Personal aliases in family packages

Fenman · 2 Nov 2015, 04:03 PM

I have received an email from Fastmail saying:

We will soon be changing the way aliases and websites work within
FastMail Family packages.

Around the 15th of November 2015, your aliases and websites will be
moved to belong to your Family package rather than your individual
account. "Personal" aliases and websites will no longer be supported
within Family packages.

This means you will configure these from the Manage screen, rather
than the Advanced Settings screen, and that the other "xxxxx" Family
package administrators will also be able to see and configure them.
Other than that, everything will continue to work as before.

This is to help us deliver new features in the future, ultimately
providing you with a much better user experience.
>>>
If you would prefer to retain individual control of these you may
wish to move them to a separate FastMail account.

I can see there might be benefits. but I wonder how alias limits will be handled. In particular, my wife and I each have our own fastmail.com aliases. The Family account is allowed only one - so will limits be raised or will one of us have to sacrifice an alias or move out to a separate account?

neilj · 2 Nov 2015, 04:20 PM

You can keep all existing aliases. The only change is that they will now "belong" to the business or family package, instead of an individual account.

Fenman · 2 Nov 2015, 04:23 PM

Great! Many thanks for your prompt reply, Neil.

DarioMor · 2 Nov 2015, 10:45 PM

Boys, what are you doing!?!? Messing up with the exclusive features that only FastMail has?

I administrate more than a hundred accounts in different domains/families/business accounts inside Fastmail. They are here because of your unique set of features. Please don't start to change it after all these years...

I am writing this because of your automated message sent today.

There is a phrase that made me tumble in my chair:

"you will no longer be able to see these websites"

There is a website public viewable that I NEED to keep public viewable. If it will be offline or disabled, please tell me what I should to to keep it safe, running and public accessible.

[ ]s
Dario

BritTim · 3 Nov 2015, 01:51 AM

Has there really been a lot of demand for such a change? I can see why it might be a more elegant solution. However, it does not seem to offer a lot more functionality, and there seem plenty of more important enhancements that could have been worked on. Further, changes that are not upwards compatible always have the potential to cause some customers serious grief.

TonyH · 3 Nov 2015, 02:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarioMor

"you will no longer be able to see these websites"

Is that an exact quote from an email? I ask because the email I received didn't say that. Maybe my account's situation is different. My email had the Subject "Changes to Personal websites in Family packages" and said "you will configure these from the Manage screen, rather than the Advanced Settings screen. Other than that, everything will continue to work as before." The implication is that such websites will *not* be disabled, just that the management of them will be via the Family package rather than an individual account within the package.

Fenman · 3 Nov 2015, 04:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TonyH

My email had the Subject "Changes to Personal websites in Family packages" and said "you will configure these from the Manage screen, rather than the Advanced Settings screen. Other than that, everything will continue to work as before." The implication is that such websites will *not* be disabled, just that the management of them will be via the Family package rather than an individual account within the package.

My email said the same and I draw the same conclusion.

robn · 3 Nov 2015, 08:48 AM

It's not implied - it explicitly says that the only change is to how you manage them, and everything else will work as it did before. If it doesn't, that's a bug, and you should contact support.

robn · 3 Nov 2015, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BritTim

Has there really been a lot of demand for such a change?

Not every change is based on user demand. This particular one is a prerequisite for improvements we're working on around account management, signup and billing.

Quote:

However, it does not seem to offer a lot more functionality

It's not supposed to. It changes where you manage things, nothing more.

Quote:

there seem plenty of more important enhancements that could have been worked on.

That suggests every change has equal cost and equal value. That's almost never true.

Quote:

Further, changes that are not upwards compatible always have the potential to cause some customers serious grief.

True. That's why it's been seriously considered, carefully implemented and communicated to users and support teams alike.

DarioMor · 3 Nov 2015, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TonyH

Is that an exact quote from an email? I ask because the email I received didn't say that. Maybe my account's situation is different. My email had the Subject "Changes to Personal websites in Family packages" and said "you will configure these from the Manage screen, rather than the Advanced Settings screen. Other than that, everything will continue to work as before." The implication is that such websites will *not* be disabled, just that the management of them will be via the Family package rather than an individual account within the package.

Hi TonyH,

In the automated message/annouce (sent only to users of family packages that configured some Personal Website) we can read:

"everything will continue to work as before, but you will no longer be able to see these websites"

It looks like a contradiction, so I sent a support ticket and copied part of what I wrote there to this forum thread.

This time, the support answered in less than 24h. And Yassar wrote that nothing is going down. Everything will work as they are now.

[ ]s
Dario

TonyH · 4 Nov 2015, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarioMor

"everything will continue to work as before, but you will no longer be able to see these websites"

And there was no continuation of that sentence, like "... in your individual account", or "... in the Advanced Settings screen"?

I ask because the email to me did not have that sentence. Perhaps yours was an early version!

Quote:

Yassar wrote that nothing is going down. Everything will work as they are now.

All's well that ends well.

randian · 5 Nov 2015, 04:08 AM

The ailas limit for a family container is 100. Enhanced accounts can have 250. Once aliases are force migrated into the family container are you now prevented from making more (even if you were previously under quota on your Enhanced account) until you get below 100?

ioneja · 5 Nov 2015, 05:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robn

... It changes where you manage things, nothing more.

Hey Robn,

What will happen with the cap on @fastmail.com addresses? I have a personal account inside my family account for my son, and his email address is xxxxxxx@fastmail.com, and he has an alias set up inside his account of yyyyyyy@fastmail.com.

So my understanding is that yyyyyyy@fastmail.com will be moved to the masteruser account... but the masteruser account already has another fastmail.com alias inside it... so what will happen?

For example, if I try to add another zzzzzzzz@fastmail.com alias inside my masteruser account (which already has aaaaaaaa@fastmail.com as an alias set up for another account), then I get this error message:

"Sorry, we currently have a restriction that you may only have one 'fastmail.com' alias"

So when you migrate the aliases over to the masteruser accounts, will you guys increase the allowed number of @fastmail.com aliases to accommodate this issue?

neilj · 5 Nov 2015, 07:31 AM

All existing aliases will be kept. Alias limits on the account will be adjusted so they scale with the number of users in the Business/Family, so essentially remain the same as before.

ioneja · 5 Nov 2015, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neilj

All existing aliases will be kept. Alias limits on the account will be adjusted so they scale with the number of users in the Business/Family, so essentially remain the same as before.

Thanks, Neil. Please check, double-check, triple-check, then sanity check your code so it doesn't screw this up.

I just re-read the email announcement, and it appears it applies to ALL accounts in a family package... I thought it just applied to lower-level accounts. So I have 4 accounts in my family package... And the masteruser is allowed to have one fastmail.com alias as well -- so by my count, I should then have 5 total fastmail.com aliases allowed within my masteruser account, right?

And frankly, as a "premier" account user as well, would be nice to be allowed a few more fastmail.com aliases while you're at it. Maybe you could do a scaled alias count... 1 fastmail.com alias per user per paid level of account?

2 Nov 2015, 04:03 PM	#1
Fenman Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: UK (East Anglia) Posts: 737	Personal aliases in family packages I have received an email from Fastmail saying: We will soon be changing the way aliases and websites work within FastMail Family packages. Around the 15th of November 2015, your aliases and websites will be moved to belong to your Family package rather than your individual account. "Personal" aliases and websites will no longer be supported within Family packages. This means you will configure these from the Manage screen, rather than the Advanced Settings screen, and that the other "xxxxx" Family package administrators will also be able to see and configure them. Other than that, everything will continue to work as before. This is to help us deliver new features in the future, ultimately providing you with a much better user experience. >>> If you would prefer to retain individual control of these you may wish to move them to a separate FastMail account. I can see there might be benefits. but I wonder how alias limits will be handled. In particular, my wife and I each have our own fastmail.com aliases. The Family account is allowed only one - so will limits be raised or will one of us have to sacrifice an alias or move out to a separate account?

2 Nov 2015, 10:45 PM	#4
DarioMor Essential Contributor Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brasil Posts: 356	This announce is freaking me out Boys, what are you doing!?!? Messing up with the exclusive features that only FastMail has? I administrate more than a hundred accounts in different domains/families/business accounts inside Fastmail. They are here because of your unique set of features. Please don't start to change it after all these years... I am writing this because of your automated message sent today. There is a phrase that made me tumble in my chair: "you will no longer be able to see these websites" There is a website public viewable that I NEED to keep public viewable. If it will be offline or disabled, please tell me what I should to to keep it safe, running and public accessible. [ ]s Dario

2 Nov 2015, 04:20 PM	#2
neilj Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Melbourne Posts: 971 Representative of: Fastmail.fm	You can keep all existing aliases. The only change is that they will now "belong" to the business or family package, instead of an individual account.

2 Nov 2015, 04:23 PM	#3
Fenman Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: UK (East Anglia) Posts: 737	Great! Many thanks for your prompt reply, Neil.

3 Nov 2015, 01:51 AM	#5
BritTim The "e" in e-mail Join Date: May 2003 Location: mostly in Thailand Posts: 3,090	Has there really been a lot of demand for such a change? I can see why it might be a more elegant solution. However, it does not seem to offer a lot more functionality, and there seem plenty of more important enhancements that could have been worked on. Further, changes that are not upwards compatible always have the potential to cause some customers serious grief.

3 Nov 2015, 08:48 AM	#8
robn Master of the @ Join Date: May 2012 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 1,007 Representative of: Fastmail.fm	It's not implied - it explicitly says that the only change is to how you manage them, and everything else will work as it did before. If it doesn't, that's a bug, and you should contact support.

5 Nov 2015, 04:08 AM	#12
randian Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Jan 2014 Posts: 561	The ailas limit for a family container is 100. Enhanced accounts can have 250. Once aliases are force migrated into the family container are you now prevented from making more (even if you were previously under quota on your Enhanced account) until you get below 100?

5 Nov 2015, 07:31 AM	#14
neilj Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Melbourne Posts: 971 Representative of: Fastmail.fm	All existing aliases will be kept. Alias limits on the account will be adjusted so they scale with the number of users in the Business/Family, so essentially remain the same as before.