Yandex Mail (English Version) Opinions!!

[janusz]

Thanks for spotting that and reporting it.

I just wonder: if Facebook or Gmail were up to the same tricks, howls of indignation would flood EMD and many other sites. But this is about some Russian service, so nobody cares.

[communicant]

Originally Posted by janusz

Thanks for spotting that and reporting it.

I just wonder: if Facebook or Gmail were up to the same tricks, howls of indignation would flood EMD and many other sites. But this is about some Russian service, so nobody cares.

Actually, Gmail *is* coming fairly close to the same tactics in attempting to secure mobile numbers. Every few logins, a screen appears asking for a number. Although close inspection shows that one can say no, it is easy to be fooled, especially since they follow-up the first refusal with a box asking if one is sure, which reverses the usual order and makes it easy to choose the wrong answer. I don't know about Facebook (which I wouldn't touch with the proverbial ten-foot pole), but Gmail is certainly guilty of the same sort of tactics, slightly diluted compared with Yandex but definitely similar. Just remember (and Drew, I'm thinking of you here!), it is NOT necessary to provide a mobile number to Gmail, no matter how often they pester existing account holders with a request for one. Just read the choices carefully and click the choices which result in "no," even though they are deliberately trying to deceive and confuse you!

[just1acc]

Originally Posted by communicant

Actually, Gmail *is* coming fairly close to the same tactics in attempting to secure mobile numbers. Every few logins, a screen appears asking for a number.

There is a huge difference between Google's and Yandex's approach. Gimme a valid reason why yandex need the mobile no.? When alternate email id is "optional", some obsolete easy guess "security question" is the height of safety.

Google's 2 step verification is a deal breaker. Please note, without the 2 step verification process too, if you set up mobile no as a security, account revert by guessing security question has no chance.

I personally reverted few yahoo/live accounts by simply guessing. Thanks to Google they took security in such a level so that I understand the 'giveaway' of mobile no worth it!

[David]

Originally Posted by janusz

Thanks for spotting that and reporting it.

I just wonder: if Facebook or Gmail were up to the same tricks, howls of indignation would flood EMD and many other sites. But this is about some Russian service, so nobody cares.

There is a strong 'North American' influence here 'janusz' (on these forums) - I am sure you have noticed. The truth is that few here expect any better.

[just1acc]

Originally Posted by David

There is a strong 'North American' influence here 'janusz' (on these forums) - I am sure you have noticed. The truth is that few here expect any better.

Edited.

[communicant]

Originally Posted by just1acc

If that somehow indicating people like me, then I must say (off topic), 'politically' I hate America, and Russia is a better friend of us. But you shouldn't mix-up technology and personal view.

See my previous posts on this thread, I defended Yandex for being viewed as 'spammy' by AOL and Yahoo. And I believe Russian and Israeli programmers are best out there, without any doubt.

Yandex provides security features as "whats your nickname at school" "last 5 no of your library card" . And email as recovery is optional. That company needs mobile no for...what?

The activity of some folks against anything 'google' reminds me of these linux fan-skids against Microsoft.

Disclaimer: I'm using and exploring linux distros for more than 4 years.

It seems to me that the most active posters here come from Europe and elsewhere as much as from North America. (And why should residents of North America expect less than people from elsewhere? I don't understand what was meant.)

In any case, the "no politics" rule has been seriously ignored here, and it may be time for the mods to step in.

[B4its2L8]

I just signed up for the service. (And thanks to communicant for his information regarding registration -- I had 'bailed' on my first attempt precisely because of the mobile phone # requirement, but successfully signed up without providing one after reading his post ! )

One thing I like so far is the fact that it has a feed reader as a link next to Mail and Contacts. It opens up in the same window/tab, instead of Google's approach of having the reader open up in a separate tab.

(On the downside, I can't get it to "show only unread" feeds as the setting indicates. It shows all feed posts all the time, even after they're all marked read. Oh, well. What... Was I expecting perfection ? )

[Tsunami]

Originally Posted by janusz

Thanks for spotting that and reporting it.

I just wonder: if Facebook or Gmail were up to the same tricks, howls of indignation would flood EMD and many other sites. But this is about some Russian service, so nobody cares.

Not sure why you make that remark with the angry face next to it? I think it is simply a fact that most people outside Russia don't pay attention to Russian email providers simply because of the language barrier (and maybe because of prejudices to anything Russian). For many, Russian services (hosts and email and more) are out of scope simply because of the language issue. You need to be able to read Cyrillic and understand the language to use the service in most cases, Yandex's English version is an exception.

I think this is the only reason or the main reason for sure why Russian services receive less attention than English language services. To be honest, and I actually like Russia, I never heard of Yandex before this topic came up and had to browse for info (including the wrong info on wiki) to learn what services they provided. My Russian connections all use mail.ru and the language barrier makes it impossible for me to learn about other Russian services.

Originally Posted by janusz

And since Yandex email allows you to attach files and compose HTML message, you may wish to enquire whether it's possible to disable these superfluous features and get the rest working

Actually, I love HTML messages since that means usually you can have pictures inline instead of as attachments

Originally Posted by just1acc

F#@K. Wiki page seems updated by some idiot.

You're right. After wasting all day setting and toying I found...

http://legal.yandex.com/rules/

That's disappointing. I hate inactivity limits and am prepared to pay just to get rid of those. Although, credit where due, 6 months is not that bad for inactivity limits (mail.ru has only half of that patience I believe)

Is Yandex related to Narod? Many sites in Russia use a subdomain of narod.ru ...

[Tsunami]

PS: Indeed the no-politics-rule was violated in an earlier post, although it has to be said (and this is not political but simple fact) that it is true that Russian and Israeli IT businesses tend to be high quality. Nothing to do with politics but just saying that I would have the feeling my emails are in good hands there because of the qualified staff in the IT field there.

PS 2: the wiki page contains more mistakes than just this one on the inactivity limit of Yandex. I am unsure which Wiki host would allow it, but wouldn't it be a good idea to create a wiki where only assigned persons can make changes?
Next step: give all EMD members with more than for example 100 posts access to that wiki. That way only EMD members could edit the wiki, and it would not be corrupted by wrong info such as on the Wikipedia comparison of email providers.

(of course I assume now that all EMD members would only add correct info on such a wiki, which I assume we would since we're all here for the same reason: exchange correct info on email providers)

[communicant]

Originally Posted by Tsunami

PS: Indeed the no-politics-rule was violated in an earlier post, although it has to be said (and this is not political but simple fact) that it is true that Russian and Israeli IT businesses tend to be high quality. Nothing to do with politics but just saying that I would have the feeling my emails are in good hands there because of the qualified staff in the IT field there.)

Tsunami, it wasn't the remark about Russian and Israeli programmers that I had in mind, it was a foolish and pointless statement by somebody that he "hated America." I also wondered why anyone would say that "North Americans" expect less quality (in email services and otherwise) than people from other places in the world. But it's time to let this subject go and move on.

[Tsunami]

True. Those comments are food for a different (political) forum.

Just wanted to point that the one part that was non political in nature, is actually correct. Israeli and Russian IT businesses are known for their quality (and I believe India's very much on the rise too). Actually, you'd be surprised how many computers in this world contain some parts developed in Israel.

Unimportant? Well, one of the reasons why I like Safe Mail so much is because it is in ... Israel. Nothing political whatsoever. But their staff is likely to be excellent in terms of doing their job, because the local IT business is known for its quality. For the same reason, one may be drawn to Yandex or another reliable Russian service.

I believe the Russian IT market could be huge if more services would, like Yandex, offer English language versions. Most Russian internet businesses don't mind and it's Cyrillic alphabet and Russian only. That makes it impossible to use for most foreigners. I guess the local market and customer base is large enough that they simply don't really need an influx of foreign users?

[just1acc]

Originally Posted by communicant

Tsunami, it wasn't the remark about Russian and Israeli programmers that I had in mind, it was a foolish and pointless statement by somebody that he "hated America." I also wondered why anyone would say that "North Americans" expect less quality (in email services and otherwise) than people from other places in the world. But it's time to let this subject go and move on.

Its NOT like that . Somebody accused me ( and same minded folks ) for being "north america" influenced, cause I'm defending google on mobile no policy, and this is not the first time.

All I wanted to say that personally I have better feelings towards russia/their programmers. But with mobile no, I'm on google's side. Technology and Politics should not be mixed up.

May be I'm not mature enough to choose words to express properly. Apologies.

Self-moderating my prev thread, may be you 'll consider to edit the quoted portion.

[B4its2L8]

After 1-2 weeks of using Yandex I noticed that I now have a block of ads on the left column where there was none before.

But the more annoying thing is that just the last few days I noticed that FF no longer displays the themes. Chrome and IE display them fine. I've made no changes to FF — certainly not in the last week or so — that would account for this. And I can't honestly say that my seeing of ads and NOT seeing themes aren't related somehow.

Btw, yes, I have cleared cookies and my internet cache in the meantime, so I don't think that's the problem.

Is anyone else experiencing any issue with FF and Yandex ?

(FWIW, I will be submitting this problem to Yandex itself, but I thought I'd ask here, since this is a relatively recent thread.)


UPDATES: 1) I contacted Yandex support regarding the themes problem (who, btw, were extremely responsive in helping with this issue). It turns out that it was my FF add-on AdBlockPlus that was causing the problems. Odd, since it was not an issue for the first few weeks. But disabling ABP for Yandex Mail allowed the themes to return.

2) Interestingly, the ads at the left can be removed (!) simply by going into Settings and scrolling down to "More Settings." On the page that comes up de-select the box in the right column that says "display advertisements." Poof ! Gone ! I wish it was that easy at Gmail.

Now if I can only convince them to include a "sort by oldest unread" option for the feed list as Google Reader has (so one can read down from oldest to most recent), I won't need Google at all -- uh, except YouTube.

[peter_x]

My limited experience with Yandex IMAP so far is a bit odd... Thunderbird had repeated problems saving a draft, however it did save it (!). Then, when I attempted sending an email, it had a problem saving a copy to "Sent" folder.. I gave up trying after ca. 5 attempts, went straight to T-bird settings and unsubscribed and re-subscribed the folders... Curiously, after going to my "sent" I found my outgoing message sitting there as if it the copy was done fine the first time! Oh well, perhaps some unreliable IMAP realization on their side? I had no such issues with my other IMAP providers, and the failure to save a copy during a send process usually indicates interruption with either a broadband connection or actual server at email provider, or some such. Given I tried sending from other IMAP addresses at the same time, and no similar pattern showed up...hmm strange... Separately, I tried changing folder subscriptions in the vain hope I do get English language folders and I failed :-(
It seems part of Yandex recently getting out of beta was all folders except for "Inbox", are still server-prescribed Russian language... Now, it wouldn't bother much someone with Thunderbird (thanks to intuitively understood icons used) or someone with some Russian proficiency, but I thought it worthwhile to mention, as I simply tried to make my emailing environment cleaner and more uniform and I failed :-)

I will move some of my subscriptions to Yandex to see if there are delivery problems to report...still a decent contender so far, and zero spam in my folders.

[RFK]

PolYandex Mail is not bad. I would say, it's pretty good. But, guys, please remember, that Russia is authoritarian state[...]