... and it will be 2011 before we know it. So it's time for a rant about email, I think. And specifically about a totally daft decision. Read on.
We all know that you shouldn't store important items in your webmail. Goodness knows, I've ranted about it often enough in the past. But, just as people are using their phones, iPads and other devices to read their email our hosting company, in its wisdom and without letting us know, has decided to impose a 3,000 email limit. That is, only 3,000 emails can be stored on the server before your email just stops working.
True.
Now that might have been fine in the olden days, like 1999, when most people had one fixed computer. Then, they would download their email to their one computer and Bob, as they say, was your uncle.
But who, especially in business, just accesses their email from a single computer these days? No-one I know.
Let me give you an example - in our studio, I have 'my' computer. But in a busy and efficient design studio, different computers are used for different purposes. Every day, I'll spend some time on the Big Mac in Gayle's office because various computers are set up better for various tasks. That's number one.
Two - I might them move to a nearby PC because that's our accounting computer.
Three - when Gayle is at lunch, I might use her computer to access certain files. That's four computers I have used and I want to check my mail on all of them.
Then. let's say that AJH and I are going to a meeting. He's driving so I can check my mail on my iPhone or iPad. That's six machines on which I've checked my email and it's not even lunchtime yet.
Now eventually, after moving from Mac to PC to iPhone to iPad to another PC to another Mac, I get home and want to check my mail on my laptop. So seven machines in the average day. And yes, along the way, I'm downloading important emails to 'my' computer.
I need to be able to access my email if I'm on a business trip to ther Bahamas, or Columbus or wherever I am. I need to check my rmail if I am in England, which I am twice a year.
Ah, England. That's an eight hour flight away. While I'm on that plane, what's happening in my email?
1. I look after about forty Twitter accounts for clients.Every hour or so, I might get 50 emails saying "so and so is following you on Twitter". In addition, I also get the same amount of DMs from Twitter. That's a hundred emails in an hour. 800 during my flight to England.
2. Looking after our clients' internet reputation is part of our business. So I have news alerts for any mention of hundreds of clients. Let's be on the conservative side and say that I only get 50 an hour. That's 400 during my 8 hour flight bringing the total to 1,200.
3. We use, as you know if you're a TSDG client, an online production area. Every time a message is posted there, I get a notification my email. Again, I'll underestimate and say that's a mere 100 per hour. That brings the total to 2,000.
4. Consultancy clients will know about our knowledge base website. When a client posts a question there, or puts in a ticket, I get an email notification. Maybe another 50 an hour. This bring my total during my flight to 2,400.
5. I subscribe to a lot of newsletters to keep me up to date with the latest social media developments, search engine news, industry news and a lot more. If they account for another 50 emails an hour I'm now dangerously close to my limit. (And our delightful hosting company have told me that even getting close to the limit can stop my email from working!)
6. Add to this emails from collegues, clients who are emailing me, leads from various website forms, notifications from various networks we run for clients, LinkedIn updates, Facebook notifications (and we look after a lot of Facebook pages for clients) and ... the inevitable emails which are spam (and they all seem to be about strawberries at the moment) ... which amount to even more than the emails mentioned above and you'll realise that my email would be full before the plane had even got to New York, let alone England.
Eight hours. Most people sleep for that amount of time. So you go to bed with an empty email server, you wake up and it's not receiving email because it's full.
This is such bollocks.
The hosting company's solution? USE GMAIL!!!!! This is, honestly, truly, what they suggested.
Yes, my gmail account gives me three zillion megabytes of storage space - free. The hosting company I have paid a four figure sum to for the last eleven years can't even support a night's sleep-worth of email.
Isn't that interesting?
True.
Now that might have been fine in the olden days, like 1999, when most people had one fixed computer. Then, they would download their email to their one computer and Bob, as they say, was your uncle.
But who, especially in business, just accesses their email from a single computer these days? No-one I know.
Let me give you an example - in our studio, I have 'my' computer. But in a busy and efficient design studio, different computers are used for different purposes. Every day, I'll spend some time on the Big Mac in Gayle's office because various computers are set up better for various tasks. That's number one.
Two - I might them move to a nearby PC because that's our accounting computer.
Three - when Gayle is at lunch, I might use her computer to access certain files. That's four computers I have used and I want to check my mail on all of them.
Then. let's say that AJH and I are going to a meeting. He's driving so I can check my mail on my iPhone or iPad. That's six machines on which I've checked my email and it's not even lunchtime yet.
Now eventually, after moving from Mac to PC to iPhone to iPad to another PC to another Mac, I get home and want to check my mail on my laptop. So seven machines in the average day. And yes, along the way, I'm downloading important emails to 'my' computer.
I need to be able to access my email if I'm on a business trip to ther Bahamas, or Columbus or wherever I am. I need to check my rmail if I am in England, which I am twice a year.
Ah, England. That's an eight hour flight away. While I'm on that plane, what's happening in my email?
1. I look after about forty Twitter accounts for clients.Every hour or so, I might get 50 emails saying "so and so is following you on Twitter". In addition, I also get the same amount of DMs from Twitter. That's a hundred emails in an hour. 800 during my flight to England.
2. Looking after our clients' internet reputation is part of our business. So I have news alerts for any mention of hundreds of clients. Let's be on the conservative side and say that I only get 50 an hour. That's 400 during my 8 hour flight bringing the total to 1,200.
3. We use, as you know if you're a TSDG client, an online production area. Every time a message is posted there, I get a notification my email. Again, I'll underestimate and say that's a mere 100 per hour. That brings the total to 2,000.
4. Consultancy clients will know about our knowledge base website. When a client posts a question there, or puts in a ticket, I get an email notification. Maybe another 50 an hour. This bring my total during my flight to 2,400.
5. I subscribe to a lot of newsletters to keep me up to date with the latest social media developments, search engine news, industry news and a lot more. If they account for another 50 emails an hour I'm now dangerously close to my limit. (And our delightful hosting company have told me that even getting close to the limit can stop my email from working!)
6. Add to this emails from collegues, clients who are emailing me, leads from various website forms, notifications from various networks we run for clients, LinkedIn updates, Facebook notifications (and we look after a lot of Facebook pages for clients) and ... the inevitable emails which are spam (and they all seem to be about strawberries at the moment) ... which amount to even more than the emails mentioned above and you'll realise that my email would be full before the plane had even got to New York, let alone England.
Eight hours. Most people sleep for that amount of time. So you go to bed with an empty email server, you wake up and it's not receiving email because it's full.
This is such bollocks.
The hosting company's solution? USE GMAIL!!!!! This is, honestly, truly, what they suggested.
Yes, my gmail account gives me three zillion megabytes of storage space - free. The hosting company I have paid a four figure sum to for the last eleven years can't even support a night's sleep-worth of email.
Isn't that interesting?
This sounds like a company we use "Hostcentric"? Similar situation.. not only that but they are also disabling emails that have not been used in 90 days!! Most of our emails have forwards on them so there is no need to access the accounts. Very time consuming & boring to sit & re-enable emails!
Posted by: Laura | July 07, 2010 at 11:19 AM
Have you ever Googled them? There are a lot of unhappy people out there.
Posted by: JJ | July 08, 2010 at 10:16 AM