The Changes At Fastmail.

[Chandao]

I have been a paying customer of the Fastmail service for a number of years now. In that time 3 much appreciated services have either disappeared, or changed beyond recognition:

1) The 'Bounce' facility that could reject an email not to my liking.
2) The so-called 'old' interface.
3) The ability to 'Customise' at a touch of a button.

Obviously, I view these cuts/transformations as a reduction in service, but with no corresponding cut in fee charged. I am not in favour of the so-called 'new' interface which is by and large less convenient, and not what inspired me to take a paid account with Fastmail in the first place. Like many others who have posted recently, I to received a Fastmail notification 'warning' me that the 'old' interface is unsupported and will soon be obsolete. There have been replies to such posts, giving reams of techical data regarding how an individual customer can 'cut & paste' a file instruction, just to get a change in customisation!

As far as I am concerned, the 'old' interface had this capability at a touch of a button - and I have been more than willing to pay for this service. I see no reason for an 'interface' that is packaged as 'superior' to actually have 'less' functionability than that for which it is designed to replace. Fastmail representatives informing customers to carry-out actions that repair the problem themselves, simply is not good enough. The tone of such responses gives the impressions that the design faults of the 'new' interface are somehow the responsibility of the customers, who by and large 'pay' Fastmail for a service!

I would prefer the return of the 'Bounce' facility, (I am familiar with the usual reasons why Fastmail think this is not a good idea), and the providing of a fully functioning 'Classical' interface. This all comes down to customer choice - after-all, it is 'we' who are financing Fastmail. Fastmail is ultimately answerable to those who pay its wages. The 'new' interface is an example of poor business management, where changes are made without due consultation with the fee paying customers. All the rest, (that is, the endless justifications for these actions) is just 'verbage' designed to draw our attention away from this fact.

Thank you

[Terry]

Unfortunately the Bounce button is not coming back

The old UI is here http://old.fastmail.fm/

The ability to customise has also gone, but if you are prepared to spend a little time the new Ui can be customised.....but its like buying a new car you have to have a standard colour you can have the colour you like......but you have to do it your self.

For me it's like gmail with lots of extra features

[CellarDoor]

The question is, how long will that old UI continue to be available to all of us disgruntled long-time users?

I agree with Chandao: we both thought that we were paying Fastmail for some semblance of consistency. We're all grumbling about the new interface now, but what about the new new (AJAX) interface?

We all know how few CSS tweak stylesheets are available for the new interface. If the progress of the past two years is any indication, we'll have next to no options when the new new UI comes out of beta and becomes the standard.

I depend on Fastmail for my business, and I've lost a lot of time in the last few weeks trying to adopt the new interface to my purposes using tweaks such as ProBlue 2. I finally just changed my bookmarks to old.fastmail.fm.

Most people don't have time to come on the forum and ask questions (the productive, polite way) about how to make the new interface work for them, let alone posting with requests on how to switch around buttons or see e-mail address attributes in the Compose screen.

I pay for consistent, speedy service from Fastmail so that I don't have to spend time on those things. Now I'm depending on the voluntary goodwill of other FM users to come up with stylesheets that will make the new interface a suitable replacement for the old one once the old one disappears. That's not the way a subscription-based service should work.

[sflorack]

Originally Posted by CellarDoor

I agree with Chandao: we both thought that we were paying Fastmail for some semblance of consistency.

You expected your email provider to ignore newer technologies and keep the same interface indefinitely?

If they kept this same policy for all features, we'd all have 50MB of storage -- as was the case in 2001 -- and no room to complain.

[Mystakill]

All mail providers change their interfaces over time to add additional functionality, streamline operations, or to appeal to new customers. All of them receive complaints from people who don't like the changes for a variety of reasons. This is true for Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. The same can be said for pretty much any interface. Change is inevitable, and with online services, it's unavoidable.

If you don't want your interface to change, find an OS and a mail client that you like, and don't ever change. That's the only way you'll be able to guarantee that nothing will ever change.

[NumberSix]

Yup... there are lots of businesses you patronize with your hard-earned money who change things about their offerings and although you might not like it, you probably never think to complain, because you instinctively know that no one will listen. Perhaps it's only because you expect the guys at FM to listen that you complain about this.

I believe there were good and often necessary reasons behind all the changes that have been made. The change to the newer more "modern" web client [1] was necessitated largely by the fact that the old one's implementation was crusty and unsuited to making the sort of extensions of functionality that would be required in the coming years (as I understand it). And although I find it's still broken in a number of ways, I personally like the new one quite a bit.

Change. It's What's For Dinner. Get With It.

[1] It's a "web client", darn it, not just an "interface"! Why am I the only one who seems able to call it by its right name?

[David]

Originally Posted by NumberSix

[1] It's a "web client", darn it, not just an "interface"! Why am I the only one who seems able to call it by its right name?

Perhaps, because it was a web client before, And it is only the interface that has changed. The names have not been changed in order to protect the innocent

[rabarberski]

Originally Posted by Chandao

This all comes down to customer choice - after-all, it is 'we' who are financing Fastmail. Fastmail is ultimately answerable to those who pay its wages. The 'new' interface is an example of poor business management, where changes are made without due consultation with the fee paying customers.

Maybe they did listen to (the majority of) their customers... by implementing the new interface?

[erimess]

I have to agree with Chandao and CellarDoor.

I understand the concept of keeping up with technology, especially if it allows you to do more with less. The problem is that I don't see any new functionality. I see a very plain email that I don't like and that doesn't have the stylesheets that I like. I've complained before about the taking away of style sheets and ran into a brick wall of total lack of understanding that it's something I've been paying for for numerous years that got taken away. That is NOT the same as asking for something new, for free. Not to mention that all those stylesheets are one of the things I really liked and made it worth paying for. (That and the personalities, alias's and such.)

And I neither have the time to deal with learning how to get to them myself or tweak them myself. I don't even know if I have the ability to do so or if I'd understand the instructions, cause I haven't even had time to look at it. So it's like buying a car with a moon roof that I paid for, then having it taken away and being told if I want it back I can install it myself.

And the other thing I don't understand - why does the basic interface of something have to change in order to get new functionality? Why does the basic look of something have to change? I don't want to hear the excuse about keeping up with technology - I'm very annoyed by having a folder list on the left side of the screen when I'm writing emails. Do you want to tell me that has to be there in order to make use of new technology? I don't think so. To me functionality includes being able to customize, since everyone's needs are different.

I've looked in the options - I see nothing special that I haven't seen before, or at least nothing that has any meaning to me. Nor have I seen anything that would change the stuff I dislike. For me, the new one has less of what I liked, and more of... I don't even know what.

[Pfolson]

Originally Posted by erimess

To me functionality includes being able to customize, since everyone's needs are different.

The new interface is much more customizable than the old, however it does take a willingness to spend a few minutes learning the basics of "tweaking" and a few more minutes doing what essentially amounts to cutting and pasting from the wiki or from user posts in the forums. For example, your concern about the folder list/sidebar being visible was answered over in the help forum, and that's just the beginning of what you can do with simple tweaks. Almost anything you want to change can be changed quite easily. Just ask how to do it, and it's almost certain that somebody will come up with the answer or point you to the right place.

I understand being pressed for time, but this is one case where the investment of a small chunk of time can pay big dividends in your use of Fastmail.

Paul

[newcrest]

Originally Posted by Pfolson

The new interface is much more customizable than the old

So why isn't there an option to make the new interface to look and perform as well as the old???

I want to use an email account not learn how to do somebody else's programming job for them. If there is no improvement then I won't be renewing my subscription.

[adwade]

Originally Posted by newcrest

So why isn't there an option to make the new interface to look and perform as well as the old???I want to use an email account not learn how to do somebody else's programming job for them.

Well said.

I've been with Fastmail for over a decade,and have brought my family, my friends, my relatives, my work associates, and acquaintenances to FastMail. In ALL these years I've never complained about anything for ONE reason: FASTMAIL worked, like it was supposed to, like it had always worked.

When they announced I had to use a different webaddress to get to the OLD INTERFACE, that didn't bother me. It took a few seconds to change it and ALL WAS NORMAL.

Now, this morning, all the sudden the OLD INTERFACE seems to be missing for whatever reason(s). It's akin to getting in your car to drive to work, only to discover someone has put square wheels on your car and that you will need to round off the edges off a bit (yourself) in order to use it anymore. The rearview mirror is now located in the glovebox, and the steering wheel is in the trunk.(i.e. Streamlined!)

"So other than those changes, how do you like it?"

I DON'T.

[billfryer]

The fact that there is so much controversy over the new interface is a strong indicator that the company has not got it right.

Forcing people to use the new interface in the vain hope that "they'll like it when they use it" is not the way forward. I've used it, I don't like it. When I first used FM it was different to anything I'd used before, but I liked it.

And it's bad business to **** off your best customers.

[rabarberski]

Originally Posted by adwade

In ALL these years I've never complained about anything for ONE reason: FASTMAIL worked, like it was supposed to, like it had always worked.

It still does, in the new (now already getting old) interface...

When they announced I had to use a different webaddress to get to the OLD INTERFACE, that didn't bother me. It took a few seconds to change it and ALL WAS NORMAL

Now, this morning, all the sudden the OLD INTERFACE seems to be missing for whatever reason(s). .

For sure you also read in that same December newsletter that they were not supporting the old interface anymore. That meant ... one day it would be gone. Today might be that day, maybe?


Sigh... it's a bit tiring all these people complaining about 'suddenly' the new interface being forced upon them (two years seems more than reasonable to me). Or about how the old interface is a step back without them even trying to use the new interface for 2 weeks. It's not THAT much of a difference, you can still click email messages to open them, or click compose to compose a message. I'ts just rearranged a bit, give it some time and you will get used to it. And, maybe you'll discover a couple of features that you couldn't do with the old interface.

I am honestly surprised that apparently a lot of people judge an email service by the number of colors available as a background. While I certainly agree that user interface is important, I'd rather have an improved one in only 2 colors, than a backward one in 150 shades.

And, if you think about it for 5 seconds longer, you'll see that a lot of the aversion against the new interface is because your are so accustomed to the old interface, nothing more. To build on your analogy, moving a drinking cup holder in a car from the left side of the steering wheel to the right might be a bit confusing for the driver at first, but saying the new version of this car is now worse than the old version, is a bit far-fetched and overreacted.

Can you seriously expect a website/webservice to keep the same interface for 30 years? I think not.



(Nonetheless, I agree and am also puzzled why FM didn't port the old user interface as a stylesheet in the new interface.)

[rabarberski]

Originally Posted by billfryer

Forcing people to use the new interface in the vain hope that "they'll like it when they use it" is not the way forward. I've used it, I don't like it. When I first used FM it was different to anything I'd used before, but I liked it.

An honest question, did you expect FM to stop developing and changing as soon as Bill became a customer?