The story of Community Server on GoDaddy shared hosting.
I recently read a reply to a post on the Community Server forums (http://communityserver.org/forums/thread/554820.aspx)
It went:
"chavak,
Problems seem to be the norm when trying to run a CS site on GoDaddy.com. As a former disgruntled GoDaddy user I know the problems all to well and would recommend that you change web providers."
I've personally run 2 Community Servers off of a GoDaddy account, and I've never had a serious problem.
I make calls to GoDaddy on a regular basis (atleast once a week - I'm an active developer). The majority of the time, it takes me less than 2 minutes to reach a representative. They're easy to talk to, nice, and very helpful. If your representative can't answer your problem right away, he or she checks with the "Advanced Hosting Team" to get the answer. If they can't answer it still, a ticket is opened and the "Advanced Hosting Team" will be back with you within 24 hours (Usually less than 4 hours from my experience).
GoDaddy's story with Community Server
There are 2 ways to host Community Server on your GoDaddy account.
1. Install the Value Application through GoDaddy. They provide "Value Applications" that they will install on your website if you'd like them to. They're configured as default applications that they drop into your hosting account.
If you're looking for any sort of serious customization of your Community Server install, "Value Applications" are NOT for you.
2. Install Community Server yourself. Community Server was designed to support being hosted in a shared hosting environment and can be installed very easily through a web interface.
To do this,
First: Download the Community Server files from http://communityserver.org/
Then: Upload your Community Server files to a subdirectory in your hosting directory through FTP. (e.g. "cs")
Then: Visit http://yoursite.com/blog/Installer/ - Follow the directions, and you should be all set.
Easy, right?
Remember: If you have any problems, the support number for GoDaddy is (480) 505-8877. They love your calls - honestly.
My Community Server Problems with GoDaddy
The only problem I had with hosting Community Server on my shared hosting account had to do with nested Web.config files.
The way they set up shared hosting, AppDomains are shared between nested directories. I was trying to host my Community Server in the root directory of my account, and host another application in a subdirectory of the root. So putting the Community Server Web.config in my root was killing any applications in sub-directories.
Now, this wouldn't be a problem if I were hosting a computer I had access to IIS on, but since we, as shared hosting customers, don't have the ability to configure a sub-directory as a stand-alone Web application with it's own AppDomain, my sub-directory application was reading the root web.config file as well.
To solve this, I put my Community Server files in /blog. And I configured my "Domain Management" to forward davidjsmitty.com to /blog/, as you can see here:
I personally recommend GoDaddy for hosting of a Community Server application, as they are very inexpensive, and their customer service is #1 in the industry.