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FastMail Forum All posts relating to FastMail.FM should go here: suggestions, comments, requests for help, complaints, technical issues etc. |
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20 Jan 2017, 06:20 PM | #91 | |
Master of the @
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: USA
Posts: 1,878
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Fastmail has always been my favourite and THE BEST!! -- If I had a way to pay them for my usage the last 10 years I WOULD!!! |
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20 Jan 2017, 08:25 PM | #92 | ||
Member
Join Date: May 2002
Location: London UK
Posts: 47
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However, I think the problem goes deeper than that in two respects. First, in my opinion $FM will become more and more solely email for businesses and stop appealing to individuals or families (except some IT professionals). Members weren't businesses. The new organizational mindset won't care about individuals, therefore, it won't care about members. Simple. If it once did, it will do its best to forget. Second, we have to see this in the context of the 'death of email'. Email for the masses is oversupplied, there's nothing to be gained by giving the masses an exquisite product (particularly not masses who're used to getting everything for free). And people serving the needs of business communications won't have to compete only against other email providers, they have to compete against new products like Slack and other forms of messaging, which might eventually displace email. The competition for the next round of technological advancement is likely to be fierce, and many along the road will perish. $FM's goal is probably to make sure they can offer an advanced technological product, along a profitable user base, so that they can appeal to a big organization, along the lines, probably, of a NASDAQ-listed CRM provider, and be bought up. And I might venture if it wasn't bought in about five years, $FM's value as a business would decline and it might become outdated and unwanted (perhaps like uReach). So, yes, I do see behind this move a move to specialization and profitability and away from the threat of anonymity and irrelevance as a business, but it's in a broader context, not the context of whether or not they keep member plans. Members and member plans are nothing in the big picture, it's a legacy of something past that does not matter any more. Member plans are like the organ that malfunctions and dies before the person (email as a whole) will die. Member plans are no more. |
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20 Jan 2017, 10:06 PM | #93 | |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: May 2003
Location: mostly in Thailand
Posts: 3,095
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Fastmail actually has a good product, but I agree they will either need to become part of a larger organization, or they will slowly die. I regret this, as neither outcome will serve the best interests of the clients I still maintain on Fastmail. In a sense, this shows how pointless the anger of remaining holders of Member accounts is. It is unlikely Fastmail in its existing form will still exist in 5 years time, so they will need to migrate eventually anyway. |
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20 Jan 2017, 10:19 PM | #94 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: a virtually impossible but finitely improbable position
Posts: 2,320
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I disagree. Fastmail is alive, because of the paying customers. I know more and more people using fastmail, as it fits a strategic hole no one else is filling. My company also just bought a ton of accounts.
I want secure email, and I don't want Google or Microsoft. Fastmail has been great to me over the years. I've been an advanced member since I joined. |
20 Jan 2017, 10:59 PM | #95 | |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: May 2003
Location: mostly in Thailand
Posts: 3,095
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20 Jan 2017, 11:14 PM | #96 |
Member
Join Date: May 2002
Location: London UK
Posts: 47
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@BritTim +1
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20 Jan 2017, 11:33 PM | #97 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 11
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21 Jan 2017, 12:50 AM | #98 | |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Manchester UK
Posts: 2,616
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Remember this? http://www.emaildiscussions.com/show...0&postcount=77 I would assume that FastMail would have looked into the legalities of discontinuing these particular subscriptions. |
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21 Jan 2017, 04:06 AM | #99 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 26
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Nonsense. Keeping member accounts may affect FM's bottom line without making them financially unsound in the least. (Here, by the way, we talk about bottom line in a broad sense -- member accounts likely just took time and resources away from the many other things FM could be doing to improve and maintain their product.) The reasonable standard for FM continuing to service member accounts is clearly not "keeping these accounts would create serious financial problems." This is precisely the sense of entitlement bursting out of the original post.
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21 Jan 2017, 04:27 AM | #100 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: May 2003
Location: mostly in Thailand
Posts: 3,095
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Bron is the only Fastmail member of staff still willing to engage with us on these forums. I think he (correctly in my view) calculated that there was no way of doing this that would not elicit a very negative reaction, but giving the maximum possible notice would help a bit in damage control. Giving us an opportunity to blow off steam, and then adjust to the realities (once they have decided on this course of action) is smart. There is nothing to be gained by trying to hide the truth from those who are not affected. It was always going to blow up on this forum. It is also smart for him not to try to justify the decision, but only to respond to questions about what Fastmail might be willing to do to ameliorate problems this may cause.
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21 Jan 2017, 05:33 AM | #101 |
Cornerstone of the Community
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 551
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I don't remember much about Fastmail. I did have a free account back in the day. It was pretty well useless and I moved on.
I vaguely remember exploring the $15 lifetime offer but thought it too restrictive as well. Just like lifetime warranties and extended warranties. Most of them suck when you try to collect. Moral of the story is "nothing lasts forever" and if they say it does its probably a lie or scam. |
21 Jan 2017, 11:48 AM | #102 |
Member
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 50
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21 Jan 2017, 03:40 PM | #103 | |
Master of the @
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: USA
Posts: 1,878
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21 Jan 2017, 07:46 PM | #104 |
Cornerstone of the Community
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Manila
Posts: 509
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That's quite the statement given the fact that you have no idea of what's on their balance sheet or in their strategic goals. FM is not sending out any indicators that they won't be around in five years, and I personally will, with confidence, be renewing for five years when my current subscription expires next December. I look forward to coming back to this prognostication in five years.
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21 Jan 2017, 08:22 PM | #105 | |
Essential Contributor
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: UK
Posts: 392
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I seem to remember rumours circulating on this forum that Facebook was going to buy FM. It didn't happen. So lets not feed the overactive imagination of some on this forum. |
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