Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy Generator Stonerocket: 20 Years Since Launch – The Story of a Post2Host Pioneer - Chris Lever

Stonerocket: 20 Years Since Launch – The Story of a Post2Host Pioneer

Stonerocket: 20 Years Since Launch – The Story of a Post2Host Pioneer

Back in 2005, the internet was a different beast. Forums were buzzing, social media hadn’t swallowed the web yet, and free web hosting was the goto for student developers, hobbyists, and anyone wanting to get a website online without having to pay for hosting. That’s where Stonerocket came in.

It’s been 20 years since I launched Stonerocket, and looking back, it still feels surreal. What started as a small idea turned into a thriving community, peaking at around 30,000 visitors a month and averaging 5,000 forum posts monthly. We built more than just a hosting platform; we created a space where people learned, collaborated, and connected.

Here’s the story of Stonerocket: why I started it, how it worked, the highs, the challenges, and the lessons that have stuck with me two decades later.

What Was Stonerocket?

Stonerocket was my attempt to offer free web hosting without the usual rubbish that came with it. Instead of drowning sites in ads or cutting back on features, I used the Post2Host model. This meant if you wanted hosting, you had to make a few decent posts on the forum each month. That was it.

But Stonerocket wasn’t just about the hosting. It became a vibrant community, powered by a team of experienced volunteers, moderators, admins, and developers who kept everything running smoothly. Without them, the platform wouldn’t have reached the heights it did.

Image below: Stonerocket in 2008

Why I Started Stonerocket

When I first dipped my toes into hosting, I noticed two glaring problems:

  • Free hosting was usually terrible, stuffed with ads, slow, and barely functional for anything beyond basic experiments.
  • Paid hosting wasn’t cheap, especially for students, hobbyists, or anyone just trying to mess around with small websites.

I wanted to offer something better: no ads, proper features like PHP, MySQL, and cPanel, and, most importantly, a community where people actually helped each other out. The Post2Host model made this possible. Users kept the forums active, which brought in ad revenue, and in return, they got hosting that didn’t feel like a second-rate freebie.

How the Post2Host Model Worked

Here’s how it worked:

  • You signed up, got access to the forums, and needed to post a certain number of meaningful messages each month to keep your hosting active.
  • The topics? Anything within reason, but most people naturally talked about gaming, web hosting, development, and tech.
  • As long as you met your monthly 10 posts quota, your hosting stayed live, ad-free, fully functional, and reliable.

It was a win-win. Users got quality hosting without spending a penny, and the forums stayed lively, which helped cover costs through ad revenue. At its peak, we were seeing 5,000 posts every month, creating a buzzing community where people shared knowledge and helped each other grow.

How I Funded Stonerocket

Running Stonerocket wasn’t free for me. Servers cost money, and the Post2Host model only worked if there was enough income to cover the bills. That’s where SEO and advertising came in. I funded the service by:

  • Selling Ads on the Forums: Banner ads and placements brought in steady income. The more active the community, the more valuable the ad space became.
  • Selling Links for SEO: Back in the day, link-building was the Wild West. I worked hard on increasing Stonerocket’s toolbar PageRank, which made the site more attractive to link buyers. Selling links to site owners and SEO agencies looking to boost their rankings helped cover a good chunk of the hosting costs.
  • Introducing Low-Cost Hosting Plans: We later rolled out affordable hosting plans with extra resources and power. The income from these plans helped supplement the free hosting service, making it easier to cover server costs and invest in better infrastructure.

Between ad revenue, link sales, and the paid hosting plans, I kept the servers running, paid for upgrades, and even invested in better infrastructure when needed.

Where I Started Learning SEO

My journey into SEO started out of necessity. Running Stonerocket made me realise that getting people to the site wasn’t just about having a good product; it was about visibility. I started digging into how search engines worked, experimenting with link building, optimising on-page content, and learning what made sites rank.

It wasn’t long before SEO became more than just a way to promote Stonerocket. I found it fascinating. The challenge of figuring out how Google’s algorithms work, testing different strategies, and seeing real results hooked me. This early dive into SEO shaped my career and opened doors to opportunities I never expected.

Image below: Stonerocket in 2007

The Challenges of Running Stonerocket

Of course, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Running a Post2Host platform had its fair share of headaches.

1. Keeping the Lights On

Free hosting isn’t free for the person running it. Servers cost money, and while forum ads helped, the revenue didn’t always match the growing demand. Balancing server costs against ad income was a constant juggling act.

2. Dealing with Spam and Low-Quality Posts

When you tell people they need to post to keep their free hosting, some will try to game the system. Spam, one-liner posts, irrelevant nonsense, you name it, we saw it. Keeping the forums useful meant constant moderation to weed out the rubbish.

3. Competitors Caught Up

By the late 2000s, other free hosting services like 000webhost and ByetHost popped up, offering similar deals without requiring forum participation. Plus, paid hosting got cheaper, making it easier for people to skip the hassle altogether.

4. Forums Started Dying

Social media exploded, and traditional forums took a hit. People were more interested in scrolling through news feeds than joining niche forums. For a service built around forum activity, this shift was a major blow.

5. Technical Growing Pains

Stonerocket ran on a mixture of WHM/cPanel VPS servers and cheap dedicated servers, which worked fine in the early days but became a challenge as the user base grew. Managing server performance, uptime, and scaling without spending a fortune was tough. The technical side of things often felt like a juggling act with one hand tied behind my back.

Selling Stonerocket

By 2012, Stonerocket had become too expensive to run. The costs were piling up, and the revenue wasn’t keeping pace with the growing demand for resources. Rather than watch it slowly decline, I decided to sell it.

The new owner kept it going for a few more years, but the same challenges eventually caught up with them. Stonerocket was officially shut down around 2015. While it was tough to let go, I knew it was the right decision at the time.

The Team Behind the Scenes

Stonerocket’s success wasn’t just down to me. A team of dedicated volunteers, moderators, admins, and developers played a huge role in keeping the community vibrant and the hosting platform stable. They managed the forums, tackled technical issues, dealt with spam, and supported users day in and day out.

Without their commitment and expertise, Stonerocket wouldn’t have become the thriving hub it was. They helped shape the community, maintained the quality of discussions, and kept things running smoothly even when the workload piled up.

 

Image below: Stonerocket in 2012

What Stonerocket Meant to Me

Despite the challenges, Stonerocket remains one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. It wasn’t just about hosting websites. It was about building a community where people helped each other, shared ideas, and grew together. I’ll always be proud of seeing people launch their first websites, learn new skills, and connect with others because of something I built.

Lessons I Learned from Stonerocket

Running Stonerocket taught me a lot about tech, business, and people. Here are a few takeaways.

  • Community is Everything: A strong community can carry a platform further than fancy features ever will.
  • Sustainability Matters: If there’s no solid revenue model, even the best ideas will eventually hit a wall.
  • Adapt or Fade: The internet changes fast. If you don’t evolve with it, you’ll get left behind. That’s what happened when forums started to decline.

Stonerocket’s Legacy

Stonerocket might be gone, but it left its mark. For the people who used it, it was often their first step into web development. For me, it was proof that passion projects can make a real impact, even if they don’t last forever.

Final Thoughts

Stonerocket was a wild ride, and I’m grateful to everyone who was part of it. Whether you were an active user, a forum contributor, a moderator, an admin, or just someone who passed through, thanks for being part of the journey.

Way Back Machine has captured Stonerocket throughout the years

Do you have memories of Stonerocket.net or the Post2Host era? I’d love to hear them. Drop a comment or reach out. It would be great to reconnect with the people who made Stonerocket what it was.

If you’re curious to learn more about the Post2Host model that helped shape platforms like Stonerocket, be sure to check out my other post on the Post2Host free hosting model. It’s a deep dive into how the model worked, why it thrived, and what made it such a niche yet fascinating part of the web hosting industry’s evolution.

Images below: Stonerocket logos

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