'is it down for everybody or just me?' is a neutrally-framed status reporter. The 'vibes' I speak of are the way in which 'Dead Yet?' is, fundamentally by its name, presumptuous (in my opinion). Therefore I don't think you have a great analogy there but I do see your point that my 'feedback' point was perhaps a bit too general — it would just be nice to be able to review a startup (a small disqus comment thread on the page, for example) rather than just pointing the finger at its deadness.

I don't personally have generic advice off-the-bat for company-wide failure avoidance I'm afraid.