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Old 24 Jan 2017, 10:23 PM   #166
FredOnline
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It seems that many of the aggrieved are long time members of the forum, but do not appear to have entered into any discussions here for quite some time.

So they may not be aware that, in recent years, the various members of the forum that are also FastMail staff have been shunning the forum (the odd exception, of course - this has been discussed here on the forum in recent times), and have preferred any interactions to take place on social media instead.

Perhaps it may be an idea for the aggrieved to consider posting their views to FastMail on their social media channels.
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Old 24 Jan 2017, 11:28 PM   #167
andrej
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No because I don't use a Facebook account.

Quote:
Originally Posted by FredOnline View Post
the various members of the forum that are also FastMail staff have been shunning the forum
Why?
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Old 24 Jan 2017, 11:35 PM   #168
jchevali
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BritTim View Post
Some Member account holders have indicated that they might be willing to fork out for a very low cost solution (albeit under protest). It reminded me that the old Ad-Free account was supposed to provide just that: a low-cost solution for those with minimal requirements. It was originally US$4.95 per year.

http://web.archive.org/web/200903070....fastmail.fm/?

Assuming FastMail might be willing to compromise, could this be a viable way forward, or do most Member accounts feel there is a matter of principle involved here that they are not willing to compromise on?
Not me. By Moore's law, cost of IT services should be getting cheaper not more expensive. Cheaper than what $FM agreed to when we signed up ($0) would be a negative amount, so why pay anything? To accept they can break their promise "only a little"? No, thank you. If they let me know I'm seen as a nuisance, I'll go away quicker than they can change their minds. (I won't be leaving this thread just yet if I'm a nuisance to others though - those with differing opinions - there's leaving a scene for self-preservation as there's asserting oneself and staying in scene for self-preservation also in other occasions. A time for everything.)

I've migrated everything out over the weekend anyway, myself and family. It took many hours reconfiguring, testing, retraining, but it's done. Now the FM Inboxes are lying empty in case something arrives I forgot to redirect. When the final day comes, we will let them die a good death, RIP, finished.
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Old 24 Jan 2017, 11:45 PM   #169
jchevali
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FredOnline View Post
the various members of the forum that are also FastMail staff have been shunning the forum
Quote:
Originally Posted by andrej View Post
Why?
Because they don't get here unreservedly positive feedback and praise, which is what helps sales, and users here won't shut up when they adopt unpopular decisions, they'll continue to argue, that's why.

Fastmail sees the unremitting, critical boards as bad press, at least problematic, and walks out, breaks any association, away from 'negative thinking', and wishes it to die out.

Let alone promotion in these forums in the early days was probably essential to letting the FastMail brand be known (at least I learned about them here). But once we've served our purpose (we the forums), we can be disposed of, particularly as we start to find our own voice.

$FM aren't here because it doesn't help PR.

$FM asks, in which direction could new prospective business customers look for ratings and reviews? And if the answer is not EmailDiscussions, they'll try and foster the growth of other review sites that are more frequently used by businesses and more favourable to them.
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Old 25 Jan 2017, 12:04 AM   #170
samhu
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jchevali View Post

I've migrated everything out over the weekend anyway, myself and family. It took many hours reconfiguring, testing, retraining, but it's done. Now the FM Inboxes are lying empty in case something arrives I forgot to redirect. When the final day comes, we will let them die a good death, RIP, finished.
One of my biggest apprehensions if I did give up my Fastmail address would be a niggling feeling that I've overlooked sites that I've joined in which I've listed my Fastmail address as a "recovery address" over the last 14 years.
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Old 25 Jan 2017, 12:12 AM   #171
Gsptlsnz
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First we lose the "Classic Interface" and now we lose the "Member Account" and must go the "for pay" route.

I'd be willing to pay $15. if I could keep the Classic look and
get 2GB of storage but that is not going to happen. So the
only options now are to either pay or move to another service.

Be glad you have enough time to make up your mind...
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Old 25 Jan 2017, 12:25 AM   #172
jchevali
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Quote:
Originally Posted by samhu View Post
One of my biggest apprehensions if I did give up my Fastmail address would be a niggling feeling that I've overlooked sites that I've joined in which I've listed my Fastmail address as a "recovery address" over the last 14 years.
Then you better change them before someone takes over your alias (and by the way, don't say publicly in this forum what your alias is, if you haven't already).

I keep control somehow, because every "Welcome to XYZ" email over the years was flagged and archived, so my method for going back to the flagged emails to seek out those sites is well known, and though the task is open I'm sure I'll complete the switch in time for sunset.

But it is, as you say, trivial, to reset passwords for sites that have yours as recovery address. I often use that to reset and deactivate people's Facebook accounts that have mistakenly signed up with my address (or purposefully for some reason) as soon as I get any notifications. I start the recovery process, reset the password, then cancel the account saying this is never been my address and never requested the account (broadly speaking, account compromised), then deactivate it and never sign in to it again, which keeps it deactivated.

There's usually little to no content in those profiles, as I kill them as soon as I see them, but I suppose if I signed up for a new address and I started getting emails intended for the previous owner and they had actual content in it, I'd be tempted to look.

This is a problem. The only way to maintain member security after the shutdown is to never make those aliases available again to anybody. Though I bet $FM won't do that. They'll actually have all of a sudden lots of short and meaningful aliases to redistribute. Great! Thanks, Fastmail!
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Old 25 Jan 2017, 09:12 AM   #173
Bamb0
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gsptlsnz
I'd be willing to pay $15. if I could keep the Classic look and
get 2GB of storage but that is not going to happen.
Indeed....If I could pay them for my account AND STAY ON CLASSIC I would!!!!!!! (Rather than lose the best email provider I ever had since using the internet)

They must be going to sell thier service and to make it look better (In thier eyes) are doing this before they do......
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Old 25 Jan 2017, 11:13 AM   #174
minimalist
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If we take Fastmail at their word that they are discontinuing member accounts to help simplify their internal architecture, what could this mean?

It certainly shouldn't be losing a row or two in the database.

The web interface is different for the various account types so maybe this is the problem. There are at least three clear solutions to this:

1) Cancel the accounts. Fastmail perception: apparently positive. Member perception: decidedly negative.

2) Make the member accounts into free basic accounts as mentioned above. Fastmail perception: ??. Member perception: presumably positive.

3) Remove the webmail interface for member accounts. Members would still need a way to manage passwords(if only since Fastmail changes how passwords work), but the password/security management page is presumably the same for all account types providing the necessary simplification. Fastmail perception: ??. Member perception: ??, fine with me, this would be infinitely better than #1, and barely worse than #2. I never use the webmail interface anyway except to change passwords and delete trash.
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Old 25 Jan 2017, 11:50 AM   #175
BritTim
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Quote:
Originally Posted by minimalist View Post
If we take Fastmail at their word that they are discontinuing member accounts to help simplify their internal architecture, what could this mean?

It certainly shouldn't be losing a row or two in the database.

The web interface is different for the various account types so maybe this is the problem. There are at least three clear solutions to this:

1) Cancel the accounts. Fastmail perception: apparently positive. Member perception: decidedly negative.

2) Make the member accounts into free basic accounts as mentioned above. Fastmail perception: ??. Member perception: presumably positive.

3) Remove the webmail interface for member accounts. Members would still need a way to manage passwords(if only since Fastmail changes how passwords work), but the password/security management page is presumably the same for all account types providing the necessary simplification. Fastmail perception: ??. Member perception: ??, fine with me, this would be infinitely better than #1, and barely worse than #2. I never use the webmail interface anyway except to change passwords and delete trash.
I am not trying to diss any proposed solution. We can do with some creative thinking. Unfortunately, I think the assumption that the differences are only in the web interface is flawed. There are also differences in the backend (for instance, with spam filtering). Further, I think a number of Member account are currently used only for forwarding, and some means would be needed to allow this to continue, I think.

If I believed it would work consistently with no need for support, I would suggest replacing Member accounts with a forwarding service (as I explained earlier in this thread) but I think it would break too often in the future. There would still be some (justified) grumbling anyway.

My inclination is that the Member accounts should be replaced with Ad-Free accounts (another old option that I think is still supported). I doubt very much FastMail will do it.
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Old 25 Jan 2017, 06:32 PM   #176
fentonb
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I would absolutely settle for a forwarding service, but that's all I use my Fastmail address for anyway.

I would encourage everyone to contact support@fastmail.com and let them know their thoughts on this matter. (Ironically I had to login to the Fastmail front end in order to send a mail from my Fastmail account, the first time I've done so in yonks). They did reply to me but seem to be holding their line about terms and conditions. They seem to have conveniently forgotten about this page on the original site https://web.archive.org/web/20021016...ricingtbl.html where it says "US$14.95 one-time fee, gives you a lifetime member-level account."

This situation is outrageous and we have to put pressure on them.
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Old 25 Jan 2017, 11:26 PM   #177
jhollington
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BritTim View Post
I am not trying to diss any proposed solution. We can do with some creative thinking. Unfortunately, I think the assumption that the differences are only in the web interface is flawed. There are also differences in the backend (for instance, with spam filtering).
Throughout all of this, I've really been scratching my head from a technical perspective in wondering exactly what is so complicated about Member accounts that would lead FastMail to taking this step (assuming, of course, that FastMail's stated goal to "simplify our internal architecture" is all there is to this).

As others have pointed out, I would certainly hope there's more to this than a couple of rows in a database, or the paltry 16MB of storage that's allocated to each Member-level account. Back-end account differences such as spam filtering would account for some differences in complexity, and of course require that they maintain old chunks of code that have probably never been updated. However, as others have pointed out, there would be other ways to solve this rather than cutting these accounts off at the knees, such as bringing Member accounts to the same core feature-set that paid accounts now have while still limiting things like storage capacity — I can't imagine special code being required to set lower quotas, for example.

However, I also can't help but wonder if perhaps a bigger part of the reason is that FastMail has chosen to leave Member accounts on older server architecture, and the time has come to retire that architecture. If this is the case, then FastMail is left with the choice between actually migrating a bunch of 16MB "legacy" accounts onto new architecture — systems that may not even support the same features or operate on the same database/mailstore platform — or simply "cutting bait" and discontinuing these accounts entirely so they can take these old systems offline. I can see this especially being true if the "limited number of remaining 'Member' users" are the only reason that some old servers in the corner of the data centre are even still running.

Again, I have no idea what's actually going on, but as somebody who has worked in IT for about 30 years and built many large e-mail systems, this explanation makes the most sense as to why FastMail would take such a step — I can't believe they're capricious enough to just discontinue Member accounts merely because they don't feel like supporting them anymore, and would like to believe that there are bigger factors at play. Migrating data between disparate systems is not a fun task at the best of times, so I can understand the reluctance to do that. Trust me, I've been there — many times.

All of that having been said, I still don't think this lets FastMail off the hook. I have absolutely zero knowledge of the complexities that FastMail may actually be facing with Member-level accounts, so I'm totally "armchair-quarterbacking" here.... but my personal take is that FastMail really should "do the right thing" here and find a way to continue to support these Member accounts in some fashion. While they may not be legally obligated to do so, this seems like a really great opportunity for them to be the good guys.
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Old 25 Jan 2017, 11:27 PM   #178
SideshowBob
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BritTim View Post
Unfortunately, I think the assumption that the differences are only in the web interface is flawed. There are also differences in the backend (for instance, with spam filtering).
FWIW my member account has had spam filtering for a while; I'm not sure when it happened because my own SpamAssassin strips the headers.

There doesn't seem to be a huge amount of difference between a member and basic account beyond the limits. For example a member account has file storage, but the limits make it practically useless. They could have just removed the other differences and not told anyone. (Perhaps they have, I haven't checked).
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Old 25 Jan 2017, 11:58 PM   #179
brownb2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fentonb View Post
You just don't get it, do you? It's TOO LATE now to do that
I fail to see how I don't get it, when I'm simply trying to offer you some help as another member user. I do see how you "don't get it" - you have a couple of choices now, one of them was this, which I myself did as a member account holder.
Out of all the options this is the simplest and will future proof you. But hey, you can shoot the messenger if you like, just don't expect any sympathy when you get burned elsewhere.
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Old 26 Jan 2017, 08:06 AM   #180
somefmfan
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legacy guest

hey,

As a note of introduction and history I have been a happy legacy guest user of fastmail for a while. I'm unsure how long but I might've still been using a lycos account. I remember a friend showing me this thing called google and being surprised i hadn't heard of it. I grew up in the sticks

I've lurked a bit over the years but after receiving the notice of closure the other day I felt to say 'hi' and, unfortunately, possibly 'bye'.

I suppose the biggest reason for the post is just to say 'thanks'. I understand not too many of the FM staff bother with this forum for one reason or another but i know some do so 'thanks'.

I often wondered how long my 'guest' account would survive and tbph I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. I know I kinda' clung on to guest account for a bit longer than probably intended but hey - what can a fella' say.

At the time it was the best service i could find and it was free! I wished a few times i would have purchased the lifetime option but now i have mixed emotions.

I am not a 'power' user. I have survived well with a small inbox and very few frills. I am now trying to replace something that I've grown accustom too and will never find again. The simple, budget, no frills and somewhat secure email service simply doesn't exist anymore - if it ever did. Most everyone wants gb's of storage and all sorts of other stuff that I understand to point but will never use.

I've followed up a few leads but ... one way or the other I'm slowly coming to the realisation I'm losing an old friend forever - which makes me a bit sad

The suggestion of a severely scaled down basic version would take my money. I do not want to use my gmail or yahoo account for anything other than forum registrations and other phone stuff that I reluctantly I agree to and turn off as soon as possible.

So blahblahblah thanks for the fish

p.s.

One of the best things I have ever discovered online is the ability to control the scripts that run on pages i wish to visit. I am one of those people that has everything turned off and will click by click allow what I need to get to where I want.

The pages that run without javascripts are a rarity and from little I can imagine has something to do with the mobile market? But then again I've heard people speak less than nice things about the necessity of javascript.

I'm no techy or code type but I do tend to distrust just about everything online until i know better and even then I'm not so sure.

All this to say I was further dismayed by the notice to force javascript to run before I could access my mail. But heck - what can a guest user complain about really.

cheers!
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