Six Apart took the step of offering active TypePad users affected by recent problems compensation today. Rather than compensating everyone the same they actually left the level of compensation somewhat up to the bloggers themselves and gave them the following options:
– While the performance issues caused me some inconvenience I mainly found the service acceptable last month.
Give me 15 free days of TypePad.– The performance issues made it very difficult for me to use the service on multiple occasions during the month.
Give me 30 free days of TypePad.– The performance issues affected me greatly, making my experience unacceptable for most of the month.
Give me 45 free days of TypePad.– I really wasn’t affected and feel I got the great service I paid for last month.
Thank you for the offer, but please don’t credit my account.
I’m sure that some will be cynical about this approach but I think it’s an innovative way of going about compensating their users in a way that not only gives something to users but actively involves them in the process of determining the impact of the problems. I’ve seen a few bloggers already choose option 1 and comment that it was above and beyond what they thought Six Apart would do.
Read more about it at Six Apart
