Or bloody hell run maintenance during the week, like on monday, wednesday, or whatever. The weekend has to be the worst possible time to run it, especially if you end up extending the maintenance because at one side you screw people's evening playtime and for others you screw their morning/afternoon. For me, the maintenance started in the morning and it's now well into the afternoon.
I don't really care if it is their first MMO or not. This isn't rocket science.