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.