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Old 20 Jan 2017, 07:20 PM   #91
Bamb0
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Quote:
Originally Posted by neoforum
Email is very important to me.
Yup same with me!



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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Old 20 Jan 2017, 09:25 PM   #92
jchevali
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Quote:
Originally Posted by samhu View Post
Anyway, as we are not privy to how many such legacy accounts there are out there, here's a bit of speculation on my part. Pick a number - 1000? 5000? At the lower number, the sum involved would be USD3k/month, and at the higher end, USD15k/month. And that's with a 100 percent conversion rate from "one-time payment" to "subscriber". If this amount is so critical to Fastmail, maybe we all shouldn’t be so smug about the longevity of any of our Fastmail email addresses? Just a thought.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wakaba View Post
Notice the absurd premise that Fastmail should only discontinue member accounts if not doing so would have fatal consequences for Fastmail. The degree of entitlement is remarkably audacious.
I don't read in it a sense of entitlement, I read logic. Either keeping members affects $FM's bottom line or it doesn't. If it doesn't, they're behaving arbitrarily, if it does, they're potentially financially unsound.

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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Old 20 Jan 2017, 11:06 PM   #93
BritTim
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jchevali View Post
ISecond, 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..
I do not think Fastmail is as calculating along these lines as you do, but I agree Fastmail as an independent niche email provider will find it difficult to survive. I think it could have if it had placed a high priority on keeping its loyal, evangelist base happy, but I, unfortunately, have concluded that they do not see the immense value of doing so.

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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Old 20 Jan 2017, 11:19 PM   #94
ChinaLamb
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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.
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Old 20 Jan 2017, 11:59 PM   #95
BritTim
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Originally Posted by ChinaLamb View Post
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.
I have little doubt your company bought a ton of accounts partly based on your recommendation. Such recommendations by longstanding, technically-knowledgeable professionals are extremely powerful, and niche products can survive largely on the strength of them. The trouble is that Fastmail has been steadily dissipating its loyal base over the last few years. They may have a larger user base than a few years ago, but there are a lot fewer people like you, enthusiastic about the service, to drive Fastmail's growth in the future.
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Old 21 Jan 2017, 12:14 AM   #96
jchevali
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@BritTim +1
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Old 21 Jan 2017, 12:33 AM   #97
minimalist
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Originally Posted by BritTim View Post
...

Member accounts are not eligible for advanced spam filtering. Fine, you say, just a simple switch: do it or do not.

...
You can't turn off advanced spam filtering if you have a "real" account? That's another reason not to upgrade.
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Old 21 Jan 2017, 01:50 AM   #98
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brong View Post
FYI, we're finally closing off guest and member accounts entirely. Emails are going to users in batches, so not everybody has received a notification email yet. Everybody will get them, and later we will start adding more obvious warnings on login page and webmail screens.

https://www.fastmail.com/help/account/guest.html

https://www.fastmail.com/help/account/member.html

We have already not allowed new signups at those service levels for quite some time. We are offering very generous discounts for upgrades.

Regards,

Bron.
It's somewhat surprising to me that Bron posted this on the forum, but no mention of it on their Twitter page.

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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Old 21 Jan 2017, 05:06 AM   #99
wakaba
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Originally Posted by jchevali View Post
I don't read in it a sense of entitlement, I read logic. Either keeping members affects $FM's bottom line or it doesn't. If it doesn't, they're behaving arbitrarily, if it does, they're potentially financially unsound.
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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Old 21 Jan 2017, 05:27 AM   #100
BritTim
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FredOnline View Post
It's somewhat surprising to me that Bron posted this on the forum, but no mention of it on their Twitter page..
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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Old 21 Jan 2017, 06:33 AM   #101
beeboy
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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.
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Old 21 Jan 2017, 12:48 PM   #102
samhu
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FredOnline View Post

I would assume that FastMail would have looked into the legalities of discontinuing these particular subscriptions.
I can easily imagine lawyers blowing through Fastmail's annual revenue arguing whether a one-time subsciption is a subscription or a purchase.
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Old 21 Jan 2017, 04:40 PM   #103
Bamb0
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FredOnline
It's somewhat surprising to me that Bron posted this on the forum, but no mention of it on their Twitter page.
Hopefully he just posted it to see what the reaction would be...... (Testing the water so to speak)
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Old 21 Jan 2017, 08:46 PM   #104
Mugwhamp
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BritTim View Post
It is unlikely Fastmail in its existing form will still exist in 5 years time, so they will need to migrate eventually anyway.
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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Old 21 Jan 2017, 09:22 PM   #105
walesrob
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Originally Posted by Mugwhamp View Post
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.
Indeed, and why would they (Fastmail) go through the hassle of buying Pobox only to sell both on? Doesn't make sense to me.

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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