I've hosted this blog (and a few others) on Six Apart's Typepad service for four years. In general I've been very happy with the service, I've received responses to all customer service inquiries, the downtime has been relatively minor and I've been very happy with the fact that it's enabled me to focus on the creative side of blogging without having to learn too much about the technical side. Heck, I even got to meet one of the co-founders, Anil Dash, at ConvergeSouth and I found him to be one of the sharpest, if not the sharpest person there. So why do I find myself irked with them today?
Because of this announcement that they're giving recently laid off journalists the service for free, and calling it the Journalist Bailout Program. Now you might think it's cold of me to begrudge someone who's been laid off a helping hand, and maybe it is, but I've been paying for the service for four years and I've helped the folks at Six Apart get where they are. Why should I be happy that some newcomer is getting appreciation and I'm not? Really I have no problem with them helping out the journalists, but where's the love for me and my fellow paying TypePad-ers?
This reminds me of a conversation I had with a rep at Register.com a while back. Before I knew any better I registered my domain names with them and paid some crazy rate like $30 a year, and they sent me renewal notices for that same amount. I shopped around and got a much better deal at GoDaddy. Unfortunately I had to call Register.com to finalize the transfer of the domain and that's when the rep offered to best the GoDaddy price. I told him no thanks and when he asked why I said, "If you really appreciated my business you'd have offered me the better price before I called you. The fact that you treat me better when I threaten to leave simply tells me that I'm a number, not a valued customer." To put it simply I get irked at any company that offers better deals for new customers than for existing customers.
The reality in this case is that Six Apart is gaining much more than they're giving up. They're getting the journalists' audiences which means that their ad network will get more views which means more revenue for them. That's fine for Six Apart, but what kind of appreciation are they showing to me and all the other customers who've been with them as they've grown?
I also find this ironic because a few years ago I tried to contact Six Apart to see if they had a program that would allow someone like me to re-sell their platform. I knew several small businesses, local politicians and, yes, journalists who would benefit from blogging but needed hand holding. I had no interest in setting up a platform, finding a host and providing tech support, so I thought if I could re-sell Typepad as the platform and then act as the "rep" who held the clients' hands through the process then it would be a win-win for me and for Six Apart. I never heard back from them and I moved on to other things. I guess now I have their answer.
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Befuddled 
I saw that. All I can say is
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%22typepad+to+wordpress%22&fr=yfp-t-121&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8
Hey Jon, thanks for the critical look at what we’re doing — I really appreciate the feedback. Let me try to answer as many questions as I can and see if I can address each of the issues you’ve brought up.
First, we’re thankful and truly appreciative that you’ve supported TypePad since nearly the beginning. To be honest, the sheer volume of responses to the Bailout Program has been astounding, and I’m working as fast as I can to revamp it to see what I can do to accommodate the volume of responses. Part of that will be making sure that the few people who’ve asked to join who are already TypePad members get benefits appropriate to their status as subscribers to the service. What does that mean exactly? To be honest: I don’t know, yet. I welcome your feedback on it.
To be honest, like anybody who’s ever had a cell phone, I get annoyed by programs that favor new customers, too. But in this case, the question I had asked primarily was, “What can we do to help journalists?” While it means we will have to make specific plans to properly respect a small number of people (like yourself) who are already TypePad members, the vast majority of the hundreds of journalists who’ve responsed have never had a blog. And while I understand your frustration, I trust you know this isn’t actually something that’s punitive to you, it’s something that’s primarily designed to open a door for them.
So, what I’m asking for is patience. We’ll take care of you, and I’ll give you my personal word on that. I’m sorry you didn’t hear back from us earlier about wanting to be a TypePad reseller — we’ve had a reseller/affiliate program for years and you should be part of that. But more importantly, I think the larger goal of what we’re trying to do with the bailout is a mission that you yourself support, and I hope you’ll join me in finding a way to make that work not just for you, or for my own self interests as someone who works at Six Apart, but for all of the hundreds of journalists who are about to make a leap to independence.
Thanks again for your considered response, and I do hope that answers your immediate concerns.
Hi Anil,
Thanks for the response and I do think I understand where you’re
coming from. I might be the only one who took umbrage with the offer
(probably hadn’t had enough coffee yet) and believe me when I say it
has nothing to do with the journalists themselves. I personally think
that their best revenge will be putting out a better product than
their former employers do. And I do agree with your long term goal in
making the offer.
I have to say that I was wondering how you were going to define “laid
off journalist” because I’d imagine that there are some people who
have been doing some valuable local reporting on their own time and
who have been laid off from their day jobs. Don’t know if you remember
but at ConvergeSouth we had one guy that Ed Cone pulled out of the
audience for a panel and he’s built the most powerful social coverage
in town with an email newsletter. He’s arguably the most important guy
for any musician in town to know and he workss full time for a law
firm. If he were to be laid off I’d consider him a ‘laid off
journalist’.
One suggestion for future efforts like this might be a proactive
message to let us know what’s going on. Maybe something when we sign
in. I found out about it on ReadWriteWeb and that might have
contributed to me getting my panties in a twist
Finally, thanks for the service. As you might have seen in an earlier
comment I have a buddy who’s been trying to get me on WP forever. I’ve
always been very happy so I haven’t done it and that hasn’t changed
Oh, and I’m very interested in your reseller program.
Thanks again for the response.
Jon