gnfb: I agree about the OS review sites.
When I was looking I quickly realized that they were set up as affiliate sites to make money with no real value as to what the actual hosts were like.

But that doesnt get away from the fact that we as a species like to evaluate and are guided by popular opinion. The old "6 billion Chinese cant be wrong" adage. Ok OK i know that's generalizing but there has to be a value in consensus as long as the sample and evaluators are reliable.

So

how do I create a "opinion to help me and also to help others decide.

What are 5 factors you look for in a host
mine are

Cost per month
Unlimited Databases
Unlimited installs of word
Unlimited emails
12 hour online support

mattwnz:

gnfb: I agree about the OS review sites.
When I was looking I quickly realized that they were set up as affiliate sites to make money with no real value as to what the actual hosts were like.

But that doesnt get away from the fact that we as a species like to evaluate and are guided by popular opinion. The old "6 billion Chinese cant be wrong" adage. Ok OK i know that's generalizing but there has to be a value in consensus as long as the sample and evaluators are reliable.

So

how do I create a "opinion to help me and also to help others decide.

What are 5 factors you look for in a host
mine are

Cost per month
Unlimited Databases
Unlimited installs of word
Unlimited emails
12 hour online support

I would steer clear of anything that says unlimited for a start, as there  is no such thing, an it is just a marketing term that many overseas hosts use. Their terms will have restrictions, such as limits on the number of files you can store (which usually includes emails). Reliability for a host is far more important, as is good quick support, and servers which aren't overloaded with accounts. Those sorts of things are difficult to judge on a review website. Also I have found that some hosts will pay their cusomters for positive reviews with some form of benefit, so they are also not really that impartial either.

gnfb: 

I take your point about unlimited etc I just think ther has to be some way to judge. "Servers that arnt overloaded" is there aw way to judge that?

mattwnz:

gnfb: 

I take your point about unlimited etc I just think ther has to be some way to judge. "Servers that arnt overloaded" is there aw way to judge that?

Possibly price. I mean if the host is selling hosting for a few bucks a month, they will need a lot of accounts on that server to break even. It is usually the cheap ones that have the worst reputations as a result.