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Old 20 Jan 2017, 02:48 AM   #61
samhu
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 50
Helpful chaps!

Quote:
Originally Posted by minimalist View Post

Comments from a soon to be former member:
Fastmail have really gone beyond the call of duty to help you on your way - Just find the Billing & Plan link within your Member account. The page it opens has now been modified to offer you a choice of subscription accounts, or a button to click to close your account. Such helpful chaps!
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Old 20 Jan 2017, 03:15 AM   #62
ChinaLamb
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Guest and member accounts used to be subsidized by advertising. That model is no longer safe, therefore Fastmail has been subsidizing these accounts themselves. That couldn't last long...

There is no free lunch.

The business model became unsafe.

Blame fastmail all you want.

They had to make a choice between offering a un-secure email service based on ad-sales - or discontinuing the accounts based on ads.

I think they made the right choice.
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Old 20 Jan 2017, 03:20 AM   #63
neoforum
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Quote:
its not something that will have a huge impact on your life should it disappear. If it really means that much to you, cough up.
Quote:
Assuming they use a Basic account for a year (which will cost them nothing extra), they have over 18 months in which to inform their correspondents of their new email address.
Quote:
Yes, changing your email address is a bit of a pain, but with plenty of notice not a catastrophe.
You people think it's just a small inconvenience that shouldn't feel like extortion? Show me: you can either volunteer to stop using your own primary personal email address forever after July 2018, or else you can send me $30/year for life by paypal to keep it. Neither of these will have a huge impact on your life, right? If you want to keep your addresses, they're only $30/year. Cough up yourself. (But remember, this year you can send that $30 to my fastmail address, but soon I'll have to get a new gmail address, so if it's not too much trouble, I hope you'll make a note to send my money to that other address next year. I'm sure it will be as easy for you to remember the change as it will be for all my friends and family, and it's important to me because otherwise I might not get your $30 next year. Maybe I'll use your money to keep my wife's fastmail address alive. Thanks in advance!)

Oh, you *like* that email address that's been your online identity for years? Oh, you're getting elderly and you have dementia and you won't be able to remember a new one? Oh, you *like* fastmail's service that they promised they'd support for your lifetime? Oh, you don't want your old high school friends who you haven't seen in 15 years to get a bounce message if they move back to town 5 years from now and try to write you at that email address you've been using for over a decade? No biggie! You can just send me $30/year forever per address you don't want to change.

Seriously, BritTim, walesrob, et al, would it really just be a minor pain for you to change your primary email address? Or alternately, would you really have no hesitation to pay $30/year per account forever for something you had already bought (instead of using a free alternative) *precisely because* it would be yours for life for a one-time payment? If so, you probably aren't hurting for money and you might try to imagine what it's like for people who aren't as flush as yourself.

Quote:
the old Member service, while fine 15 years ago, is scarcely a viable service today.
I guess that's why they're not offering it today. Fifteen years ago, they freely chose to offer that, so for those customers, that is what they need to provide. Fortunately, according to fastmail themselves, the vast majority of their users are already on recurring paid plans, which means keeping their promises to their early users would have almost no impact on their revenue, especially since Member accounts are already "no support."

Quote:
I believe you get what you pay for, and I consider e-mail far too important to me to not pay real money for it on a regular basis,
Yet somehow 99% of people are happy with free email services like gmail--and they probably will actually end up having addresses they can use for life. Now I wish I'd been able to sign up for gmail in 2002, but unfortunately it didn't exist yet.
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Old 20 Jan 2017, 03:27 AM   #64
janusz
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Quote:
Originally Posted by neoforum View Post
Oh, you *like* that email address that's been your online identity for years?
Oh yes I like that, Because of my dementia and of my friends' dementia too

And because there are many posts in EMD along the lines "get your own domain name, so you will be able to keep your address forever".
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Old 20 Jan 2017, 03:33 AM   #65
ChinaLamb
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Quote:
Originally Posted by neoforum View Post
You people think it's just a small inconvenience that shouldn't feel like extortion?...... Oh, you're getting elderly and you have dementia and you won't be able to remember a new one?
"Extortion"? Preying on people with "dementia"?

Excuse me, WHAT!!?!??!?

Quote:
Originally Posted by neoforum View Post
Yet somehow 99% of people are happy with free email services like gmail--and they probably will actually end up having addresses they can use for life. Now I wish I'd been able to sign up for gmail in 2002, but unfortunately it didn't exist yet.
About 2002, I signed up for my own domain name, and I've hosted my email at the service I prefer. I own my domain name. No one else does. I own it. Its mine.

Truth of the matter is, unless you own your domain name, the domain was never yours. Internet companies come and go. Offerings come and go. Heck, most internet providers available in my local area don't even exist anymore, nor do their email addresses.

If you really want to control your own online destiny, buy your own domain name and chose who hosts your mail for you. Then you can choose whomever you want to host your mail, but the identity is yours for life. -- or until they change the way the do domain names to something else.....
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Old 20 Jan 2017, 03:53 AM   #66
neoforum
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Quote:
get your own domain name
Easy for you to say if you did that years ago. In 2002 I didn't know about getting a domain name, and now it's too late. All my contacts know me by my fastmail address and have for many years. And seriously, if I do decide to ditch my fastmail account rather than paying to keep it, I'll just go to gmail, which is free, very functional, and looks more likely to last for life than fastmail.

People keep snarking about my comments, but I notice that no one has taken me up on either voluntarily giving up your primary email address or sending me $30/year. If you want anyone to believe that you think it's no big deal, put your money where your mouth is. I won't be holding my breath on that.

It would be nice if a fastmail representative would have the courage to address my points directly.
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Old 20 Jan 2017, 04:04 AM   #67
jchevali
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Quote:
Originally Posted by neoforum View Post
Easy for you to say if you did that years ago. In 2002 I didn't know about getting a domain name, and now it's too late. All my contacts know me by my fastmail address and have for many years. And seriously, if I do decide to ditch my fastmail account rather than paying to keep it, I'll just go to gmail, which is free, very functional, and looks more likely to last for life than fastmail.

People keep snarking about my comments, but I notice that no one has taken me up on either voluntarily giving up your primary email address or sending me $30/year. If you want anyone to believe that you think it's no big deal, put your money where your mouth is. I won't be holding my breath on that.

It would be nice if a fastmail representative would have the courage to address my points directly.
@neoforum: Every one of us will have to fix it for ourselves. $FM doesn't care and neither does @ChinaLamb. It's a selfish world I'm afraid, and at times dishonourable too.
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Old 20 Jan 2017, 04:07 AM   #68
Pfolson
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In a mere fraction of the time that it's taken certain people to compose and post their numerous long-winded, self-pitying complaints, they could have opened new accounts at the service of their choice, migrated all of their mail from FastMail to the new provider, and sent out notifications to all their contacts informing them of their new address -- and still had time to spare. But for some reason they would rather spend their precious minutes (hours in some cases) shouting and pouting and making nonsensical arguments. If there were Academy Awards for "Most Over The Top Performance," we would have some real frontrunners here.
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Old 20 Jan 2017, 04:08 AM   #69
BritTim
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Quote:
Originally Posted by neoforum View Post
Seriously, BritTim, walesrob, et al, would it really just be a minor pain for you to change your primary email address? Or alternately, would you really have no hesitation to pay $30/year per account forever for something you had already bought (instead of using a free alternative) *precisely because* it would be yours for life for a one-time payment? If so, you probably aren't hurting for money and you might try to imagine what it's like for people who aren't as flush as yourself.
I cannot speak for the others, but I personally pay much more than US$30 per year for my critical email addresses. I pay for personal domains and multiple hosting services (for backup purposes). I understand email is not sufficiently important to you to consider stumping up $0.08 per day, but I rely on it.
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Old 20 Jan 2017, 04:10 AM   #70
mballas
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pfolson View Post
In a mere fraction of the time that it's taken certain people to compose and post their numerous long-winded, self-pitying complaints, they could have opened new accounts at the service of their choice, migrated all of their mail from FastMail to the new provider, and sent out notifications to all their contacts informing them of their new address -- and still had time to spare. But for some reason they would rather spend their precious minutes (hours in some cases) shouting and pouting and making nonsensical arguments. If there were Academy Awards for "Most Over The Top Performance," we would have some real frontrunners here.
I second those comments. The endless comments of the "demented" lunatic fringe demeans this forum.
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Old 20 Jan 2017, 04:18 AM   #71
samhu
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ChinaLamb View Post

Internet companies come and go. Offerings come and go. Heck, most internet providers available in my local area don't even exist anymore, nor do their email addresses.
Therein lies the crux of the issue that we, as "one-time-payment Fastmail Member account" folk, have our gripe. Fastmail has not "gone". And the offer to join at Member level was clearly stated - "a Member account for a US$14.95 one-time fee". Fastmail choosing for whatever reason it (or its fans) give to not uphold this commitment is at best underhand, at worst, illegal.
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Old 20 Jan 2017, 04:22 AM   #72
jchevali
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Originally Posted by mballas View Post
I second those comments. The endless comments of the "demented" lunatic fringe demeans this forum.
I disagree. Dementia is a real illness and it's perfectly possible elderly people with dementia will not take up a new address even if given to them. People with dementia need a completely stable and familiar environment in which to live their last few years in peace and without surprises, which are threatening to them.

We do not know if there are any such people affected, and for sure, people with dementia will not be taking up reading and posting to this noticeboard unless they had done before.

Only because we don't know how many people affected could be, it doesn't mean we have to be insensitive, as it's a real possibility.

I hope people with dementia have people around them who care for them and will try and remediate. My heart goes out to them.
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Old 20 Jan 2017, 04:22 AM   #73
ChinaLamb
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Quote:
Originally Posted by samhu View Post
Therein lies the crux of the issue that we, as "one-time-payment Fastmail Member account" folk, have our gripe. Fastmail has not "gone". And the offer to join at Member level was clearly stated - "a Member account for a US$14.95 one-time fee". Fastmail choosing for whatever reason it (or its fans) give to not uphold this commitment is at best underhand, at worst, illegal.
Once again, they were giving you service subsidized by ads. Because of malware advances that became unsafe for you and for them. They had all the rights within their terms of service to change. I understand you are upset, but seriously, they lost their funding stream to be able to offer the service. Do you only exist for others to serve you at their expense? They lost the ability to safely offer ads to pay for YOUR use of THEIR service. I get you are upset, but you completely fail to recognize the broader picture of what happened with the accounts.
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Old 20 Jan 2017, 04:27 AM   #74
janusz
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ChinaLamb View Post
Once again, they were giving you service subsidized by ads..
False.
Member accounts were ad-free. And Guest accounts had only ads for FM placed by FM.
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Old 20 Jan 2017, 04:28 AM   #75
ChinaLamb
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jchevali View Post
I disagree. Dementia is a real illness and it's perfectly possible elderly people with dementia will not take up a new address even if given to them.
It is completely nonsensical to argue hypothetical situations.

By the time my relatives had dementia to the point it seriously affected their lives, other family members and caregivers had already been involved deeply in their affairs to be able to handle their communication, etc. for them.

c'mon. Stop talking about someone else's hypothetical situation. This is pure emotionalism and nonsense.
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