Typepad issues shake user confidence
December 17, 2005 by Mike Wendland
These are difficult days for Six Apart, the wiz-bang blogging company behind Movable Type and Typepad, the service I use for this blog. There has been a rash of service slowdowns and interruptions this fall but yesterday was the worse, with sites essentially unusable for more than 12 hours.
The company is taking lots of flack from bloggers and online news outfits like Between the Lines | ZDNet.com and Macdev and Corante.
I couldn’t update all day yesterday, nor could thousands of other users ranging from the Chicago Tribune to the UK’s Register.
The company insists this was a "single point of failure" whatever that means but it’s left me and I’m sure many others with shaken confidence. I’m about to head to Las Vegas and the Consumer Electronics Show and plan lots of blog reporting on new products and services. I’m worried that this will happen again and, though I’ve been a Typepad customer since Day One, I am seriously considering changing platforms.
I like the folks at Six Apart a lot. But I suspect they have a major convincing job to do if they are going to keep a lot of customers. There’s no room for anything but near flawless performance. Typepad is a terrific product. But I’m wondering - based on the past few months - whether it is meant for serios blogging.
I had hoped to move to its flagship Movable Type platform over on Yahoo! this week but after wasting a dozen hours unsuccesfully trying to get it to display as a three-colum blog, gave up in frustration.
I hope the problems were just growing pains and yesterday’s incident was the end of Typepad’s problems. But one more meltdown and I’m outta here and switching to WordPress.
I’ve already installed WordPress onto the server that I’ve been using to host my podcasts, and plan to start moving my archives over.
I’ve been with Typepad for over two years, and I really like being their customer. But, if and when they have another incident like they had yesterday, all I’ll have to do is redirect my DNS settings–and once that happens, I won’t look back.
Mike,
When we refurbed MacMove, we switched it to WordPress and have been totally happy with it. Also, did you know that Wordpress.com allows for free, sub-dommain hosten blogs? Won’t work for the e-Journal, but it’s worth telling your readers about.
Also, with WordPress and SpamKarma, we get *zero* comment spam at MacMove. None.
I have worked so long and hard on THIS design and hate to start over with Word Press.
BUT… I feel like Rob. I really like Typepad. But this is not a hobby. It’s a huge part of my job. And I sure don’t ever want to be in the same situation we were Friday. What happens if it goes out at an important time like CES? I could never make up that chance to be fast and relevant during a major event.
Any WP designers out there? Give me a call. Wouldn’t hurt to have a plan B.
This is my Digital Camera And Cell Phones Blog.
Full reviews of digital cameras and cellphones reviews… enjoy