Petition to stop Fastmail from recycling email accounts

[Avion]

As per the following link:

https://chng.it/QrGmXWBgph

Personally, I only use my Fastmail account address for logging in and for emails to Fastmail Support.

What's your take on this?

Poll is anonymous and single choice only.

Edited for clarity: The actual raising of the petition is not the purpose of the poll, and I did not raise the petition!

Do you either - AGREE - that Fastmail are perfectly entitled to recycle, or - DISAGREE - and that they should NOT recycle.

[trikotret]

Originally Posted by Avion

As per the following link:

https://chng.it/QrGmXWBgph

Personally, I only use my Fastmail account address for logging in and for emails to Fastmail Support.

What's your take on this?

Poll is anonymous and single choice only.

Edited for clarity: The actual raising of the petition is not the purpose of the poll, and I did not raise the petition!

Do you either - AGREE - that Fastmail are perfectly entitled to recycle, or - DISAGREE - and that they should NOT recycle.

Someone posted this on reddit. Probably the most active reddit post for fastmail. I use a custom domain with FM and I only use the their email as a username to login and email support.

[hadaso]

One difference between Fastmail and many other services is that Fastmail allows any user to use hundreds of email addresses in its domains, not just one, so it seems that taking those addresses back once the user leaves the service is reasonable.

[Fenman]

I can see both sides of the discussion. Fastmail is perfectly entitled to recycle because it owns the business and I know of no law against it.

What would be helpful is to make the matter more transparent. In the Help sections about choosing/deleting an address, they could put a reminder that it might have been used before/be used again. Perhaps they could also add that having addresses at one's own domain reduces the risk.

People could then make up their own minds.

[hadaso]

Originally Posted by Fenman

... having addresses at one's own domain reduces the risk...

A domain can also have been used i the past, and can be reused once the registration expires.

[Avion]

Originally Posted by Fenman

What would be helpful is to make the matter more transparent. In the Help sections about choosing/deleting an address, they could put a reminder that it might have been used before/be used again. Perhaps they could also add that having addresses at one's own domain reduces the risk.

Looking at the option, in the Fastmail account, to cancel the plan, it says:

No longer need your Fastmail account? Here's what you need to know:

Your subscription will end on XXXXXX date. You will not be billed again.
If you change your mind, you can reactivate your subscription.
You can delete your account and all its data at any time after cancelling, but please note we do not offer refunds for unused time.

Are you sure you want to cancel?

It would be a good idea if they also added information here about the recycling of accounts.

[hadaso]

Originally Posted by Avion

It would be a good idea if they also added information here about the recycling of accounts.

I agree that they it would be better to add this information. Also when one signs up and chooses a username, if one chooses a username that was used in the past it would be good, before the selection of the username is final, to tell if it has been used in the past and when, and ask the user to confirm the choice or try a different username. The same when creating an alias.
Another thing that may be useful to a user closing an account is a list of the email addresses used in the account. I mean only subdomain addresses of the username and aliases (including in one's own domain), created not from the list of aliases that is in the settings of the account, but actual use in email messages stored in the account (preferably with dates of first and last use). That would allow one to find all the addresses used with wildcard aliases or identities. Then one can also search for some of them to fond out what they were used for.
This kind of report can be useful not just when closing an account, but also regularly, to maintain one's activities, so developing something like this is not just investing in users that leave the service.
Account closure doesn't necessarily means one leaves Fastmail. Business users can close accounts of employees that leave, and create new account for new employees, and a report detailing email address use can be helpful for the business or the leaving employee that has to transfer knowledge to whoever is or are replacing her. In family group accounts kids eventually leave and start their own family. Then they might close their account under their parents' group account and open one with their spouse. Individuals start small businesses using their personal email accounts and then when the business grows and hire employees they start a group account and need to transfer their email activity to the group account. In all of these cases they can benefit from a tool that maps email address use in the past.
One more thing: is there are funds left in the account, Fastmail can also offer a way to schedule account closure. This will leave time for the user to do some last maintenance activities. It can be useful to business group accounts that can schedule account closure for terminated employees, or for temporary accounts opened for subcontractors.

[CyberDyne]

Personally I do not think they should allow recycling of addresses. There will always be a reasonable alternative available.

[truemagic]

I support this move. This is also the main reason I migrate out from FM. The other popular email service that recycles email address is mailbox.org which I also avoid. It makes sense for them (the provider) because they can attract new paid users with much more usernames "available" but is a nightmare for users who stopped paying due to various reasons, only to realize that your daily email address will be recycled after X days!

[Bamb0]

I dont think this would make any difference how many signed this petition

[pjwalsh]

The main (log-in user ID) email address should not be recycled.
Any alias that has never received email should be recycled.
Given the hundreds of email aliases a user is allowed on FastMail (up to 600!), which would remain forever blocked after a user left the service, that seems a reasonable approach which would not open security vulnerabilites for the departed user.

[BritTim]

Originally Posted by CyberDyne

Personally I do not think they should allow recycling of addresses. There will always be a reasonable alternative available.

There is just one important counter argument. Suppose, you have two Fastmail accounts, but want to reduce this to a single account, with one account's email address(es) becoming alias(es) in the retained account. This can only be accomplished by deleting the account and then adding the alias(es). Banning recycling would mean there would be no way of accomplishing this function.

[hadaso]

Originally Posted by BritTim

Banning recycling would mean there would be no way of accomplishing this function.

Except for asking support to do it manually.

[nudge]

I disagree because I find it useful to move addresses around different accounts without having to ask support who may not do it exactly how and when I would do it.