FastMail owns fastmail.COM?!

[me0000]

i think it is going to be for the highest paying users only; Ie the ones on the enhanced and/or >$100 plan.

[FredOnline]

Originally Posted by me0000

i think it is going to be for the highest paying users only; Ie the ones on the enhanced and/or >$100 plan.

And the reasoning behind that assumption is?

[NumberSix]

Originally Posted by me0000

i think it is going to be for the highest paying users only; Ie the ones on the enhanced and/or >$100 plan.

Doubtful... I've never known them to discriminate for the use of domain names on the basis of membership level.

[ioneja]

Originally Posted by NumberSix

Doubtful... I've never known them to discriminate for the use of domain names on the basis of membership level.

Well, they need to come up with some orderly and reasonable way to allow access to the domain, otherwise there will be a mad land rush for addresses -- since the fastmail.com, as a domain name, is vastly superior to all their other domains... I am not saying membership level is necessarily the best approach. But it is a premium domain, and no doubt they paid a lot of money for it. Whoever held on to it for all those years was in a very good position of leverage to bargain for a high sell price.

In any case, I do believe there is some sort of limitation with the number of characters in the username based on subscription level, or at least there used to be... so maybe they'll use that approach.

Anyway, I'm just looking forward to finally not having to explain the old .FM any more to people I recommend looking at FastMail... it has confused almost every non-tech person I have pointed to FastMail... this will be a great improvement.

The sooner they release this domain name, the better. But I have a feeling it will go deeper than just a domain... this could be a whole re-branding of the company.

[ulmus]

I think that FM team should just add *@fastmail.com to every user who has accounts and aliases in *@fastmail.fm )))))
That's it, simply replace 'fm' domain with 'com' domain (leaving of course 'fm' too).
Isn't that good idea ))) ?

[robert@fm]

Originally Posted by NumberSix

Doubtful... I've never known them to discriminate for the use of domain names on the basis of membership level.

You have a short memory. Back in the days of Guest and Member accounts, there were some domains only available to Members and above because of some people rejecting all mail from "free" accounts regardless of reputation (I used one such, fea.st, for precisely that reason), a few available only to Enhanced members, and a very few only to Full members. Now that there are no more free or pay-once accounts, this is probably no longer needed.

[downthemall]

Now I see why the Fastmail prices were up-adjusted. I hope the .com domain comes soon.

[randian]

Originally Posted by downthemall

Now I see why the Fastmail prices were up-adjusted.

The listed prices on the website look the same as they've been in years. What price increase are you talking about?

[downthemall]

Originally Posted by randian

The listed prices on the website look the same as they've been in years. What price increase are you talking about?

For example, from 5 to 10 dollars for the entry level account.

[n5bb]

Originally Posted by downthemall

For example, from 5 to 10 dollars for the entry level account.

The Lite account replaced the old Ad Free account last year, and all existing holders of those accounts were given the option of extending the old rate for 5 years. The email storage quota was increased by 2.5X and the file storage quota by 50X. The following email was sent to my Ad Free account on Nov 13, 2013, and the blog entry described above was added for those subscribing to the Fastmail blog.

Dear FastMail User
We're writing to you to let you know about some changes we've made to your FastMail account service level.
We've increased the storage quotas considerably. Email storage has increased from 100 MB to 250 MB, and file storage has increased from 2 MB to 100 MB. We've also renamed your service level from "Ad Free" to "Lite". Now that we don't have free Guest accounts, the old name was an anachronism since no FastMail accounts have advertising.
We are however also increasing the price from $4.95/year to $10/year.
We will not be grandfathering the previous plan, but we are offering people the ability to lock in the new increased storage quotas with the previous pricing of $4.95/year for up to 5 years. You can lock in the existing price any time until the end of November. To do this, log in to your account, use the top left menu (top right in the classic interface) to go to Account, then select the Upgrade/Downgrade link. Use that screen to select a renewal of up to 5 years and pay for the renewal of your account there and then.
Note, this offer is only available until Nov 30, 2013. After that time, the new $10/year price will become the default for all upgrades and all renewals, manual or automatic.
Regards,
The FastMail Team

Bill

[downthemall]

That's it. Summary: virtually the same service, twice the price. No need to make a fuss. I'm not complaining. I only made a joke about the new domain and the Lite account price. Cheers.

[NumberSix]

I guess I do have a short memory, robert@fm

As for the obvious superiority of .com addresses, I disagree. I think .com is stupid and boring, and love the uniqueness and "character" of fastmail.fm. If everybody in the world was supposed to live under .com, what would be the point in having that as a separate level? Anyway, y'all'll be happy I'm not competing with you for addresses in fastmail.com

Maybe 10 years ago average users were confused by non-com/net/org names, but nowadays the world is filled with lots of strange domains... people just gotta get used to it.

[ioneja]

Originally Posted by NumberSix

Maybe 10 years ago average users were confused by non-com/net/org names, but nowadays the world is filled with lots of strange domains... people just gotta get used to it.

Sadly, "average" users like my parents (for example) would far rather just have a .com than a .fm, which is definitely not that common in their circles. .net, org are common enough... but not .fm. I'm personally fine with it, and I convinced them (and many others) to try FastMail, despite quizzical looks on their faces when I said "dot FM" -- so all I'm saying is that this is a welcome addition, and looking forward to what it means for FastMail as a company... to technical people, it may not mean much, but to many "average" folks, it legitimizes and/or mainstreams FastMail on another level, which I think is in theory a good thing. If anything, this gives FM a better chance at longer-term stability, IMO, but anyway, I totally understand if it's not a big deal to many people in this forum.

[jkc054]

More than one website I use reject the .fm email address when I submit it for registration or other purposes.

[n5bb]

Of course, all current accounts and grandfathered Member accounts can choose additional aliases at various .com (and many other) domains. For example:

• Lite accounts can choose two additional aliases (same name at two other domains).
• Member (very old but grandfathered) accounts can choose one additional alias (same name at one other domain).
• Higher level accounts can choose many more aliases.
• Examples of some .com domains which are available are myfastmail.com and sent.com. You can use these even for the old Member account as an alias. So if someone has a current (paid) account or an old Member account, they can easily get a .com domain if they wish.

Bill