Wow, I had forgotten just how much discussion and angst there was about the new Fastmail interface back when the whole brouhaha erupted. I remembered it had occurred, but the details had faded for me. Since I haven't followed the whole thing, I have trouble seeing whether the new interface has visibly evolved or is it still basically what it was in 2012. On the surface it looks about the same as I remember it, and there is still essentially zero customizability, just 3-4 set layouts and some minimally differing, unmodifiable themes. No skinning. But there may be a lot under the hood that has improved.
It's kind of ironic how FM started out having the indisputably most configurable back and front ends in the industry, and now it looks like the back end is mostly still there while the front end has become more-or-less the least configurable front-end in the industry. But nothing lasts, at least not if you don't run it on your own site. I'm sure there's a considered business argument for the way the product has evolved.
While I migrated the daily email I consider close and important back then, I've kept an account on FM with a few legacy addresses where I try to steer most of my high-volume-low-import correspondence and stuff from my "old life" -- plus one legacy client who generates a ton of registration forms, charge receipts, reports, etc. Occasionally I go in, sort it all, and do mass purges of what I can. Classic has been ideally suited to that, so I haven't followed the AJAX interface.
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Originally Posted by cmac
no offense to anyone but times change, technology changes and i'm willing to bet those stuck on the classic interface are older people who simply don't like the change. personally i moved on from the classic type interface email services long ago. i prefer the "new" style.
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None taken -- nor intended. Younger people, including younger adults, have a mental blindness to dimensions/dynamics of life and daily interactions they have not yet discovered. They simply don't recognize they are there and even have some trouble grasping when you try to explain. They look at a situation and think they understand what's happening in it; but when they look back at the same situation 20 or 30 years later, they have an OMG experience -- "THAT's what was really going on! How could I not see that?" There's no shame in this in-the-moment way of experiencing life; it's exactly how youth is meant to be and helps make some things more bearable. But it's why few adults become ready for leadership or decision-making positions until some time in their thirties or even forties. These things require big-picture thinking and perception, and the ability to see the big picture is the slowest to develop in the human brain. We all go through that.
Like everything else in your life, email fills a certain slot. You see certain ways to use it, probably based on dealing with one email at a time, probably in a fairly small volume (e.g. not hundreds or more of substantive ones each week), and you develop the perfect (for you) way to interact with it. And it's hard for you to conceive of radically different needs or factors. In fact, you may never need anything beyond what you do now. But intuitively you assume other people's needs are much like your own and interpret their actions and reactions through the prism of your own experience and nature. Couples counselors spend all day long helping people, especially younger people, come to terms with that fact of human nature and what it really means for interacting successfully with others.
You see how FM or any other site or app functions within your own personal situation -- not the probably more complex situation of "older" people you're criticizing as inflexible. Meaner people than I am would say it can take a decade or so for younger adults to start extracting their heads into the daylight.
So no offense taken. And none intended. I promise you'll see your own comment quite differently in another 10-20 years.
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Originally Posted by ChinaLamb
The 'classic' interface isn't going anywhere, in fact, that 'classic' interface is getting new features which are rolling out now alongside the 'new' interface.
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Originally Posted by robn
Well that's kind of quibbling over semantics, but I can try to make it crystal clear. old.fastmail.fm is dead and gone (more info in this blog post for those that missed it). We now have three interfaces in production:
All are fully supported, and we have no plans to remove any of them.
I hope that's clear enough. |
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Originally Posted by Random832
Forever? Not just for some three-year-or-whatever transitional period that will end eventually? I notice the old old interface is gone now. I think this is why some people are complaining: They're assuming that classic will be gone after three years just like old, and I don't see any guarantees being made that they're wrong.
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And the winner is... Random832. As he (and I, and surely many others) foresaw.
On EDIT: Final paragraph removed for NDA compliance.