First off, this thread is not about any specific provider. Do not turn this thread into one about this provider or that provider. This is just a thread where me, a provider is interested in what you, the client expects. I hope this thread will help other providers also but for the sake of this discussion please don't bash other providers. Thanks!
For example, if your VPS is offline for any reason how to you expect to be informed? Do you want an e-mail right away? Do you want an e-mail when it's back online? Do you want an e-mail if it's expected to be down for X more hours? Would an announcement be enough? How about Twitter updates?
I ask because I personally avoid trying to send mass e-mails except for the most important announcements but always keep our announcements updates (which mirrors to our websites, Twitter and our info site via RSS). The main reason for this is because we were previously using Google Apps for our e-mail up until a few days ago and they have a daily limit of 2000 e-mails with some crazy throttling after about 500 e-mails in a short span of a few minutes. We recently switched to SendGrid but I'm still hesitant to go the mass e-mail route.
So here's my question to all of you. What kind of communication do you expect from your provider and when?
Additionally, how many of you check announcements or utilize RSS feeds? I know a handful of people have thanked providers on here for keeping the RSS feed updated so I know some of you do, but I get the feeling it’s a small percentage.
Personally I always check announcements for my providers (Hostigation, BuyVM, and RamNode) but don’t utilize the RSS feeds.