Internet and web services: what to look for before you commit
This is the category where the gap between marketing and reality is widest. Hosting companies, domain registrars, forum platforms and online communities all compete on claims that are difficult to verify from the outside, and the affiliate commissions on this category are large enough that most of the "best of" content you will find is paid placement.
A few checks cut through it. For anything you will pay for monthly, look for the renewal price rather than the introductory price, and for the migration policy rather than the signup offer. For communities and forums, look at when the last substantive thread was posted, not at the member count, which almost always includes a decade of dormant accounts.
The subcategories here cover hosting, domain names, marketplaces, online communities, chats and forums, and blogs. They are deliberately separate, because the questions you would ask a host have nothing in common with the questions you would ask a forum.
We do not take payment for placement or position in this category, and the listings are not ordered by commission. That is worth stating plainly, because in this category it is the exception.