Wikipedia

[stephen_ex-f2s]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom2surf

I noticed there wasn't one. I'm not too good with dates, and I've never edited before so it's very sparse and probably a bit wrong too.

I think I've done enough to get everyone started, so feel free to get stuck in.

[TBL]

"freedom2surf developed a reputation for supplying services that were well regarded but also undercut the majority of their competitors."

Going well so far...

"This continued until October 18th, 2005, when freedom2surf and its 47,000 broadband customer were bought by Pipex Communications."

Fantastic. But surely it contravines Wiki's neutrality guidelines?

[Justin]

Heh, there will be a lot more there later, If I get chance!

[stephen_ex-f2s]

TBL: Yeah probably. I didn't mean it to come across like that though.

The rest is looking good now though. I want to add the logo but there's all this crappy copyright stuff that put me off. They seem really strict on it.

[Justin]

Pretty much every other ISP has the logo up so I added it. I will probbably think of some more to add later!

[acidtechno]

ah yeah, this is great stuff, looking better now that some more has been added, I saw just Stephens starter entry earlier and yeah, it did come across like that to me, I thought it was funny.. depended how you looked at it.

and I am glad to see the freedom2support link there, this will nicely help exposure, an extra result in search engines and info hunters using wikipedia.

[stephen_ex-f2s]

Well nice to know it amused you all.

Seriously though, there was no anti-Pipex sentiment intended otherwise I would have been much more creative.

I might add some bits about Datastream soon, and I think there needs to be more about product launches because the original £22.50 Pure IP caused quite a stir. And there are even articles on the BBC website with Wanadoo producing rhetoric about some of the products.

[RND]

related links should be "External Links" and freedom2surf on intro para needs a capital. Perhaps have a list of products too.

[Justin]

I see your point, but the official, trademarked name is actually freedom2surf.

A bit of Wires Only product stuff has been added. If anybody finds it helpful, I have a copy of pretty much every press release f2s have ever made back since 2000 somewhere, so if you think it might be a good idea to link to some of these, to go with the content I'll stick them up on a page, as a lot of them are not on f2s.net now.

I remember the Wanadoo stuff. Something about f2s being too small and would soon go bust?!

[RND]

The name of the links section should be changed though. Related links refers to other links on the wikipedia site, external links refers to links offsite.

[stephen_ex-f2s]

Originally Posted by Justin

I remember the Wanadoo stuff. Something about f2s being too small and would soon go bust?!

They said the prices weren't sustainable and would a company like f2s still be around tomorrow. What they failed to realise at the time was that f2s had been going longer than they had, and that their own prices would eventually drop to the same.

I think the BBC only quoted them because they needed to have a balanced output to protect their journalistic integrity. I don't think anyone actually ever takes Freeserve/Wanawho/Orange seriously.

</not bitter>

[Justin]

Found the thread now:
http://www.freedom2support.net/forum...hlight=wanadoo

I have just added the full date of formation of f2s to it instead of just 1997.

Orange have gone downhill as a mobile provider since Wanadoo and they merged.

[keith_thfc]

Originally Posted by Justin

Orange have gone downhill as a mobile provider since Wanadoo and they merged.

Which was always going to happen given the reputation freeserve/wanadoo had.

[akita_inu]

Originally Posted by stephen_ex-f2s

Well nice to know it amused you all.

Seriously though, there was no anti-Pipex sentiment intended otherwise I would have been much more creative.

I might add some bits about Datastream soon, and I think there needs to be more about product launches because the original £22.50 Pure IP caused quite a stir. And there are even articles on the BBC website with Wanadoo producing rhetoric about some of the products.

.... I felt really nostalgic when I read it .... it was good being a David amongst the Goliaths ... !!

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

freedom2surf was conceived in 1997 by Chris Panayis and Nick Panayis, and originally started by offering free webspace to its customers, in December this was dropped with all existing free hosters given a deadline of February before any accounts not upgraded to paid accounts were deleted.

F2S originally became popular as one of very few ISPs offering PHP/MySQL/CGI on free webspace. The database service was a little unstable but it allowed many grateful enthusiasts the chance to learn, with the option to upgrade to reliable paid-for hosting.

The free hosting carried no requirement to use an F2S dial-up account, though this was available. Unlike many free hosting services of the time, no advertising was added to websites (apart from the f2s.com URL).

Technical support was available through an online forum which, though independent, was advertised on the F2S site - it had a thriving community of coders but eventually closed down after the free hosting was phased out.

The end of free hosting was announced by email on 8 December 2001 - "we have decided to discontinue the experimental free hosting service that we have been running" - and the deadline was 28 February 2002.

Those who upgraded after the announcement and purchased a hosting package were allowed to keep their existing free webspace, which was increased over time from 20 Mb to 200 Mb (with a stable database server).

F2S earned a reputation for reliable hosting and also as an affordable provider of broadband services, with ADSL subscribers getting 50 Mb of bundled webspace (later increased to 200 Mb) as part of the package. The company prospered and the founders sold it to Pipex at the end of 2005.

F2S webhosting services declined alarmingly a few months after the Pipex takeover and were discontinued in 2007, remaining subscribers being subjected to a chaotic migration to the Webfusion platform...

Wikipedia accuracy - http://www.theonion.com/content/node/50902

...

[TBL]

Originally Posted by Justin

Orange have gone downhill as a mobile provider since Wanadoo and they merged.

No, Orange went downhill when France Telecom bought them over.

Or more pivotally; when Hans Snook left.

[Justin]

Sorry to bring up an old threat, but I just looked at wikipedia and it seems all of the articles for any of the Pipex ISP's have been deleted?

[aos101]

The Freeom2Surf article at least was deleted by an admin under the crtieria for speedy deletion. They just said it was blatant advertising, and because they are an admin they can delete it without any further discussion, and the article content is no longer available to normal users. It seems an admin has made a wrong/stupid decision, and because they are an admin it's difficult to challenge it.

It says here that if you disagree with a deletion you first need to talk to the admin who deleted it, but the admin who did is currently on a break (according to their talk page) and hasn't done anything since July 1st, so apparently it just stays deleted until he/she decides to login again and view their talk page.

I don't think the F2S article was blatant advertising at all, so why they deleted it I don't know