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Not everybody in the world identifies as a "guy" and HelioHost is inclusive in their communications to users. There are many free ways to gain an education on how to use non-exclusionary language when addressing a group of people and I often recommend https://heyguys.cc as a good starting point for individual self-learning. HelioHost users have the ability to create manual account backups, schedule automated account backups, download account backups, and even send the backups to an alternate storage location. There is a free Account Backups tutorial available that delivers step-by-step instructions that users can take to ensure the redundancy of their data. People who invest time and effort into creating websites, both for personal and business use, understandably want to take steps to ensure the safety and security of their own digital assets. Plesk's built-in backups functionality provides account owners with a quick and easy way to backup their data. The free Wiki tutorial also offers steps on how to seek out further free assistance for users who need a little more help making backups of their files. As covered in the recent News section posts there have been several challenges to overcome with the hosting servers lately. No one can create a HelioHost account before first indicating that they have read the Terms of Service which mentions that users are responsible for backing up their own data. We have many users who understood their responsibility and took the quick and easy steps needed to make backups of their sites. Those backups have enabled them to make alternate arrangements for their websites in order to minimize the disruption to their personal or business digital assets. Despite it not being HelioHost's responsibility to backup user data, they have indeed been able to provide secure backups of user data to many accounts. This fact does not remove the requirement for account owners to understand the Terms of Service they agreed to prior to account creation and to play an active role in the protection of their own data. It does indeed take an a great deal of technical skill and time and money to maintain a webhosting service. The fact that HelioHost staff do it all on an entirely volunteer basis so they can help offer web hosting services for free is just incredible. We have an amazing community that's been created here, and the way users come together to help each other out with personal project coding issues, or offering technical advice, or even just chatting in the off-topic Discord channel has helped to make HelioHost an amazing place to belong to. For users who have spare cash, donations are gratefully accepted and it's been heartwarming to see how many folks have sent in some of their spare change as a show of support to the staff who have been working tirelessly to carry out repairs during these recent server challenges. Rumours abound everywhere in life, not just on the internet. It's essential to develop basic critical thinking skills as these can help us determine what information is valid and worth believing or not. Krydos has detailed the lack of sleep and impact to his own personal life because of all the extra time he has spent, on a volunteer basis, to try to resolve the recent server issues. A hosting service that didn't respect its users wouldn't work tirelessly at great personal expense to try to get things back up and running as quickly as possible — they'd probably just shut off the free services, like so many other companies have done that no longer offer free web hosting services like HelioHost does. The News section has multiple posts detailing what happened to cause server issues, and the steps being taken to restore service, so this remains the best place to check if you would like to know more about what happened in the first place. HelioHost is not affiliated with Google, so cannot comment on what action the Google paid employees may or may not have undertaken to resolve that particular issue. Your point underlines the importance of users having a responsibility to safeguard their own data, however. For example, I use several password keeper services, but I am aware that unexpected outages can happen, so when data is important to me, I make a few copies of it. In a lot of cases, it only takes a few mouse clicks to backup my data. So then, if one service that I use has technical issues, I still have a way to access my important files. Concern about data backups is valid and I would encourage you to use the free guidance available about Account Backups to protect your data. I note you've already had an account suspension for a Terms of Service violation for making duplicate accounts, which means you've probably read the Terms of Service more often than some of our other users who only read them once, created their account, and then never broke the rules. HelioHost has indeed put in maximum effort to restore all the user accounts they can, even though it is not their responsibility to do so. I invite you to make a minimum effort to take responsibility for your own data, as you indicated your understanding of when you agreed to the Terms of Service upon account creation. You are right to be concerned about your own data files, both on this service as well as in the Google issue you brought up, or elsewhere online. To bring yourself peace of mind, it sounds like it'd be worth making a few mouse clicks to back up your important account files for safekeeping. I don't have the final say on what posts get deleted, but it's good life advice in general to never post anything online that you later would not want to be associated with your name or profile or reputation. Personally I hope your post stays up, since this reply contains advice on how to mitigate against the data loss concerns you mentioned. It's also a testament to the wonderful HelioHost community that threads like this are so rare. So many in our community have stepped up to help each other out, and help HelioHost out, with spontaneous donations, and words of support and encouragement via the multiple communication channels offered. In life, no single service can please all of the people all of the time. But in this one-in-a-million community that's come together around free web hosting services, HelioHost has done a great job at pleasing most of the people most of the time, and that's an amazing achievement. None of it would be possible without the continued efforts of our dedicated volunteers and donors, and the users who have been so ready to rally in support during the recent server issues experienced. All of HelioHost staff members are unpaid volunteers, all the way up to and including the root admins. You mentioned being a team lead in real life so you will likely have some understanding of issue escalation paths. This is why you will see some posts get escalated from Moderators up to the Root Admins who have advanced account access permissions. This is a common process flow in many industries. HelioHost has a wide range of volunteers, so it doesn't matter about full time jobs or full time school or whether someone is their own boss or not. It takes both hard and soft skills and a willingness to donate time and effort to contribute to HelioHost but for those of us who are willing to make a genuine effort to try and learn how to help out, it's incredibly rewarding. For readers of this thread who wish they could help but aren't sure how to start, here is some insight on how I became a Moderator: I began as an end user of the service, and then took part in the Discord channel. Over time, I noticed there were common user questions that came up pretty often. Since HelioHost is transparent and welcoming in their community-run approach to offering free web hosting, I started to answer questions from other users with tips I had learned about how to use Plesk. This enabled the root admins to work on more complex issues, since I could answer questions that did not require any special admin access to answer. Eventually, I was offered a promotion to Helper, which I accepted since it was a pretty cool recognition of my contributions to our community. Over time, as I learned even more about the free web hosting service HelioHost offers, and how to adjust settings and fix common account issues (like password resets, explaining to users how they can make their own account file backups, etc.), I was offered a promotion to Moderator, which I accepted. This enabled me the ability to help out even more with admin issues, like carrying account resets for users, or checking account status for the specific reason a user's account may have been suspended for breaking the Terms of Service. One final tip for readers wondering how they can help: HelioHost switched to Plesk away from cPanel all the way back in 2021, so it's also super useful to keep up to date with the latest server news. That way, when you offer comments and insight about how to use our free web hosting service, the guidance you offer is current and relevant to the systems being used. None of the HelioHost staff ever needed to beg or request to join the team. Earning promotions by helping others is explained above, so hopefully that clarifies for you what helping others means. No one needs to beg or ask to help others. It's entirely possible to just start helping people. As freely as you can pick up litter in real life, or return your shopping trolley back in the right place without anyone needing to ask you to do it, you are absolutely free to help others right now. As you move around the forum, if you encounter a question from another user that you know the answer to, you are absolutely encouraged to donate your time to help them out by answering their questions, or helping them troubleshoot any account or coding issues. HelioHost's free web hosting service tech support is done on an entirely volunteer basis, and helping each other out when we get stuck is an essential part of what being community-driven really means. The final cPanel issues happened in 2021 when users were moved to Plesk, so I can't guess the age of the review you mention. Sometimes, users of any service prefer to leave negative reviews and call people names instead of making any effort to resolve their issues. When I am happy with a service I don't tend to leave reviews because I am busy using and enjoying that service. When I have problems with a service and I don't just want to throw insults but I actually want my issues resolved, I reach out to the relevant support staff. For any readers of this thread who may encounter account issues they're not sure how to get fixed: HelioHost offers free technical support and guidance via this forum, Discord, email, and other ways listed on the About Us page. We have users who are willing and able to help each other out, as well as a team of volunteer staff who are happy to donate their time and skills to help you troubleshoot any account or coding problems you may be having. For anyone reading this thread who does not identify as a "guy" or a "man" and who would like to help out, I can personally vouch that every single one of the current HelioHost volunteer staff members have been welcoming, inclusive, and thoughtful in behavior as well in the language they use. HelioHost's free web hosting service is a global community and that means we are open to everyone who is willing to follow the few reasonable rules in place. No matter who you are or how you identify, we are happy to have you as part of our community! If you like learning new things and have some free time, we'd love to see some more people helping out. I've added some guidance above about how you can get started, but definitely feel free to reach out if you have questions. Everyone is welcome here, and that's a big part of what makes HelioHost such a great community to belong to.

Byron is still around, but doesn't help out on the forums anymore because he's too busy to keep up with all the changes. I just talked to him a couple days ago, and he's doing great. He believes in this non-profit organization so much that he's set up a recurring donation of $10 per month to help us out. Ashoat is still around. I just talked to him the other day too. He runs all of our bank accounts, and helps keep track of the money. He's also the chairman of the board so he's in charge of running the board meetings. Ashoat is also our main in-person tech that installs all the new servers, and handles all the in-person hardware stuff. Just because they don't post on the forum doesn't mean they died or anything. The funny thing about volunteers is they don't have to work if they don't want to. They help out ...... voluntarily.