1. Mike, I think you’ve misunderstood my point. I didn’t mean to imply that DH misinform the public, but rather to use multiple venues of communication to suit the expectations of their entire audience. I hope this clears up the confusion, and thanks for listening.

2. Go troll somewhere else, troll.

See? Anyway, it’s important to remember that not ALL customers are here for the laid back attitude, some people are just here for the cheap hosting.

So, here is how to satisfy both groups without losing what makes DH DH:

status.dreamhost.com: Serious, business toned straight talk.
blog.dreamhost.com: Light hearted, jokey straight talk.

Couldn’t be more wrong if you tried. People like the HONESTY, which is why we see them being laid back, instead of putting on a phony serious businessmen wearing suits image.

So, your solution for the company whose popularity is based on their honesty, is to lie 50% of the time?

In any case, keep up the transparency.

Right, because dedicating a whole site to a phony image has A LOT to do with transparency.

I’d rather pay for an awesome and ever-improving service that has some rare screw ups than for a crappy or mediocre one that stays the same forever more.

Rock on,
Oli.

In reading the piles of comments in the last 3 posts, I’ve come to the realization, as many probably have, that your customer base is polarized into two groups: The fun-loving, joke-appreciating group, and the down-to-business, corporate-manners group. While I fall into the former, I can certainly understand the tide of fury that has swept over a good chunk of your customers.

So, here is how to satisfy both groups without losing what makes DH DH:

status.dreamhost.com: Serious, business toned straight talk.
blog.dreamhost.com: Light hearted, jokey straight talk.

You’re already kind of doing this, but the two services need to overlap on issues like this, and you’ve gotta figure out how to push each group in the right direction. From some of the posts I’ve read, the “serious” crowd was having a tough time finding information elsewhere, so they eventually wandered into the blog. Obviously, wrong place for this category of person.

In any case, keep up the transparency.

I’m a big fan of the posts on this blog, and I was wondering if you would take requests.

Basically I’m doing a module in my final year about computer security, the coursework for which is setting up a web server with shell and ftp access and then defending it from the attacks of the other students, while trying to attack others myself.

It occurred to me that if there’s anyone who knows their way around securing webservers with ftp and shell access then it would be the dreamhost guys!

I don’t want anyone to do this for me (I have the rest of the group for that), but I would really appreciate any kind of insight into the problem from a commercial perspective.

Many thanks, yadda yadda yadda, Sam du Rose (loyal DH customer of three years)