This is a pretty sterling example of Paul Graham's "dignity is deadly" quote: > When you evolve out of start-up mode and start > worrying about being professi

This is a pretty sterling example of Paul Graham's "dignity is deadly" quote: > When you evolve out of start-up mode and start > worrying about being professional and dignified, > you only lose capabilities. You don't add > anything... you only take away. Dignity is deadly." I'm a Dreamhost client, and I've been pretty happy with their overall service. This isn't the first time they've admitted doing something stupid. Before Dreamhost, I was a client of Westhost. They were fine too, until they instituted a major migration to virtual servers. It was a disaster. Site response time slowed to a crawl, and their forums were saturated with angry customers. Trouble ticket response time went from hours to days. Westhost handled the situation "professionally". By this, I mean they did not acknowledge the problem for several days. They eventually posted apologies and explanations that contained no information about the root cause - just empty words. "Professional" can mean a lot of things. It usually means "Cover your ass". The problems persisted for weeks. I'm sure Westhost has since resolved the technical problems with the virtual domains (since they are still in business). But their "professional" communication with customers made me leave. The deal with Dreamhost is: 1) When they do something stupid, they admit it immediately and take their lumps. 2) They come across as a bunch of clowns sometimes. I don't think you can have (1) without (2). Maybe it can be done, but Dreamhost won't be the company to do it. Their company DNA is pretty well fixed.