Member OP
The original gap: proof of page state at transaction moment. Still unsolved. Everything else is mitigation.
I'm going to try the Playwright + OBS combo that hostsxbi7 described. Will report back if I can automate it cleanly.
Please do. My script is messy, held together with asyncio and hope. A cleaner version would help.
One addition: I now capture the HTTP headers of the confirmation page. X-Cache, server identifiers, anything that ties the response to a specific time and infrastructure. Technical evidence that the transaction completed through their systems.
Probably overkill. I enjoy overkill.
Trust No One. Port 22 open to the world? Bold strategy. Documenting hosting promises? Also bold, also necessary.
I capture TLS certificate details at purchase time. Notary transparency logs mean the certificate is timestamped by a third party. Another link in the chain.
Paranoid? Yes. Effective? Jury's still out. Literally, if it ever gets that far.
Member
Perth. Reads more than posts. This thread is why I read.
The gap between "should document" and "do document" is where most of us live. The thread doesn't solve it. It just makes the gap visible.
Sometimes visibility is enough.
Member
São Paulo here. Café e cache invalidation, os dois maiores problemas. Add "documenting hosting promises" to the list.
I use Git for everything. Hosting docs in a private repo. Commits timestamped, immutable history. Not for legal weight, for personal organization.
Git: the solution to problems that aren't version control, applied anyway.
Member
Saudades do Real host barato. I miss when cheap hosting was simple. No documentation needed because the risk was the price itself.
Now we document to protect against documentation. Circular.
New Jersey. I don't start drama. I bring snacks.
And I bring this: I asked my credit card company what they need for a dispute. They said "merchant description, date, amount, and your explanation." That's it. No screenshots, no archives, no monitoring logs.
The documentation theater in this thread may exceed actual requirements.
Member
For credit cards, maybe. For PayPal, they want more. For actual court, much more. For your own sanity, somewhere in between.
I run CS 1.6 servers since 2003. I've seen hosting evolve from "friend with a box" to "corporate entity with TOS." The documentation needs evolved too.
2003: handshake. 2024: cryptographic timestamps. Progress?
Member
Detroit. Secondhand hardware and stubbornness. I host most things myself now. The documentation problem becomes a backup problem, which I understand better.
For the few things I still buy: I pay yearly, document once, forget until renewal. The yearly cycle limits exposure.
Yearly cycle limits exposure but increases renewal shock. I've had providers double prices at renewal, counting on inertia. My calendar reminders catch this, but many people just pay.
Documentation should include renewal price promise, not just initial.
