What You Get

Subdomain Name.
Instead of those annoying long URL's such as http://members.yourhost.com/~yourname/, your URL would be http://yourname.ssjrpg.net/. If you want to buy a domain name, you can get it and have it work with this site. If you already own a domain name (a REAL one, not a free one like NameZero) you can get it so that it'll go to your new location.

Unlimited Space.
That alone speaks for itself, but I will explain. Back in the day, many webhosts offered a whoopin' 2 megabytes (MB) of storage, then it increased to about 5, and then most webhosts adopted to 11 MB and stayed that way for years. Now some hosts claim they offer 50 MB, which of course is good, it's a great way to start out. We, however, start you off with UNLIMITED space. It's impossible to beat! There is no infinity plus 1 here.

Free Email Address.
You can have your own yourname@ssjrpg.net (email addresses are never case sensitive). This email address can either be a POP3 account (the mail is on the GameShadow server and you use an email program to download it) or you can have a forwarding account (if you want to keep the address you use now, you@ssjrpg.net will send all mail to you@where-you-are-now.com). If the need would arise that you would require to have multiple email addresses (POP3 or forwarding), all you need to do is ask. An example would be for any members of your staff to help make your site look more professional.

If you have a domain name, you can have unlimited email addresses (POP3 and forwarding) for your domain. Just don't use them for spam, because you'll get caught and lose your hosting.

Connection.
Okay you got your unlimited space, but you need a way to transfer all those megs to the visitor. When hosted by us, your site will be hooked directly to the internet via multiple redudant T3 connections. T3's are the fastest connection available today. Having one is awesome, however, you get more than just one. Plus you get unlimited bandwidth. Also, you can connect to the server via your favorite FTP and Telnet client.

Extra Goodies.
What? There's more cool stuff? Hell yeah. Your site will reside on Linux server, complete with Perl 5, full CGI (common gateway interface, every great site needs this) access, SSI (server-side includes), PHP 4, site statisitcs, access to the GameShadow Networks Webmaster Resource Area, and if you ever need help with something, we're always here for you to ask. If we can't help you, we'll do our best to try to find someone who can. You also get your own forum, within our UBB too! None of that el cheap-o EZBoard crap for you! You do not need the .shtml for "special" pages (except php pages). And you can have CGI scripts anywhere on the server, not just in the cgi-bin directory. This server is smart, it knows better.

If you own your own domain name (not a free one, like NameZero) you will have some extra benefits. First, you can have unlimited email addresses (POP3 and forwarding) for your domain (you@yourdomain.com). You will have access to the cgi scripts to set those up, you don't need to bug us to make then for you everytime. You can also have the privledge to have multiple FTP accounts (ie: one with limited access for your staff) and a seperate FTP server to host large (10 MB and larger) files on (ie: movie clips, the archnemesis of low-bandwidth). If you would like to purchase your own domain name, you can do so from any of the hundreds of sites out there that do that stuff, we will not buy one for you.

In return for this awesome stuff, there are some things that you must do first.

Your site must be gaming or anime related.
We finally found out that our hosted sites don't have to be gaming sites (fun!). To be hosted by SSJRPG your site must be a gaming or anime related page. When we say gaming, we don't expect you to cover a lot of games, your site can be devoted to one game (as long as there's a lot of information for that one game). As for anime sites, we here at SSJRPG are prejudice against some forms of anime *cough*pokemon*cough* so if your site is about a really bad anime we may umm... be experiencing technical difficulties while you were submiting your site.

Content.
This easily is one of the most important factors of a site. If you offer no content whatsoever or just have a lot of stolen information, there is nothing stopping your visitor from just going to another site instead. However, if you offer lots of good content, it's a good bet that your visitors will return. If your content is really good, we won't bother with how your layout looks. Just look at Planet Namek. Their layout sucks. It's nothing fancy AT ALL, took probably about a whole 3 and a half minutes (Whenever sites talk about PN.com's "extensive HTML knowledge," I just die laughing at their stupidity. Occasionally they make something that requires knowledge, but 90% of the site is basic crap). However, they still get the most hits per day than most other Dragon Ball sites out there. And you know why? Because their content is one of the most complete ones that you could find on the web. Of course great content and a cool layout are almost definite ways to get accepted... (hint hint)

Good Layout.
Your layout should neat, interesting, easy to navigate, and most importantly: original. The layout is the first thing to see, if it's not appealing and ugly, the chances are small that the visitor will stay and come back again. Think of your layout as a first date. You don't want to make an idiot of yourself, you wanna be nice, neat, orderly, and all that crap. An easy to navigate site also helps greatly. Otherwise, your visitors will be lost trying to find whatever it is that the are looking for.

Experience.
Do not think that you will automatically be accepted. We have had submissions where people would make a temporary site, submit it saying that when they are hosted they will add to it. We've had submissions from 10 hour old web sites, who wrote on their site "I'm gonna be hosted by SSJRPG so I won't update much until I'm moved." No, that's not how it works (it only makes us want to hate you). You need to know the ins and outs of maintaining a web site. When you make a web site, you make it like your current host will be your only host. Don't say "I'm not gonna waste my time re-uploading everything, so I'll wait til I'm hosted." No, that's the lazy man/woman's approach. We can move your files onto the server (I think, we're still testing it...) so don't worry too much.

So basically, you need to have a site that's been around for a while, at least half a year is good. Lots of people give up on sites within a month or two because they "don't get enough hits." If you don't get enough hits, it's because you don't have a quality site, therefore, we cannot host you. You have to have determination, patience, and all that stuff, otherwise why else are you trying to make a good web site? "I want to be hosted so my site gets more popular because it's cool" Aren't you full of yourself Mr./Miss Ego? Granted your site will become more popular, that's not why you want to be hosted. You want to be hosted because you like SSJRPG, want to be a part of the "network," and want those kick ass benefits (but DO NOT tell us you want our awesome FREE benefits, you damn leech).

Knowledge.
The thing you need to know or understand is HTML. If you run a quality site, you should be doing it using pure HTML. If you can manage to make a cool layout that works in all browsers using a WYSIWYG editor, a la Netscape Composer, yes you can use it and we won't stop you. Yes, it is possible to make good layouts in Microsoft FrontPage, however, 9 times out of 10, you will NEED to be using the latest Microsoft browser to see the layout right. Don't say "No one uses Netscape!" because 25% of online users is not no one. Occasionally, if your layout is not very graphic and nested table intensive, it will look the same or very close to the same in most browsers, however, it's unlikely. But you should know by now that you need to test your layout in other browsers before adopting it fully. Only thing is, page builder applications don't play well with CGI and SSI codes. Not to mention CGI/Perl scripts. You will be required to have at least one line of CGI code, that's for the advertisement. But there are other ones like page counters that you will get access to which are completely Perl driven through a CGI script.

We realize, ok, I realize that knowing HTML as a requirement is dumb, but think about it for a minute. Quality sites and the people who run them should have complete control over their site so they can do all the cool stuff they want.

I will ignore XML for now. I know of only one thing that uses XML, and that's a special little thing in my browser that allows me to change the colors and icons.

Other Things to Keep In Mind.
Your site needs to already be on the web. That way we can see what your site offers and if there's anything bad that would make us not want to host you. When we say this, we want to see a real site, don't feed us links to "Under Construction" pages, because we'll toss your application right away. If you don't have a site uploaded yet, go use a free one like Tripod (In my opinion, it's great for small sites).

We will not say "oh, those ads make the page look gay, screw this one." We will ignore the ads because they are in a very bad location and you can't incorporate them into your layout. Tripod also allows you to make the ads into a pop-up window that way they won't mess up your layout (there's a link 'Options' or 'Advanced' or something like that after you log in). Also, the ads served on this site are 468x60 (width x height, in pixels), so if you wish to incorporate the ads into your layout, make an image that is the same size that says "Ads here!" or something. That would be extremely helpful for us and you for if/when you move to this server.

We just began hosting sites, don't expect the world of us, we're still learning. If you email us about something, we'll try to do our best to answer right away, but don't flip out on us if we don't get back to you immediately.