Then again, one might be guilty of one-upmanship, but I never heard of one-downmanship.

Now that I think of it, there is plethora of uses for both down and up in modified verb forms.

downsize
downgrade
down with man
up the ante
upsell

I'm sure that I'll wake up in the middle of the night with even more examples.

Exactly! It can get kind of sinister.

It's not annoying to me at all, Heather! This is just the kind of nerdy discussion about language I love having. From the outset, I don't consider either to be a proper use of the English language. Though there seems to be precedent for using up in this way regarding betting..."up the ante" and "up the stakes". There does seem to be a well established usage of "up" in this way so it's not a neologism, whether it's technically correct or not. Feel free to destroy my argument, I won't take it personally!

I live and work in a bilingual environment so sometimes linguistic lines get crossed. You should hear how we eviscerate English in Quebec as chatter on in Franglais! It's not an excuse. Well, yes it is but not one I expect to pass muster. Please just keep in mind that some business language used here in Quebec might not apply elsewhere and may be a result of working in Franglais. That said, I believe that "up users" is commonly used in the world of online marketing and promotion across North America (though I could be wrong so welcome corrections). If one allowed oneself to be upset by business/working English, one would go insane within an hour!

So, ultimately, while neither is proper English (to my ears), one is in common business usage and the other is a neologism...or simply poor grammar. To make excuses for my poor behavior in foisting the phrasing upon you, once Micheal had called me on using "up users" I found it to be an unattractive way to express the concept, though I do offer up that I was *thinking* in a business mode so the business usage popped into my head and then escaped down my arms to the keyboard while I was distracted by tactical thinking about websites. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! I will not progress the story beyond this point....mouhahahaha. But seriously, "to progress America" sounds like "process America" to me or the progress of a chronic disease. Is it even possible to "progress" something or someone?