Content Matters

I love Web 2.0 technologies.  All of these great tools for social collaboration are fantastic, and the fact that they're all hosted applications makes them accessible and affordable.  I truly love them...
...when they work, that is.
I've previously praised Six Apart (TypePad's parent) including them on the "50 Content Companies that Matter" list.  Their TypePad service is easy, affordable and does 80% of what I need it to.
But recently, TypePad has gone through some growing pains.  Last fall, they had some stability issues and were forced to offer partial refunds to their subscribers.  During the past 3-4 weeks, these problems have come up again (while they apparently move to a new hosting facility) and the site has run with sporadic service.  I realize that, in context, this isn't a huge problem.  After all, the citizens of Iraq have only 2-3 hours of electricity each day, so my not being able to see usage statistics on my blog is a pretty small problem.  But, it is a problem that Six Apart has to resolve quickly. 
The downside to running an ASP model is that the switching costs for users are extremely low.  There are no systems to install and integrate, no hardware to purchase and no users to train.  I switched from blogger to TypePad about a year ago, and have been happy until now.  But if the stability issues are not quickly resolved, I think we'll see many TypePad users explore other options.  I know of one content industry blog that switched from TypePad to Blogger just this week.
So while I still like TypePad's tools, I hope they get their access problems fixed quickly.