Tag Archives: random

Corralling New Gators

One of the great things about the web-hosting industry is the rather fortunate circumstance of virtually constant growth.  More and more people are taking their lives or businesses online every day.  Additionally, those already online are often ever-expanding their online presence.  A direct result of that is the necessity for us, as one of the leading providers of web hosting, to locate and hire more and more qualified people to support all of the above.  This is certainly a great opportunity, but it can also be somewhat problematic. Although it would be great if a never-ending stream of qualified individuals would parade through our office doors each day, that simply isn’t the reality.  We have a recruiting department which endeavors to locate people with the correct skills to join us here at The Gator in a variety of available positions.  We often need to dispatch a highly-trained SWAT team of sorts from the swamp here out into the real world in hopes of returning to the fold with some new potential Gators. Continue reading

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Office Shenanigans

It is true that, from time to time, a fair amount of shenanigans can take place in any given HostGator office. We work hard and we play hard; we wouldn’t have it any other way. Continue reading

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An Affiliation Situation

The aim of our blog is certainly not to spam you with our products, services or promotions.  These things may pop up from time to time, but we like to think of our blog as more of a medium for entertaining ourselves, our Customers and anyone else who happens to come across this page.  However, in order to share something with you in the proper context, it seems apt to talk a little bit about our Affiliate program, and perhaps share a secret that some Affiliates might not want the non-affiliated knowing. Essentially, what our Affiliate program does is to pay individuals for referring business to us.  You can see more details and full information here .  As an example, it is likely that you see HostGator ads in various places around the internet.  These are not ads placed by HostGator, but rather by our Affiliates.  Once you click on these ads and sign up for hosting, the given Affiliate is then compensated.  Another way it works is that an Affiliate can create a specific coupon code, then they are compensated for any qualifying account signed up with via the given coupon code. One situation that individuals may use (or abuse) affiliate programs would be various sites where you see, for example, a ranking of the “Top 10 Hosting Providers.”  Now, let’s say just hypothetically that they aren’t ranking the services provided using any valid metrics or even their own experiences, but rather the top-ranked host on the list is actually the one with the largest Affiliate payout, and the person who is doing the ranking is an Affiliate for all 10 providers ranked.  See how that would be a win-win for them?  You click on any host they rank and sign up for hosting, and they get paid for it.  Now, disregard that example as being hypothetical, because that’s basically the truth for the vast majority of those type of sites Continue reading

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Office Art

We recently shared with you some art that had been sent to us by our beloved Customers .  HostGator employees have also been known to create some works of art around the offices as well… sometimes when no one else is looking.  Before we begin our actual Gator-created art tour, I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you  our Lego sign that is currently displayed in our Houston office.  The sign was created by well-known artist Nathan Sawaya .  I don’t know if the picture does it justice, but it’s a truly impressive piece of Lego craftsmanship:   Back in 2009, this was created by one of our more artistically-inclined Chat Agents and placed near one of the Supervisor stations in the Houston office.  It remains there to this day, ever-present to remind us to always be doing the needful:   The story of our next piece is somewhat shrouded in mystery.  It began, innocently enough, with a recycling can in the Austin office.  A few individuals had apparently not noticed that it was labeled for recycling and thus deposited their refuse into that particular receptacle.  In order to facilitate a more organized recycling vs. trash situation, some good Samaritan taped the “This Is Not A Trash Can” sign above the can.  Shortly thereafter, an unknown assailant attached the “You’re right.  It’s a wall” sign.  I do want to take the time to point out the grammatically correct use of “you’re” as opposed to “your” that was exercised there.  It’s important to use proper grammar when trolling, as in life.  Speaking of trolling, the wall was ultimately graced with the internet-famous, and now iconic, Trollface.  As you can see in the picture below, this simple reminder to not litter in the recycle can has blossomed into a community work of art:   The next exhibit in our little showcase here comes from the IT Department in the Houston office.  No one seems to know the actual origins of this piece, though it is speculated that this work of art was installed directly from the Internet, somehow.  It contains a vast collection of characters from current and past memes.  Trollface makes yet another appearance, as does Pokerface and Rageface… there’s even a couple that cannot be named in order to maintain the PG13 rating of our blog.  Though you can certainly test your Internet meme savvy-ness by how many you can name:   We travel back to our Austin office for these final two works of art, both of the post-it note variety.  The first is apparently the results of a Supervisor station being left unattended for too long; likely the Supervisor in question left for lunch and returned to, well, this:   As to be expected, we certainly saved the best piece for last.  If you happen to not know what Nyan Cat is, on one hand you might be able to consider yourself fortunate, but on the other hand this next work of art will then make about as much sense to you as a hybrid cat/pop-tart that travels throughout the universe on a rainbow.  If you’re unfamiliar (and feeling brave), you may want to take a moment to experience this YouTube video (presently over 73 Million views) before we proceed, so that you can fully appreciate the artistic merit of the final piece of our tour.  Apparently, some of our Austin Gators got their hands on a pad or two of colored Post-It notes and, well, this happened:   Thank you very much for taking our quick tour.  Please exit through the gift shop.  Feel free to tell your friends about our exhibit, as we are open 24 hours a day! Continue reading

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Malware Monday

If you are reading this on the day it was posted (Monday, July 9th, 2012), then you are likely not a victim of Malware Monday .  Far from being as feared as something like the dreaded Y2K situation, Malware Monday revolves around a piece of malicious software known as DNSChanger and the efforts involved in the mitigation and ultimate ridding of this specific piece of malware. Continue reading

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