Consolidate/rename account - Page 2

biffbulkie · 28 Feb 2002, 01:45 AM

Well, now mail to my domain still goes to my old account name,
although the contents of my folders are under the new account name (which I can access through IMAP but not through the web interface)

Combine this with my continuing zoneedit
problems means I am not having a good week.........

**gpdoyon** · 28 Feb 2002, 02:42 AM

I believe that Rob and Jeremy are going to be working on this problem as soon as they wake up.

- Gerry

Jeremy Howard · 28 Feb 2002, 03:45 AM

Not Jeremy--I'm about to jump on a plane... I'll shoot Rob an email to make sure he looks into it early however. (Although it's 6.30am now, so I don't imagine he'll be up for a while given his late night! --make sure you email webmaster if you've got a problem so he can fix it up for you).

**circuit** · 28 Feb 2002, 03:55 AM

i already own circuit@fastmail.fm and circuit@f-m.fm... i wanted to try delete circuit@fastmail.fm so tried to move everything to circuit@f-m.fm (don't ask why, i was bored i guess)

anyway i got both these messages...

An error occured trying to create the new user. Please contact the webmaster at webmaster@fastmail.fm and we'll look into this.
The user name you chose already exists. Please try another name.

Account rename complete. Click Logout above to logout. Then log back in with your new account name.

The account circuit@fastmail.fm will automatically be deleted in 7 days. An alias has already been setup so any email sent to circuit@fastmail.fm will go to circuit@f-m.fm instead.

so it failed, because circuit@f-m.fm already exists... understandable... but my account is gonna be deleted?????

biffbulkie · 28 Feb 2002, 04:06 AM

I guess we are beginning to see the risks of a 2 man operation.
Here we have a problem, and there is no one awake to fix it.
This would not be an issue for a free service but for a paid service, it would be nice if there were someone available 24/7
to take care of problems when they arise (and they inevitably will).

**circuit** · 28 Feb 2002, 04:09 AM

yes this is true. one of the harsh realties of asking for payment... customer service.

not that the current customer service isn't excellent - but many people will expect it 24/7 unless you explicitly list your "opening hours".

Jeremy Howard · 28 Feb 2002, 04:13 AM

Don't worry--your account won't be deleted until everything is resolved. The reason we've set it up like that for now is so that any teething problems like this don't cause major difficulties--all it's doing at the moment is keeping a log of which accounts are being migrated which we'll delete manually after confirming that everything is OK.

FastMail.FM is a 24x7 operation, in that we get paged if there's a problem with the server, and we fix it, day or night. Rob and I have a timetable such that one of us is always available with our pager on. So any server outages are fixed right away. Account-specific problems (or specific to just a few accounts like this one) may have to wait up to 12 hours, which is still a lot better than almost any other paid provider I can think of!

robmueller · 28 Feb 2002, 07:27 AM

*sigh*

In those now, famously large and friendly letters, "DON'T PANIC".

The script is pretty careful about not loosing any information, though if it gets errors, it can leave accounts in an inconsistent state.

So what I'm going to do is disable renaming for the moment as well. Over the morning and afternoon, I'll fix any accounts left in a problem state, and then go through the code and fix any problems I can find.

I've already had a few ideas at 3:30AM lying in bed trying to sleep.

Sorry about any problems...

Rob

noelos · 28 Feb 2002, 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by robmueller
In those now, famously large and friendly letters, "DON'T PANIC".

I'm not panicking as such. But I do feel a shortness of breath and confusion due to my lack of email service. I know it will be back but what about the immediate present!!!

Good luck with the debug.

tnt · 28 Feb 2002, 08:18 AM

I renamed my username too and also ran into some trouble resulting into getting an error when trying to log on to the newly renamed account and not being able to receive any emails to the old account. Thankfully all emails sent to my old account were actually redirected to the renamed one as I found out when I used my mail client to receive emails from there. So, no harm done really. It could have been quite annoying if I was relying on the web interface to read an important email or something. (on the other hand, maybe I wouldn't be renaming my account just then if that was the case!)

However, I am completely confident that the problem will be fixed soon. Jeremy and Rob have already acknowledged the problem and will soon rectify the situation!

...and as a comparison with a "24/7" company...

When I had terrible problems with my previous e-mail provider over a period of 20 twenty (!!) days when I _was_ relying on the web interface, I sent them an email and never heard back from them! Unless you can count the time that they sent me an e-mail around 6 months later saying that they couldn't charge my VISA for my yearly subscription(although I was on a month by month basis) and that if I didn't do so by February they would close my POP account. Lucky me I had moved and forgot to change my billing address!

I do hope it doesn't take 20 days to fix this! :-)

Cheers,
Theo

**JeffK** · 28 Feb 2002, 11:29 AM

Re Fastmails level of customer service referred to in this thread. Where else can you communicate with the developers in a public forum and get responses a minimum of twice per day. Where else is the helpdesk/call centre open to public view so that you can see the progress of not only your queries but everyone else as well? I reckon its great

but it may not last because Fastmail will become so popular that maintaining this service level and transparency will become impossible.

Jeff K

ikxu · 28 Feb 2002, 12:58 PM

This is why the forum helps so much.
For many things we are here and willing to help one another.
Also there are tons of advice which have been posted for awhile now. SO if Rob and Jeremy are sleeping, how do they dare.... many problems can be solved by just asking here at the forum.
ikxu

robmueller · 28 Feb 2002, 03:00 PM

Ok, I've finally fixed up all the problem accounts and emailed the relevant people at FastMail and their backup address.

Basically most of them completed correctly, but due to a last minute change, weren't getting a proper folder list, which was the error you got when trying to login. IMAP was working fine however, and so was email delivery, including all the aliases and the like. That includes the alias automatically added to redirect any new mail from the old account name straight to the new account name.

Apart from the problems, I actually had a good idea last night about how to speed the movement process up a lot, so I'm implementing that at the moment.

I'm also adding in lots of logging code so that any problems in the future will be quicker and easier to track down and fix.

Thanks for everyone's patience, and sorry for any inconvenience.

Rob

robmueller · 28 Feb 2002, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JeffK
but it may not last because Fastmail will become so popular that maintaining this service level and transparency will become impossible.

This is a definite concern. It takes several hours a day to keep the webmaster folder and forum questions under control. People really like the prompt feedback and support, but it also means that it's time we're not spending developing new features.

I know Jeremy has a few ideas, including a 'question exchange area'. I guess the idea is for "time/information rich but money poor" people to exchange information with "time/information poor but money rich" people. People with support questions can submit them and offer an amount of money for an answer. People can answer them, and if it satisfying the original poster, they get the money.

Of course, this brings up mountains of issues itself, like honesty of payers, accuracy of information, etc. Don't know if it would actually work or not, but might be worth trying...

The other thing we have to look at doing is tailoring our response with regard to people's service level. People who pay more probably expect and deserve better support than guest users.

And of course there's always improving the help system. The amount of knowledge buried in the faq is continuously growing. I recently wanted to explain how SMTP and POP are different to each other and what they're used for. I couldn't find a reasonable diagram elsewhere, so I created one myself http://www.fastmail.fm/docs/email_on_the_internet.html.

And then of course there are all the posts on this forum which we should index at some stage, and some how wack a nice intelligent search engine on top of it all...

Rob

robmueller · 28 Feb 2002, 09:03 PM

I'm not quite finished the changes yet, and it's midnight, so I think I might get to bed. I'll definitely have the new 'Rename' and 'Consolidate' code up tomorrow so I'll re-enable them then. I'm even feeling better about it now. More error checking, more logging, and a few more fixes...

Rob

28 Feb 2002, 08:18 AM	#25
tnt Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: UK, Daventry Posts: 4	24/7 I renamed my username too and also ran into some trouble resulting into getting an error when trying to log on to the newly renamed account and not being able to receive any emails to the old account. Thankfully all emails sent to my old account were actually redirected to the renamed one as I found out when I used my mail client to receive emails from there. So, no harm done really. It could have been quite annoying if I was relying on the web interface to read an important email or something. (on the other hand, maybe I wouldn't be renaming my account just then if that was the case!) However, I am completely confident that the problem will be fixed soon. Jeremy and Rob have already acknowledged the problem and will soon rectify the situation! ...and as a comparison with a "24/7" company... When I had terrible problems with my previous e-mail provider over a period of 20 twenty (!!) days when I _was_ relying on the web interface, I sent them an email and never heard back from them! Unless you can count the time that they sent me an e-mail around 6 months later saying that they couldn't charge my VISA for my yearly subscription(although I was on a month by month basis) and that if I didn't do so by February they would close my POP account. Lucky me I had moved and forgot to change my billing address! I do hope it doesn't take 20 days to fix this! :-) Cheers, Theo

28 Feb 2002, 12:58 PM	#27
ikxu Guest Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 400	forum is here This is why the forum helps so much. For many things we are here and willing to help one another. Also there are tons of advice which have been posted for awhile now. SO if Rob and Jeremy are sleeping, how do they dare.... many problems can be solved by just asking here at the forum. ikxu

28 Feb 2002, 01:45 AM	#16
biffbulkie Essential Contributor Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: New England Posts: 358	Well, now mail to my domain still goes to my old account name, although the contents of my folders are under the new account name (which I can access through IMAP but not through the web interface) Combine this with my continuing zoneedit problems means I am not having a good week.........

28 Feb 2002, 02:42 AM	#17
gpdoyon Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Westbrook, Maine USA Posts: 462	I believe that Rob and Jeremy are going to be working on this problem as soon as they wake up. - Gerry

28 Feb 2002, 03:45 AM	#18
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	Not Jeremy--I'm about to jump on a plane... I'll shoot Rob an email to make sure he looks into it early however. (Although it's 6.30am now, so I don't imagine he'll be up for a while given his late night! --make sure you email webmaster if you've got a problem so he can fix it up for you).

28 Feb 2002, 03:55 AM	#19
circuit Moderator Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: UK Posts: 343	i already own circuit@fastmail.fm and circuit@f-m.fm... i wanted to try delete circuit@fastmail.fm so tried to move everything to circuit@f-m.fm (don't ask why, i was bored i guess) anyway i got both these messages... An error occured trying to create the new user. Please contact the webmaster at webmaster@fastmail.fm and we'll look into this. The user name you chose already exists. Please try another name. Account rename complete. Click Logout above to logout. Then log back in with your new account name. The account circuit@fastmail.fm will automatically be deleted in 7 days. An alias has already been setup so any email sent to circuit@fastmail.fm will go to circuit@f-m.fm instead. so it failed, because circuit@f-m.fm already exists... understandable... but my account is gonna be deleted?????

28 Feb 2002, 04:06 AM	#20
biffbulkie Essential Contributor Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: New England Posts: 358	I guess we are beginning to see the risks of a 2 man operation. Here we have a problem, and there is no one awake to fix it. This would not be an issue for a free service but for a paid service, it would be nice if there were someone available 24/7 to take care of problems when they arise (and they inevitably will).

28 Feb 2002, 04:09 AM	#21
circuit Moderator Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: UK Posts: 343	yes this is true. one of the harsh realties of asking for payment... customer service. not that the current customer service isn't excellent - but many people will expect it 24/7 unless you explicitly list your "opening hours".

28 Feb 2002, 04:13 AM	#22
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	Don't worry--your account won't be deleted until everything is resolved. The reason we've set it up like that for now is so that any teething problems like this don't cause major difficulties--all it's doing at the moment is keeping a log of which accounts are being migrated which we'll delete manually after confirming that everything is OK. FastMail.FM is a 24x7 operation, in that we get paged if there's a problem with the server, and we fix it, day or night. Rob and I have a timetable such that one of us is always available with our pager on. So any server outages are fixed right away. Account-specific problems (or specific to just a few accounts like this one) may have to wait up to 12 hours, which is still a lot better than almost any other paid provider I can think of!

28 Feb 2002, 07:27 AM	#23
robmueller Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 6,102 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	sigh In those now, famously large and friendly letters, "DON'T PANIC". The script is pretty careful about not loosing any information, though if it gets errors, it can leave accounts in an inconsistent state. So what I'm going to do is disable renaming for the moment as well. Over the morning and afternoon, I'll fix any accounts left in a problem state, and then go through the code and fix any problems I can find. I've already had a few ideas at 3:30AM lying in bed trying to sleep. Sorry about any problems... Rob

28 Feb 2002, 11:29 AM	#26
JeffK Moderator Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Kingaroy, AU Posts: 3,177	Re Fastmails level of customer service referred to in this thread. Where else can you communicate with the developers in a public forum and get responses a minimum of twice per day. Where else is the helpdesk/call centre open to public view so that you can see the progress of not only your queries but everyone else as well? I reckon its great but it may not last because Fastmail will become so popular that maintaining this service level and transparency will become impossible. Jeff K

28 Feb 2002, 03:00 PM	#28
robmueller Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 6,102 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	Ok, I've finally fixed up all the problem accounts and emailed the relevant people at FastMail and their backup address. Basically most of them completed correctly, but due to a last minute change, weren't getting a proper folder list, which was the error you got when trying to login. IMAP was working fine however, and so was email delivery, including all the aliases and the like. That includes the alias automatically added to redirect any new mail from the old account name straight to the new account name. Apart from the problems, I actually had a good idea last night about how to speed the movement process up a lot, so I'm implementing that at the moment. I'm also adding in lots of logging code so that any problems in the future will be quicker and easier to track down and fix. Thanks for everyone's patience, and sorry for any inconvenience. Rob

28 Feb 2002, 09:03 PM	#30
robmueller Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 6,102 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	I'm not quite finished the changes yet, and it's midnight, so I think I might get to bed. I'll definitely have the new 'Rename' and 'Consolidate' code up tomorrow so I'll re-enable them then. I'm even feeling better about it now. More error checking, more logging, and a few more fixes... Rob