Hosting forums
One of the ways in which I choose the web hosts hosted on this cheap web hosting review site are the hosting provider’s very own customer support forums. Many of these hosting forums are busy member to member places where you can ask pre-sales questions and general hosting queries. There are some that are virtually dead and not worth going to. A hosting forum should be reasonably busy, have knowledgeable members willing to help and it doesn’t hurt when there’s a friendly atmosphere. You don’t to be told to RTFM (read the fucking manual) every time you ask a question.
I will review particular forums in detail in the coming weeks but for the meantime here is a list of hosts that have good web hosting forums considering all the above points: Bluehost, Hostgator, Hostmonster, Lunarpages, and Powweb.