For the Love of God, Just Switch Back to the Classic Interface

[ddw]

Please allow me to set a preference to allow classic interface. I do not want to use a special URL. I do not want to have to check a box every time for something that I think should be default.

I am frustrated. So far the only new thing that MAY be nice SOMETIMES is the conversation display. That is hard for me to get used to. It is especially painful when the default delete is to delete every email in a conversation. Please make that a choice with a secondary warning. I have many correspondents who seldom start a new email on a new topic, they simply replay to an old email. If I want to delete a message, I do not want to lose all the others that they sent and what I sent. The classic interface allowed me to select multiple messages or filter the list to only one person. That was my choice and my control.

I feel you have taken away my control. When I choose to not show emails in conversations, it still does so. Then after putsing around, it finally sort of changes. Frustrating.

Thank you programmers for the effort, but no thank you.

QUESTION : When will you just cut off all users of the "classic" interface? I want a warning. I need time to figure out how too make the new interface work for me or to change email services.

I really like your service. I try to get others to use it. I'm not so sure now. I'll be slow for a while at recommending it.There are enough good things that might keep me as a user, but I'm very frustrated that you seem to have taken a clean utility and traded function for form.

Bring back the easy ability to click my most common recipients into the To Cc and Bcc fields. Please

[m46ah_30]

The "details" function of "Mailbox space" that lives at the bottom of the sidebar and lists the amount of storage being used by each folder... is it gone in the new UI? If so, more's the pity!

[camner]

Sad to say, I find myself in agreement with those who don't care for either the new interface or the "new" classic interface. The amount of white space and vertical space in the "new" classic interface makes for a great deal of scrolling that didn't have to take place before.

I'm neither bitter nor angry, but I can't say this is FM's finest hour. The whole rollout seems to be clumsily handled.

I hope FM finds a way to walk this at least partially back.

I will say that I'm 100% in favor of FM's modernizing the back end to take advantage of modern technologies.

[astrodog73]

Originally Posted by ddw;

QUESTION : When will you just cut off all users of the "classic" interface? I want a warning. I need time to figure out how too make the new interface work for me or to change email services.

I think this is an excellent question....
Will the next downtime for upgrades remove the classic interface without notice???

[Tappahannock]

I realize that the meta comments quickly become a distraction at a time like this when people are extremely busy prioritizing and extinguishing fires. So I'll stop making them after this. But this is not only a practical and technical problem. It's also a classic problem of management.

For me, BritTim's perspective seems to epitomize a real-world, feet-on-the-ground understanding of how a utility application like Fastmail fits into the overall food chain. Obviously and unarguably there is a point in Opera's chain of command that sorely needs the addition of someone with perspective like BritTim's who understands users "outside the bubble" and whose focus is on their overall ecosystem and not merely the Art of Email.

That specifically is what I meant in another post when I mentioned "adult supervision."

I mean this less as a criticism of what did happen and more as the strongest possible suggestion for change to ensure that this and other potentially devastating self-destructive misjudgments and missteps don't recur in the future. No company can afford many of these.

It's easy to see what happened, it's an all-too-familiar story, and it's the result of the right kinds of voices not being represented (or not being heeded) at the level where they needed to be heard. This rollout wasn't a little off the mark, it was extravagantly wide of the mark. And incredibly predictable. But a few people got too caught up in their own little (and probably competing) microcosms and failed to notice the impending storm.

[labarum]

Originally Posted by camner

Sad to say, I find myself in agreement with those who don't care for either the new interface or the "new" classic interface. The amount of white space and vertical space in the "new" classic interface makes for a great deal of scrolling that didn't have to take place before.

Agreed. When the Beta interface first appeared I opened it, saw how much screen space it wasted and on finding no configuration options, closed it.

I opened it every few months to try again - and closed it.

And I agree that the 'backend' needed an update - but not the functionality for which many (most) had chosen Fastmail. If they had wanted 'simple and pretty'. they would have chosen something else.

[robert@fm]

It has occurred to me that by forcing users to accept cookies in order to log in to Fastmail, Opera may be breaking UK law.

My understanding of the recently-passed law is that all websites which are accessible from the UK must warn users on the front page that they need to accept cookies in order to go any further, or (preferably) make use of cookies to use the site optional. Opera don't seem to have done either of these things.

And I still maintain that the removal of the ability to log in by using a bookmark containing a(n encrypted) password was a major error on their part which should be reverted ASAP. The lame excuse of "security", which is the same one Windows trots out when it refuses for no good reason to allow me to access my own files simply because they're on another machine on the network, doesn't impress me.

[johanborg]

Originally Posted by ddw

Please allow me to set a preference to allow classic interface. I do not want to use a special URL. I do not want to have to check a box every time for something that I think should be default.

QUESTION : When will you just cut off all users of the "classic" interface? I want a warning. I need time to figure out how too make the new interface work for me or to change email services.

1. We have (finally!!) made that checkbox stick like it should.

2. From we warned about takedown of old.fastmail.fm until it was shut down it took 43 months. I'm not promising 43 months warning, but I can tell you so much: We aren't warning about any such change because it isn't planned.

[JohnMike]

Originally Posted by johanborg

1. We have (finally!!) made that checkbox stick like it should.

2. From we warned about takedown of old.fastmail.fm until it was shut down it took 43 months. I'm not promising 43 months warning, but I can tell you so much: We aren't warning about any such change because it isn't planned.

Ok Johan may I be permitted to rephrase the question is Opera going to give an absolute assurance that the classic interface will remain fully supported in parallel with the new UI for the life of the membership who want it?

If not I request yet again an answer to the question - what now is the point of FM. All the FM features which made FM FM have been removed. So we may as well all start using free services which more than cover the the features of this new UI.

I don't get it. Why would we pay for this new service?

[jrbirdman_GA]

Originally Posted by aPilot

I disagree with the OP, the whole point of a beta server is that it's beta.

Now that that's the default interface, FM is getting the feedback they asked for. I see absolutely no reason in quietly using classic.fastmail until it is killed off. 100% of FM customers are now beta testers, so they're getting feedback from all 100%.

Not everyone. I don't know how much good feedback they'll get on the new interface if a lot of folks have to flip back to the classic interface just to get it working. Like me.

I've developed and managed the release of commercial software products and there's no way around the fact that this was 1) handled badly (no warning) and 2) done badly (missing obvious functionality -- pop link fetches).

I would have expected a lot more from the original FM team and certainly from Opera who usually pride themselves on reliable and standards-compliant software releases.

I guess we'll see what happens in the next few weeks otherwise, like a lot of other disappointed FM users, I'll start looking for alternatives.

[Mystakill]

Originally Posted by sflorack

Loss of functionality I sympathize with. Loss of fonts or colors -- not so much.

If I wanted loss of colors, I'd turn on my Mac (mumble, mumble, frickin' bland Mountain Lion...)

[ddw]

Originally Posted by johanborg

1. We have (finally!!) made that checkbox stick like it should.

Thank you. I see it sticks using cookies. I frequently delete all cookies. I can live with re-clicking when delete cookies.

[apl]

Originally Posted by m46ah_30

The "details" function of "Mailbox space" that lives at the bottom of the sidebar and lists the amount of storage being used by each folder... is it gone in the new UI? If so, more's the pity!

It is still there, Account > Quota usage

The quick link is missing though.

Regards Alan

[m46ah_30]

Thank you... I find that data most useful.

[Bamb0]

Originally Posted by sflorack

For the Love of God, Just Switch Back to the Classic Interface

We cant!!

The classic interface is on old.fastmail.fm - THATS THE "CLASSIC" INTERFACE! (This new stuff cannot be called CLASSIC and should not be - ITS NOT!!)