Member
Oui, c'est ça. But in Lyon we have a saying: "le poisson pourri d'abord par la tête." The transparency, it is the head. If the head is clean, maybe the body follows.
I self-host since 2008. Would I pay someone to show me their books? Jamais. But I am not normal.
Member
Toronto perspective: we looked at this for our SaaS. The problem is not showing costs. The problem is costs change.
Your upstream bandwidth deal expires. IPv4 prices go up 15% because ARIN (https://www.arin.net). The datacenter hikes power rates. Suddenly your pretty breakdown is wrong and customers are angry you "lied."
Transparency is a commitment to explaining variance. Most hosts can't even explain downtime.
Member OP
This is the thing though. I don't need best cost. I need "not getting surprised by a renewal that tripled because they needed to juice EBITDA before a sale."
The spreadsheet is a peace-of-mind thing. Like a restaurant with an open kitchen.
Member
In Latvia we have host that published costs for three months. Then their colocation provider raised price. They tried to explain. Customers called them liars in reviews.
Transparency is trap. Better to be cheap and quiet.
Member
Bon, you are French, this is the same thing.
For me, the self-hosting, it is the transparency. I see the cost, I am the cost. But for my cousin who has the bakery in Lyon? He does not want to see the spreadsheet. He wants the website for the croissants to load.
Member
20 years. I've seen this movie.
Phase 1: "We're different."
Phase 2: "Look at our costs."
Phase 3: "We're profitable!"
Phase 4: "We're excited to announce..."
Phase 5: Prices up 40%, "enhanced support experience," and some VP of Synergy sends the renewal notice.
The transparency is just Phase 1 with extra steps.
Estonian here. We have e-Residency and X-Road and all this digital trust infrastructure. But my host? I know nothing.
Would transparency help? Maybe. But I chose them because they answer tickets at 3 AM. That is my metric.
Member
This. This is the actual use case. Not ideology. Fear management.
The open kitchen thing is good. I want to see the rats before I order.
Member
But cheap and quiet is also trap! My first host was cheap and quiet. Then they were quiet and gone. No tweet, no email. Just 404.
At least with transparency you see the knife coming.
Member
--- revised position
--- transparency without portability = captivity
--- the correct response to "here are our costs" is "here is my export button"
--- poll update: 58% → 61% yes, but only with monthly terms
--- annual contract with transparent host = same risk, prettier graph
