Fastmail Acquired by Opera! - Page 8

RusVebgo · 30 Apr 2010, 11:01 PM

Sad news indeed, I've been with fastmail for a long time and now it's gone. I've no interest at all in Opera as a browser or as a company that I want to deal with, so now I'm off as soon as I can make new arrangements.

Bloody nuisance as I've got about 5 years of archived emails that I'll need to migrate to Google Apps and I don't even like the way google does IMAP. To top off the bad news I've just discovered that my domain hosting service has stuffed up my account and I'm not currently authorised to make changes to my domain DNS server settings.

David · 30 Apr 2010, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drencrom

Just like everyone else I am very surprised by the news. Let's hope this takeover is for the best.

It's good to see that this thread has pulled you out of the woodwork Drencrom

Chipper · 30 Apr 2010, 11:12 PM

Well, like a few others, this is my first post in a while. The only thing I can't seem to figure out is what functionality/features will I lose? If somebody can point me to a link and/or show me, that would be great. Specifically:
* Folders/personalities -- when I'm in FolderA, it uses PersonalityA when I compose a message. FolderB uses PersonalityB, etc.
* Ordering folders -- my most frequently used folders are at the top.
* Hiding folders -- I prefer "hidden unless unread" feature for several folders
* Lots of other features that are unique to FM.

Really nice feature: subdomain addressing. I use this to assign a unique email addr when I have to register somewhere:
* Amazon Books = amazon AT myuserid DOT fmdomain DOT tld
* EBay = ebay AT myuserid DOT fmdomain DOT tld
etc, etc

I'm not as concerned who is going to own it as much as what changes will occur. And like others, I have always liked the quick response of the FM folks.

Drencrom · 30 Apr 2010, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David

It's good to see that this thread has pulled you out of the woodwork Drencrom

Thanx, bro.

I am actually equally shocked by how FAST you have made your decision to leave FastMail.

ao1 · 30 Apr 2010, 11:20 PM

I can't say that I am dismayed, mostly because Opera has been one of the less evil corporations out there, but I do have some concerns.

The current team has been very responsive to user needs and issues.
1. Are they being retained?
2. Will the practice continue?
3. Will fasmail.fm operate semi-independently (as a subsidiary) or will it be fully assimilated?

matthewc · 30 Apr 2010, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chipper

Well, like a few others, this is my first post in a while. The only thing I can't seem to figure out is what functionality/features will I lose?

Really nice feature: subdomain addressing. I use this to assign a unique email addr when I have to register somewhere:

I'm not as concerned who is going to own it as much as what changes will occur. And like others, I have always liked the quick response of the FM folks.

That is one of my major concerns. I wonder what would happen if we lose subdomain addressing? I have given out thousands of unique addresses over the years.

I don't really mind the switch. It was inevitable. I just wonder how it will affect the unique way I use FM.

taxpayer · 30 Apr 2010, 11:27 PM

The new user agreement says

Quote:

Unless otherwise authorised and acquired by law, your personal information will only be used or disclosed for these purposes.

I have never encountered this term, "acquired by law," and I wonder what it means. Perhaps it just means that someone has been proofreading with the spellchecker, but I've no idea what that means legally. IANAL

Luzo · 30 Apr 2010, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChinaLamb

I will, however, begin backing up my data regularly just in case...

Same here, copying files/mails to my eumx.net account, just in case the machine goes berserk.

adion · 30 Apr 2010, 11:41 PM

Just as I moved from Gmail literally 4 days ago. Still in the honeymoon phase with Fastmail. What gives?

spaeth · 30 Apr 2010, 11:42 PM

I have been with Fastmail since 2002 and I have really loved that it was small and had amazing customer service. I didn't really recognize how special it was and how much love I had for it until today upon hearing this news.

There's no where else I want to go. I am going to stick with it and see what happens. It feels kind of like when losing an old friend.

Matt

Drencrom · 30 Apr 2010, 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spaeth

I have been with Fastmail since 2002 and I have really loved that it was small and had amazing customer service. I didn't really recognize how special it was and how much love I had for it until today upon hearing this news.

There's no where else I want to go. I am going to stick with it and see what happens. It feels kind of like when losing an old friend.

Matt

Ditto, man. Same story here, even the year 2002.

I for one would love to know how much FM actually cost. Is it likely that this information will be disclosed?

COUME · 30 Apr 2010, 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drencrom

Ditto, man. Same story here, even the year 2002.

I for one would love to know how much FM actually cost. Is it likely that this information will be disclosed?

Opera is traded so just wait their next report to dig into the figures.
http://www.opera.com/company/investors/

mrparson · 30 Apr 2010, 11:59 PM

Personally, I find this a bit disheartening since I am new to Fastmail (about 1 week now) and bought 3 years of service for me and my spouse. So I now have 2 accounts that if I cancel I lose all the money I just paid.

I think if you cancel you should get back your money (prorated of course), but I find it disingenuous when they clearly knew before they made their most recent offer to get people to sign up.

I would cancel and walk away but I am also out $80.00 if I do after 1 week of use (my spouse has yet to use it).

Not very happy with this treatment.

Like others FM seems to be about the bottom line even when they knew this was coming to take people's money.

I would go back to Netaddress in a heartbeat now, but it stinks paying this company $80.00 for service I would never get use of personally.

I am not sure if I can dispute this legally with my CC company and not pay for the recent charges and cancel my service.

hankfoner · 30 Apr 2010, 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwin

Much too early to tell - I'm just catching up with the news now (frankly I was just as surprised as everyone else; despite the arrangement to run the official Fastmail forums over here I didn't have any "inside knowledge" about the takeover or any hint it was on the cards)...

However, IF the decision is taken in the future that the "official" Fastmail forums will no longer be on EmailDiscussions.com (in the sense that Fastmail no longer directs people over here to talk about Fastmail, nor do they provide staff to answer support queries, feature requests etc. on here) then at that point I would probably have to close their forums to future posts. It would probably make sense to archive the existing discussions in such a way that they could still be read, since there's such a wealth of material on there.

Be assured that I wouldn't take such a decision hastily or lightly, but the above is completely in line with my approach since the foundation of this forum, well over a decade ago.

I too am in shock! And I'll have to think about backing up my archived mail. But if the forums go that'll be a DISASTER!

Jeremy Howard · 1 May 2010, 12:01 AM

Hi everyone! This is my first post without a "representive of: fastmail" tag attached to me!

All the full-time staff have been retained (I haven't been operationally involved in FastMail for a few years - just a bit of advisory stuff here and there). Personally, I'm no longer officially connected with the company.

Some comments on the various stuff mentioned so far in this thread:

I understand that people would have liked some warning, but that wasn't an option - everyone was under strict NDAs. So, sorry but we had no choice but to spring this on you!

The recent change of the TOS to reflect "FastMail Partnership" rather than "FastMail Unit Trust" has nothing to do with this - it happened over a year ago before any discussions with Opera started. The new owner of FastMail is "Opera Australia", as the email sent to everyone mentioned. This is an Australian company. So I don't see that anything has changed in terms of legal jurisdiction (although I'm not a lawyer, so take that with a grain of salt!)

It seems to me then that with all the same full-time staff, and the same legal jurisdiction, there's not really much reason to expect to see substantial changes in how things run. I would think that Opera wouldn't spend money buying the business if it wasn't going to try really hard to keep the current customers happy!

The big change, in my opinion, is that FastMail is now backed by a much bigger, richer, company... Which should mean more features, and more security.

(The above is all just my opinion - not an official comment from FastMail, of course.)

30 Apr 2010, 11:42 PM	#115
spaeth Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 1	Kind of sad I have been with Fastmail since 2002 and I have really loved that it was small and had amazing customer service. I didn't really recognize how special it was and how much love I had for it until today upon hearing this news. There's no where else I want to go. I am going to stick with it and see what happens. It feels kind of like when losing an old friend. Matt

30 Apr 2010, 11:01 PM	#106
RusVebgo Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 19	Sad news indeed, I've been with fastmail for a long time and now it's gone. I've no interest at all in Opera as a browser or as a company that I want to deal with, so now I'm off as soon as I can make new arrangements. Bloody nuisance as I've got about 5 years of archived emails that I'll need to migrate to Google Apps and I don't even like the way google does IMAP. To top off the bad news I've just discovered that my domain hosting service has stuffed up my account and I'm not currently authorised to make changes to my domain DNS server settings.

30 Apr 2010, 11:12 PM	#108
Chipper Master of the @ Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Greenbelt, MD (USA) Posts: 1,278	Well, like a few others, this is my first post in a while. The only thing I can't seem to figure out is what functionality/features will I lose? If somebody can point me to a link and/or show me, that would be great. Specifically: * Folders/personalities -- when I'm in FolderA, it uses PersonalityA when I compose a message. FolderB uses PersonalityB, etc. * Ordering folders -- my most frequently used folders are at the top. * Hiding folders -- I prefer "hidden unless unread" feature for several folders * Lots of other features that are unique to FM. Really nice feature: subdomain addressing. I use this to assign a unique email addr when I have to register somewhere: * Amazon Books = amazon AT myuserid DOT fmdomain DOT tld * EBay = ebay AT myuserid DOT fmdomain DOT tld etc, etc I'm not as concerned who is going to own it as much as what changes will occur. And like others, I have always liked the quick response of the FM folks.

30 Apr 2010, 11:20 PM	#110
ao1 Essential Contributor Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 327	I can't say that I am dismayed, mostly because Opera has been one of the less evil corporations out there, but I do have some concerns. The current team has been very responsive to user needs and issues. 1. Are they being retained? 2. Will the practice continue? 3. Will fasmail.fm operate semi-independently (as a subsidiary) or will it be fully assimilated?

30 Apr 2010, 11:41 PM	#114
adion Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 2	Just as I moved from Gmail literally 4 days ago. Still in the honeymoon phase with Fastmail. What gives?

30 Apr 2010, 11:59 PM	#118
mrparson Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 16	Personally, I find this a bit disheartening since I am new to Fastmail (about 1 week now) and bought 3 years of service for me and my spouse. So I now have 2 accounts that if I cancel I lose all the money I just paid. I think if you cancel you should get back your money (prorated of course), but I find it disingenuous when they clearly knew before they made their most recent offer to get people to sign up. I would cancel and walk away but I am also out $80.00 if I do after 1 week of use (my spouse has yet to use it). Not very happy with this treatment. Like others FM seems to be about the bottom line even when they knew this was coming to take people's money. I would go back to Netaddress in a heartbeat now, but it stinks paying this company $80.00 for service I would never get use of personally. I am not sure if I can dispute this legally with my CC company and not pay for the recent charges and cancel my service.

1 May 2010, 12:01 AM	#120
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	Hi everyone! This is my first post without a "representive of: fastmail" tag attached to me! All the full-time staff have been retained (I haven't been operationally involved in FastMail for a few years - just a bit of advisory stuff here and there). Personally, I'm no longer officially connected with the company. Some comments on the various stuff mentioned so far in this thread: I understand that people would have liked some warning, but that wasn't an option - everyone was under strict NDAs. So, sorry but we had no choice but to spring this on you! The recent change of the TOS to reflect "FastMail Partnership" rather than "FastMail Unit Trust" has nothing to do with this - it happened over a year ago before any discussions with Opera started. The new owner of FastMail is "Opera Australia", as the email sent to everyone mentioned. This is an Australian company. So I don't see that anything has changed in terms of legal jurisdiction (although I'm not a lawyer, so take that with a grain of salt!) It seems to me then that with all the same full-time staff, and the same legal jurisdiction, there's not really much reason to expect to see substantial changes in how things run. I would think that Opera wouldn't spend money buying the business if it wasn't going to try really hard to keep the current customers happy! The big change, in my opinion, is that FastMail is now backed by a much bigger, richer, company... Which should mean more features, and more security. (The above is all just my opinion - not an official comment from FastMail, of course.)