Off topic but relevant: Proxmox ToS for their enterprise repo requires subscription for production use. The no-subscription repo works fine, but the ToS distinction is "evaluation only." Everybody ignores it. Everybody.
Back to host ToS: does anyone actually know what DigitalOcean's "reasonable use" means for CPU? I've never found a number.
Glasgow here, wet and cold, servers love it. DigitalOcean suspended a client's droplet for "crypto mining" that was actually a build server. Took 6 hours to restore. Their "reasonable use" is whatever triggers their fraud algorithm, not the ToS.
Same pattern: vague clause, automated enforcement, human review only after damage.
This is the business model. Automate the punishment, manual the appeals. Most people don't appeal, they just pay the ransom or leave.
I stayed with Linode (Akamai now) through the price hike because their ToS has explicit CPU percentages for each plan. 100% of one core baseline, burst to 200% for 5 minutes. Clear. Predictable.
Linode's numbers are good but their network ToS changed post-Akamai. "Excessive bandwidth" now defined as top 5% of users per region. So the limit moves as the userbase changes. You can't know it in advance.
I moved to Hetzner for this reason. Their limits are fixed and published. German specificity.
This is worse than no definition. At least with no definition you know you're gambling. With moving percentile you're competing against other users without knowing you're in a race.
RAID is not backup, and "unmetered" is not unmetered. I mirror my mirrors and I screenshot my ToS. Casablanca heat is worse than Phoenix, Ray, try me.
Following this thread. Just got a "fair use warning" from my host, no numbers given. Asked support, got a link to the ToS. The ToS says "fair use determined at provider's discretion."
What do I even do with that? It's not information. It's a threat dressed as a contract.
Exactly. The semicolon strikes again. "Fair use; determined at provider's discretion." The semicolon makes it a definition, not a limitation on them. Learned this from a contract lawyer in Manchester over a pint.
My advice: ask for the specific metric before you pay. If they can't give it, don't buy. I did this with Hostinger, they couldn't answer, I walked.
