Very interesting post. I've actually been following that same exact idea - I check over the error logs to see if any users encountered an error, email them an apology and let them know I'm working on it right now, and then email them once it's worked again thanking them for their patience.<p>Also, for questions which have been posted, I email the author (if they've given us their email address) and ask them if they're satisfied with the answer. If not, we'll spend some more time researching it and contact some special authority.<p>We've done that for one week, but the results have been mixed. I still think it's critical, but it's only one factor - you need the initial userbase just to get the new users to post.<p>EDIT: It also occurred to me (thinking about to pg's "If you measure it you'll improve it" quote") that I'll need some substantial reporting as well. To that end, I'll be writing some rake tasks today so I can plot the data over time.