also excited to get a slice, finally. I’m hoping that you guys tweak the queue algorithm a little to fix whatever is allowing us to get bumped again and again.

17. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM rodrigo

    I want my slice!

18. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM oliodu

    I want my and your slice!

19. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM slicekiller

    Anyone else here thinking about starting a co. to compete with Slicehost while they get their shit together?

20. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM bit_disgruntled

    @slicekiller: vpslink.com now offer a Xen based product with very similar specs/pricing available as for slicehost.

    I signed up here a month ago for a 12 month prepayment – wait list said “less than a week”. After a week the wait list said “Two weeks”, two weeks later the wait list is removed.

    Although I’m keen to try the service I don’t know how much longer it makes sense for me to hold on. Are they ever going to be accepting new customers?

    I must admit I don’t fully understand the issues about raising capital. When enough people sign up at 12 months prepayment to fill a machine, take their money (I would have been happy to pay in advance) which should cover the initial investment in the machine. Buy it and get it set up within a week.

    Anyway I’ll give it until the middle/end of next week and then I think I’ll give vpslink a try. They also seem to have good reviews, although perhaps not as strong a community as here.

21. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM bit_disgruntled

    For others Europeans who might be frustrated with the wait xeneurope.co.uk looks like another reasonably competitive option (datacentre in the Netherlands) if you need something sooner rather than later.

22. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM slicekiller

    @bit_disgruntled: Thanks for passing along the info re: vpslink. I have already signed up with them for a one-month go. Perhaps by the time one month is up Slicehost will have stopped taking bong hits for long enough to start accepting customers’ money. Really, come on Slicehost! All these people are waiting to hand you their money—and you’re not prepared to take it?

23. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM slicematt

    We apologize to the waiters, even the disgruntled ones, but our priority right now is ensuring a smooth transition for our current customers to new software. For them its business as usual and they continue to add/expand slices while we work to stamp out bugs and squelch hiccups. Once this process is complete, we’ll open the doors back up and welcome new customers into the community.

24. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM crucfiedego

    Really guys, I understand where you’re coming from, but where else in the industry do you get this kind of honesty and transparency? I’ve played with offerings from most major companies, and my one mission critical client (my in-laws) is on its own slice. I appreciate the instant gratification that we all want, but understand that playing in this business the right way means no overbooking, and yes, turning away new cutomers if you can’t handle them.

25. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM bit_disgruntled

    I guess I find the ‘transparency’ kind of superficial. Ok they post on here and have a forum, but it doesn’t change the fact I’ve been waiting for more than a month with an increasing wait time – and now we’re told they’re not accepting any new customers apparently indefinitely (I haven’t seen any indication of when they might be). What I would call transparency would involve a bit more information - are there servers on order, when will they be arriving, how the new back end rollout is going, when it might be completed etc. etc.

26. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Leovenous

    I must admit this is very inconvenient, but looks like it’s worth holding out for.

    Thanks for keeping us informed.

    Take the hill.

27. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM chad

    Just remember the disgruntled ones are ones without slices, if that’s reassuring to anyone.

28. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Tired

    That slice shall be mine

29. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM also_tired

    You know, I’m tired, too. I’ve been hanging in there for a long time and the reality is that once I move over to someone else I’m probably not going to think much about Slicehost anymore. It’s just too much work going back and forth. I’m frustrated, too. Slicehost has such a great reputation and I’d like to be part of this community but I have customers who are waiting for me to get my act together. Somehow they’re not impressed by my being “open” and “transparent” when I say the hosting company I like won’t take customers until – well, I don’t know…

30. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM disgruntled_nonslicer

    Yeah… I’ve been waiting forever on getting my hands on a slice (and watched my place in line get pushed further and further back). I finally gave in, upped my reservation and saw that I would get one within the next few days only to find that the very next day – being on top of the wait list didn’t matter anymore. I guess I jumped the gun when I canceled my other host. Sigh… One day I will hopefully get a slice. (So please hurry? :P)

31. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM don

    Yes, I was frustrated, but I genuinely am asking you to fix the queue algorithm. The sign-up page suggests that priority is given to those with longer commitment times / larger orders. Fine. I expected that to mean that the cohorts who signed up with me would get priority. But what it seems to have meant is that people who signed up weeks or months after I did would keep getting placed in front of me each week until you happened to have a little excess capacity. Not a good system, guys.

    How about, after the queue order is set for a given week/cohort, leaving people in order and adding the next week’s group at the end? That would still “reward” longer commitments but would avoid people get perpetually bumped, week after week. If you weren’t changing your systems, I suspect I would never have gotten a slice. (My experience left me puzzled at the framing of your original post—that people’s wait-time estimates were inaccurately long. Mine seems to have been inaccurately short.)

    Thanks. I’m still waiting (not yet shopping around).

32. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Jeff

    An update would be nice. Any new news?

33. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM bit_disgruntled

    Yes please… Even now I would be happy to wait another week or two – but I really need something in place by then. I don’t really see any transparancy in place here – as far as I can tell from this post and the lack of updates you’ve stopped taking all new customers indefinitely.

    I appreciate its hard to tell exactly when a specific slice will be ready, but you must be able to give an estimate, at least to the week. For me this is the worst part – I could be waiting another three months for all I know.

    So I have some specific questions: - are you taking new customers? - if not, when do you expect to start (to the nearest week) - given the current queue length, when do you expect everyone to have been processed?

    I think if you can answer this honestly it will give us an idea of the state you’re in and whether its worth sticking around.

34. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM SliceCraver

    I have nothing to add to what’s already been said, but it’s worth saying it again. I’ve been waiting for over 3 weeks for my slice, altough I was happy to pay 12 months in advance. I’m willing to wait some more, but I need to know if it’s coming in a few days/weeks, or somewhere in 2008.

    Face it, the upgrade was last week, and now we’re halfway through the next one. Time to put your cards on the table and let us know what’s happening if you expect us to practice some more patience.

35. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM snapplez

    i agree with everything that has been said here. if slicehost’s philosophy is honesty and transparency, then there should be more information as to what is happening.

    like so many before me, i am willing to wait a little more—but not much longer.

    is slicehost a victim of it’s success? has it grown too quickly and is now collapsing under the strain? i hope not—but being kept in the dark for so long doesn’t build my confidence.

    if there is some blog/site with active updates and status—can someone post it here.

36. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM slicematt

    We have deployed pieces of the new backend and are working on migrating the old data into the new applications.

    Guys – it’s been a little over a week since this post. As it states above, we are not sending out slice invitations because our priority, as always, is current customers. Everything from standard daily ops to overhauling the backend, is done with our customers’ well being in mind.

    We’re not trying to string anyone along with the waitlist and certainly understand if you cannot wait. Rest assured, when we resume the invite process, we’ll let everyone know. Until then, we are grateful for those waiting and the enthusiastic emails and chats.

37. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM also_tired

    So, in other words, no time frame and no estimate. Not even a “this month” or “this year”. Nothing. Maybe I’m a little dense, but I don’t see how that’s “open”. I don’t see how that’s “transparent”. It do see one thing – Slicehost doesn’t really care if I’m a customer or not. I see that very clearly. It’s frustrating because I’d like to be supportive and responsive to my customers but my hands are tied by the web hosting companies. I wish I could find one that actually practices what Slicehost preaches…

38. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Callahad

    Ahh, Slicehost. The Wii of webhosting….

39. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM crucifiedego

    Funny, callahad. Very Funny

    Goes off to play wii sports while he waits for php to compile on his slice

40. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Slice Hoper

    Slicematt : “Guys – it’s been a little over a week since this post.”

    A week is a long time on the internet.

    Looking forward to getting my slice though.

41. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Jean-Luc

    You waited so long and I do not know what I would be thinking if I where you. But keep in mind that they do a more than perfect job for there actual clients! I’m sure that they do there best to give a perfect service for actual and new clients as well.

    Good luke all.

42. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Josh

    Wii? What’s Wii??

    Back to the coding cave…

43. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM David Preece

    Not that you guys really need any more pressure right now, but I have an email here from July 10th saying I’m three weeks off the head of the queue. So that’s, like, more than three months ago…

44. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM wlai

    i’m waiting for a slice, and i’m mad that i can’t get one right now, with no ETA.

    But, I respect your decision to service the existing customer first, and make people wait even as the pressure builds, and not fall into the cycle of doom of taking money and overselling capacity.

    The moment you guys “sell out” is probably the moment I’d remove myself from the wait list.

45. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM PickledOnion

    New announcement:

    New SliceManager on Monday

    PickledOnion.

46. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM rupert

    wooohoooo – nice one guys :)

47. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM GW

    Make my reservion last it said “Current Estimate: About 8 weeks” and now “Current Estimate: About 9 weeks” that is awsome it adds to the drama.

    Bie I am off to kill, and vote republican.

48. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Leovenous

    7 weeks into it, says 5 weeks to go, like it did last week. I’m really not sure how long I can hold on.

    Glad you’re expanding and all that but the timing is very rough for me.

49. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Sverre Johansen

    I ordered my slice the 20th of September, and the queue still says 5 weeks. Is there any progress on handling new customers?

    How much longer do I have to wait?

50. March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Sverre Johansen

    I just got my slice, and based on my first impression it was well worth the wait.

51. April 24th, 2008 at 06:41 PM Happy Camper

    SliceHost is well worth the wait.

    This is the absolute best hosting experience I’ve ever had.

    All you impatient disgruntled types, feel free to go elsewhere… More bandwidth for me.

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