kraneland...

Friday, October 29, 2004

Are You Kidding Me????


Like millions of other web users, I have a Yahoo! Mail account. It's certainly not my primary e-mail address, but it's a safe, reliable haven that I've used for years to store back-up copies of my electronic Rolodex and other tidbits of information that I'd like to keep record of. The service has never failed me and the price (free) couldn't be better. Today, I tried to log-in to my account and received this . ARE YOU FLIPPIN' KIDDING ME, YAHOO????? So what if I haven't logged in for four months (I'm not even sure that's the case)?! I've filled out your detailed registration profile. You know a lot of information about me. You have my phone number. You have my IM handle. You have an ALTERNATE e-mail address. My wife even worked for you for more than 7 years! Why no warning of any kind that you were going to shut me down??? This line, in particular, throws even more salt in the wound...

What does this mean?
- Deleted information cannot be recovered

I'd like the record to note that this *royally* sucks. Those 200 or so personal e-mails I was keeping with you are going to be missed. Great user experience, guys.

Yes, Google has a competitive webmail product. Long live Gmail. If you need an invite to our mail service, let me know. Your mail is safe with us.

posted by David at 10:11 AM

27 Comments:

  • Related: why oh why does LambdaMOO erase accounts that have been inactive for four months? It's not like they're running out of space or have a population problem anymore...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:05 PM  

  • I wonder what will happen with Blogger and other free on-line weblogs if, lets say through illness, you don't keep feeding the machine with your daily slice of life. If they ever do a "Yahoo" on that, bits of peoples' whole lives will be missing!

    By Blogger Jonathan Marks, at 3:01 AM  

  • By all means send me a g-mail invite. But I am worried about your use of the word "experiment". Experiments usually have a conclusion and that often means the party is over.

    By Blogger Jonathan Marks, at 3:02 AM  

  • I had the same experience and was just as pissed off. I never re-activated the account because I had a gmail account - and it was pointless since I still wouldn't have access to my "old" e-mails that were lost. The really ironic part of it all though is that every time I log into Yahoo's Instant Messenger, my old Yahoo e-mail pops up and tells me I have no new messages. I guess not...since I've been deactivated!

    By Blogger Shawn Z. Lea, at 8:10 AM  

  • > Your mail is safe with us.
    Uh, for 9 months only (search for dormant accounts in gmail help). You didn't actually mention how long it had been since you last logged in. Would losing your email address as you would have with gmail been better? Can you give us ballpark stats on the number of people that are inactive in gmail for 4 months, but become active between 4 and 9 months? I'd think it extremely small.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:42 AM  

  • I feel you David. If it helps, Hotmail does that if ou are inactive for one month, Yahoo! atleast has the inactivity time set to four months. Greetings from cold and dark Finland! Ps. I could use the gmail invite you advertised: bronskigolf@hotmail.com (hope it's still active :)

    By Blogger AgamGolb, at 11:59 AM  

  • yahoo screwed me over too.
    gmail is better

    By Blogger DJ Loche, at 12:32 PM  

  • I'm stunned that you used Yahoo in the first place, especially after Gmail launched. *pats account* Perhaps this might be a good time to push for Gmail accounts to be infinite, or at least available for more than *months*...eh? ;)

    By Blogger Natali, at 12:48 PM  

  • Thanks for all the feedback and for the kind words of support. This one is still smarting, but I'm sure over time, I'll forget about it and learn to live without this information. If you're one of the folks who'd like to try Gmail, send me a private note w/your e-mail address (yokrane at gmail.com).

    By Blogger David, at 10:59 PM  

  • David, I'd love an invite for a GMail account.

    steve dot muench at oracle dot com

    http://radio.weblogs.com/0118231/

    Thanks for offering!

    By Blogger Steve, at 8:18 AM  

  • this is my first time to this blog, that must've been aggravating. I had a yahoo mail account that I didn't log into for about 2 or 3 months once, and it hit the limit (this was way before the 100mb increase) and stayed that way for the duration, never got canceled though..
    could I get that gmail invite? michael521 at yahoo dot com

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:59 AM  

  • This post has been removed by a blog administrator.

    By Blogger popsearch, at 10:14 AM  

  • Hi David,

    I enjoy reading your blog, once I discovered it in Steve Rubel's blog. I agree the NHL lockout sucks and it doesn't seem to come to an end any time soon. Dixie seems like a nice dog :). Keep up the good work! I could use the gmail invite if the offer is still valid.

    br,
    Bronski
    s000240@shh.fi

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:06 PM  

  • Are you kidding me?? How can you trust Yahoo Mail to archive important information!? If it was that important, you'd have mirrored it on your hard drive right?

    For everybody else, here's an open source project that lets you suck the emails out of your Yahoo account through POP if you're not willing to pay for the $19.99 Yahoo! Plus Upgrade:

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/yahoopops/

    By Blogger Minger, at 2:16 PM  

  • I'd love that gmail invite, and as for the Yahoo booboos, I've been saying for years that they are a "me-too" company copying Google and buying up every other search related company they can get their hands on.

    http://www.website101.com/arch/archive140.html

    My yahoo mail account is never used, but it probably remains active because I run an active Yahoo Groups (which was OneList, er eGroups, before Yahoo bought them) announcement list, therefore I've never been deleted.

    I've been looking for a GMail invite for months, why are they so tough to come by? Several people with gmail accounts that I've asked have ignored my requests.

    Mike Valentine

    By Blogger SEOptimism, at 4:38 PM  

  • Holding my hand up to try Gmail too please?? bcrjinty@yahoo.co.uk

    Congrats on the seed, my youngest sprog is a March 20th baby too, hope you have the same laidback cheerful boy he is!!!

    Will bookmark your blog to keep up! Cheers!!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:42 PM  

  • i have been deactivated by yahoo! as well. moreover i was using that account daily. is not a pleasant experience.

    can you invite me as well to gmail ?

    wahit at tiscali dot it

    thankyou!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:10 AM  

  • Hi David!

    I got tired of my yahoo, hotmail and lycos accounts. If your offer for a gmail is still valid, I'd love to get one offer. At least your blog will get one more addicted reader if you'd do that favor to me :).

    Have a nice christmas!

    br,
    Marc
    vmmattil at cc.hut.fi

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:43 PM  

  • Would love an invite to gmail, yaho just deactivated my account and will not tell me why: GRRRRRR!!!!
    Bill_Hunt@att dot net

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:16 AM  

  • lol seriously GMail SUX, it has absolutly no killing features... yahoo's way faster, way more reliable and provides much more features.
    Oh and wasn't that already pretentious for Google to announce GMail on April 1ST...pfff it took them a year before implementing HTML in the composer...got a GMail ? welcome back to the 90s

    By Blogger Carbon:Eyes, at 6:24 AM  

  • Carbon:Eyes, are you high! yahoo sucks bad. I have yahoo/sbc and can't keep the thing running. it is the worst ip I have ever had and am about to take a hammer to the 2nd modem they sent me, I also have three nonsbc accounts and they are sooooooo sloooooooow. get real dude.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:43 AM  

  • GMAIL NO HTML!? yeah sorry dude but if u knew how to even set up a simple syntax, mabye u would understand gmail a bit better :|. i have had gmail for quiite a while and have noticed that it is (i have had accounts on several different e-mail clients) EXTREMELY FAST. letting you create filters, etc. ANYTHING spam has gone to my spame folder and never to my inbox, o and by the way! gmail has more thn 2 and a half gigs of storage and counting! Sorry if you dont know what a gig is... :( I understand y u are so pissed @ it tho, because u are jealous of the gmail users, and that u can't fins one god dam way to get an invite, ask ur firends altho they probly wont give u it... to bad...

    By Blogger Teckie Talkster, at 12:36 PM  

  • GMAIL NO HTML!? yeah sorry dude but if u knew how to even set up a simple syntax, mabye u would understand gmail a bit better :|. i have had gmail for quiite a while and have noticed that it is (i have had accounts on several different e-mail clients) EXTREMELY FAST. letting you create filters, etc. ANYTHING spam has gone to my spame folder and never to my inbox, o and by the way! gmail has more thn 2 and a half gigs of storage and counting! Sorry if you dont know what a gig is... :( I understand y u are so pissed @ it tho, because u are jealous of the gmail users, and that u can't fins one god dam way to get an invite, ask ur firends altho they probly wont give u it... to bad...

    By Blogger Teckie Talkster, at 12:36 PM  

  • srry for double post guys... wait now its a triple LOL...

    By Blogger Teckie Talkster, at 12:37 PM  

  • Does anyone want to join a class action lawsuit against Yahoo for deactivation of their account?
    Email me on see my eBay listing.

    By Blogger The Source, at 5:51 PM  

  • I was(am) with yahoo for 12 years. Never tried anything else... maybe i never felt the need to or simply 'inertia'. I had gotten used to yahoo and resisted invitations from gmail. And 2 days back, i would have been a die-hard supporter of yahoo against anything.
    But... became a victim of "Deactivated Account" for no apparent reason. This is a personal email used for personal mail. I check it almost daily. Send/receive about 70-80 mails a month. So cant see why it should be deactivated.
    But anyways, for those guys who still back yahoo... trust me its a very bad feeling to experience this. And the day you face it, you cant imagine how dumb and pathetic you feel for trusting yahoo with all your data. And they dont think your loyalty is worth a warning.
    yes i am a free account, but its free accounts what made yahoo what it is today. And its free accounts which still earn them more in ad revenue than subscription. So thats no excuse for their negligence. And a simple automated warning mail costs lot less that angry customers.

    By Anonymous Shannon, at 12:59 PM  

  • I'm so pissed they just deleted my account. I am a paid dsl customer. They can't do shit about it... it's lost I want to know can I sue them and if so underwhat reason of the law. please email me any information.. motiontext@sbcglobal.net soon to be gmail customer.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:41 PM  

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