Click on it for the larger version.
Additions you ask? How much time do you have? A long time ago (checks date on thread, yep september 29, 2006) I made the last addition to a thread about this subject on my homeboard and after that I didn't bother really with it as finally getting rid of bugs was AND STILL IS more important then introducing new features / re-introducing features we had in V4. Since you asked however I'll add my short (yeah right) wish list ... first however some small comments on a couple your own list (some stuff I get to in my own list).
1) Files able to be uploaded quickly and reliably.
I'd like to add that it shouldn't matter the method of uploading one chooses as I've learned from experience that experience per method differs from person to person. One should be able to upload a file without any problems and it should show up nearly immediately after the upload is completed. So no more errors and no more none-processing.
4) Fix the 'random directory relocation' bug that seems to plague users with large collections. This bug has destroyed the last two sets of files I have sent out.
Troubles with sending? That's a new one. Anyway, I want to work in my file manager again dammit ... I've been waiting for a fix for this since octobre 2006! It's also not just relocation ... if only that were true. I can personally attest this bug makes stuff dissapear totally ... and I mean totally ... you won't even find it back in your trash can.
5) Davcin's MediaMaxExplorer be made the preferred interface to access MediaMax.
While Davcin's product is worth of every bit of praise it gets and I would like MediaMax to start at least sponsoring it I wouldn't want it to be the preferred interface.
Davcin's Explorer, at least at this moment, is to dependent on MediaMaxs internal workings which in my eyes only increases the risk of the system not working. Also Davcin's explorer is, atm at least, a standalone application that has to be installed and especially for people that want access to their MM account outside their home it's not a given that they can install an application on the PC they happen to sit behind.
7. Respond to support emails.
or if you can't respond to everyone (with the same problem) individually then post on the Blog that you have been made aware of a
certain problem ... and don't wait with posting until a week after the problem has surfaced.
Now for my own list:
1) Recognition of identical files and grouping them together.
The only thing MediaMax reckognises atm is if files have the exact same name. Especially if you have to rename files like we often have to with files being written in different titles depending on the uploaders preference the current system is completly worthless. At the moment, in principle we could have a folder with 10 files with the only difference being the added -1 behind it while in reality none of the files would be a duplicate. On the other hand we could have 10 files with 10 different names which in reality could be 10 duplicate files. Like I said, utterly useless. This was a V4 feature btw and we want it back.
2) More file information (especially MD5 AND CRC values)
Especially for older files in our archives the MD5 / CRC value was the only thing we had to rely on checking them against a 3thd party
database. Also it's vital, especially in light of the upload problems, to be able to check these values against their original counterparts on our HDs. The MD5 value WAS a part of V4, the CRC value was not.
For video files and pictures it should be almost be a given to see Height and Width being mentioned as a standard in the file manager.
This was also a V4 feature.
3) Visibility file/folder names
Some of the names I'm forced to use (as it's no more then the official title of things) are so long that you can't read the full name (including extension) of a file/folder as MediaMax auto cuts them off. I'd like to opportunity back to decided for myself if I want file/folder names to be cut off or not. Again, a missing feature from V4.
4) Abilitiy to resize navigation panel
An other aspect of long folder names is that at times in order to see where we are going in the File Manager we have now have to scroll horizontically which is way to awkward. In V4 we could resize the
navigation panel to our own desired width and we would very much getting this feature back. Yup, another V4 feature.
5) File count (number and total MB)
There used to be in V4 al line at the bottom of the screen stating how many files where were in the folder you were looking at and what the total amount of MB these files was. A small thing, but especially if you work in a group a very quick way of checking folders against eachother (not totally error proof, but still very handy).
6) Creating a folder when moving/copying
In V4 you could select files, browse around in your file manger to the desired location and if need be, make a new folder where you could put in what you had selected. Now you first have to browse to that place in the file manager, make the folder, go back and select what you want moved / copied and then place in the newly created folder. The V4 way makes a lot more sense.
7) Be able to tell what is moved/copied
In V4 when you moved / copied something there was a small screen that would tell you what you were moving /copying (if you didn't select to much at once). Nothing big really, but it's just that little bit of extra security that what we are moving / copying is actually what we intend to move / copy.
8) See the last 5 folders that you moved/copied to
Another small V4 thing, but appreciated especially by large archive holders like me as it acted as a shortcut to folders and acted as a little extra feed back to verify that your previous action went to the intended destination.
9) Going to target folder after move/copy
We'd like to see the option back that you could select that made you 'follow' your move / copy action to the target folder.
10) No auto expanding of folders
When you move / copy stuff and click on a target folder and that folder happens to have subfolders MediaMax allways reads the target folder and expands it to show the subfolders. Meaningless and extra strain on the system, if we wanted to go deeper in the folder structure we'd use the + sign, that's what it's there for.
11) After sending put us back in the file manager in stead of Mail.
When you have send (or tried to send) something MediaMax puts you into the Mail area of your account. For people that send to more then 1 person in succession this is highly annoying, because we now loose time loading the mail area and then the file manger .... granted, you can click on the file manager button as soon as the Mail area starts loading, but it will still re-load the file manager again which is an excercise in futility as nothing changed in there.
So basically, after a send put us back in the file manager without reloading it ... basically putting us back in the folder we last accessed. The same sort of applies if you, after a send, choose for "Send another mail", choosing that option we also want to be put back in the file manager in the last accessed folder without a reload.
12) Inbox view to files only
People are missing the ability to set the view of the inbox to files only. If you have 10 emails in MediaMax you have to enter each of those 10 individually and save them to Saved Attachements folder and then delete the emails. Some people found it much easier to just see the files in the inbox and be able to copy all of them in one go to the file manager .... no matter how many emails had been used to deliver them. After that they could switch back to viewing emails and delete them all in one go.
13) Go back button ... doesn't go back in Mail area
Some kind of bug makes it that if you use the go back button of your browser you'll find yourself either in the file manager of in the composer screen of a new emails instead of one step back from where your previously were. That is eh ... wrong.
14) A working Search Function
An actual working Search function would be novelty and while we're at it some extra features like the search to include the Mail Area and the ability to limit the search to part(s) of your file manager would be greatly appreciated as well.
15) Hosted files not so user friendly
Since MediaMax it seems that if you host files people that want to download them can no longer select files and thus making a bulk download, but have to click every file to receive a download. Not very user friendly if you have a couple of dozen of files to download from a host.
Also the window for hosted stuff is WAY to small. You can only see 3 items for goodness sake.
16) Missing "Copy URL to Clipboard"
MediaMax only supports either GetRight or MediaMax XL for bulk
downloads. A lot of people however have their own preferred download manager. While you can use the generic URL that's being produced (at least in Flash Get you can) we're missing the option "Copy URL to clipboard" that V4 had.
17) Download Information is seriously lacking
The Download info that is currently provided is woefully inadequate. We want our detailed reports back so we can see on a day by day, byte by byte basis exactly what was downloaded and by whom (Ip logging) and also again being able to see how much bandwith was used from Hosting files just like we had in V4.
18) Mass deleting
We have mass editing (my heartfelt thanks for that), but we could use a mass deleting funtion for the Mail Area and especially Trash can as well.
My Trashcan currently boosts a rather impressive (even if I do say so myself) 13489 files and folders in there. If I were to lighten my account by kicking that off I would need to go through 135 screens to be able to delete that ... not to mention the time it would take for MediaMax to actually to delete these 100 entries page by page. My Trash in the mail in comparison 'only' has 2044 items in it. Mass delete button PLEASE!
19) Results per page up to 1000
At the moment the current maximum is 100 entries per page. We'd like it back to 500 and if possible 1000 as some of our folders are so big that 100 entries just don't cut it.
20) Uploads go in 1 place
Ah, back in the V4 days. When you uploaded a file, no matter if you ventured into the abyss of web-uploading, were lucky to have an FTP account or used the good old SL uploader ... your files would appear in your inbox. Since MediaMax your choice of upload app determines where your files are going to end up and can up in My Uploads, Uploaded files or just the root of the File Manager. Could we get our upload please in one place?
21) Global file recognition
I'm pretty sure MediaMax still lists the MD5 values of files somewhere like they used to and I'd like to see them use this again to re-enable global file recognition. For the people not being familair with this term .... in the old days (even before the end of V4 if memory serves) if someone completed uploading File A (MD5 value 00101) and another person started uploading the EXACT same file after that then that person would have the file uploaded in about 5 seconds. In essence, nothing was uploaded, but Streamload would recognise from the MD5 value that the file being uploaded was already on Streamload and would create a link to the original file and put that in the inbox of the 2nd uploader. It was THE way to get files back that were on Streamload, but where the database link leading to it was messed up. Also it prevented people wasting their (and MMs) bandwith uploading thing twice.
22) Webinterface speed improvements
Imho, the speed by with actions are executed ... wether it be moving, deleting or renaming ... leaves still to be desired. It's not uncommon to see MediaMax busy for 30 seconds or more to perform such actions and the more files/folders selected the more time it takes. It could be me, but the copy function seems the only one up to speed.
23) Build-in link validator
While in essence we're paying MM to keep our file safe and intact, a 100% guarantee I think can't be expected. I would be nice though if there was a way that we could make a report about (part of) our file manger that shows what file links are dead. I'd like to restate that in principle the list that would be generated is supposed to be SHORT and should have close to nill entries.
Sorry for the length this took, but Martin asked and I like to be thorough ... besides, there is an off chance John or even Steven sees this and realise that even if they finally manage to get the bugs exterminated there is still much work to be done.
If you guys want to excuse me, I need to cool of my fingers.
Hi MediaMax,
Michael Arrington at TechCrunch recently did some good investigative reporting and released some details about MediaMax and Nirvanix that were supposed to be confidential information for several more weeks.
On August 7th, the following article was posted on TechCrunch. Now that it's public information, we wanted to post the article here, and also add some additional clarification to ease some concerns that have been raised by our customers.
Nirvanix To Challenge Amazon S3
Look for new San Diego-based Nirvanix to launch in the next few weeks. It aims to compete with Amazon's popular S3 storage web service and provide web developers another choice for online storage.
The company, which is affiliated with online storage startup MediaMax (aka Streamload), should also be announcing a $12 million round of financing in the near future. It's not clear exactly how affiliated Nirvanix and MediaMax are, and the company is keeping the specifics of the relationship quiet for now. There has clearly been a technology swap, though, and MediaMax is now using the Nirvanix service to provide the back end of its storage product. Also, former MediaMax CEO Patrick Harr is now running the show at Nirvanix (MediaMax founder Steve Iverson has retaken the CEO spot at MediaMax).
While the company is keeping quiet about the funding and exactly how it's affildiated with MediaMax, they are saying that they'll be filling some of the perceived holes in S3. Hopefully they'll be offering a service level agreement (Amazon doesn't).
MediaMax, meanwhile, has been trying to pull through a hellish technology transition (my guess is it was related to the changeover to Nirvanix) that plagued them earlier this summer. They've moved their corporate blog to a new site, and are talking openly with users about some of the problems they're facing.
Disclosure: I am an investor and on the board of directors of Omnidrive, which is also in the online storage space and can be considered a competitor to MediaMax and Nirvanix.
The article, in some instances is accurate, but it does contain some inaccuracies that need to be clarified. Streamload was split into two entities in July. The consumer online service became "MediaMax" and a second entity, Nirvanix, was founded as a new and separate company. We ("MediaMax") continue to focus on the consumer online storage space (B2C) as we have done for many years. We can't talk about Nirvanix as they are an independent company; however, we can say that we never changed over to Nirvanix, as the article suggested, and are not using their new system now.
In regards to MediaMax's problems mentioned in the TechCrunch article, this was only partially related to the spin-out process. One issue was trying to do too much, too quickly. Over the last six weeks, we completed a new round of financing and corporate spin out, moved MediaMax into a new office, migrated our web application servers to a new hosting provider, consolidated two other data centers, and have been hiring new MediaMax employees to fill in the personnel holes that were created from the split.
In addition to these major projects that were underway (and impossible to reschedule), we were still recovering from the unforeseen storage problem encountered on June 15th. The "storage problem" was a result of operator error in preparation for the data center move. There was no power surge or hacker or failed hard disk or fundamental technological problem or aliens - we just messed up. Fortunately, it was discovered fairly quickly and the data is recoverable.
If you'd like the gory details, here is exactly what happened (we have always enjoyed reading those stories about NASA probes crashing into planets because someone typed + instead of -, but didn't think it would actually be us): We wanted to manually "shrink" part of the storage system and a database that manages files in closed accounts, trash folders, etc. That is, we didn't want to move files that had already been deleted, but not actually removed from disk or the database. Normally an automated process handles this type of task, but because of the move, we thought we could create a manual process to reduce the amount of data we would have to move. And that's what messed up - this new process that should have just taken out the trash, went far beyond what we thought it was doing. Once realized, the process was stopped but significant damage had already been done. So then we started the recovery; the "shrink project" failed and we just ended up moving the entire database anyways. So the potential data loss (again, it is being recovered) was due to the most common cause for data loss: operator error.
To prevent this from ever happening again, we have put in place an even more rigorous code review process for any project that has a potential for affecting customer data like this.
So, that's the short story behind the story in the TechCrunch article. Spin off done, and data recovery is in progress. We have brought in as many additional resources as possible to help accelerate recovery, but it will still take an additional 6-8 weeks.
Over the years, maintaining the ever growing infrastructure to run MediaMax has become a distraction from our core business - to build the absolute best-of-class consumer storage applications. With this new corporate structure, we can fully focus on MediaMax.
We appreciate your support and patience and we'll continue to update you here.
We installed new upload servers! We’re sure you’ve seen the improvement in upload processing because we’re seeing record upload levels. Please let us know if you’re having issues with uploads at support@mediamax.com . Thanks for the files!
On a different front, you’ve probably seen that we’ve raised email sharing limits. We’re proud to say that our new db is ably handling the increased traffic. Please keep sharing!Some users with accounts renewing the last four days of this month may not have automatically received their regular allotment of downloads. If you are one of the users affected please email us at support@mediamax.com. In your subject line please type "Download Credits". We'll have your download credits posted within 24 hours of receiving your email.
We are working on a solution to prevent this from happening next month. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Thanks for your patience and your business!
The MediaMax Customer Support Team
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We've gotten inquiries from users about the return of FTP uploads. We have a new version that will allow the management of both uploads and downloads. (The previous version only allowed for the management of uploads.) This added functionality was a request from many of our users. We're currently performing quality assurance testing on the new version to ensure full functionality. We'll post here when it becomes available for use.
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So still not much joy for customers.
Hello,
As we've stated on the blog we're working on restoring access to files. We do not have an ETA for completion but will post on both of our blogs and here when it's done.
We're posting all refund requests in the order received. Due to an unusually high volume of email there will be a delay in responding but we will get to every email. Thanks for your patience.
We don't allow comments on the blog because we don't the manpower to manage it and respond. We're a small start up of less than a dozen people. We feel that it's more important that all of us work at restoring service instead of pulling one of us off that work to manage the blog. Having said that, I'll try to check on here when I can to respond to your posts.
Thanks,
John Hood
A one improvement and a couple of changes and for today:
Mediamax.com application improvement:
- Email limits. With our shiny new database servers (again, very sorry about the problems encountered getting us here) we have significantly more processing capacity to handle large message volume.
We'd prefer not to share exact limitations because spammers may be able to use that against us, but the limits are about 10 times greater than before and we don't think you should hit them under any normal use.
And BIG changes to the web site for the marketing folks, but it doesn't have any material impact on you:
- No more "Streamload", "Streamload.com", or "powered by Streamload". We're consolidating brands and just going with "MediaMax". In fact, our new company name is "MediaMax, Inc.", and our service and website is now just "MediaMax". Simple, eh?
- We're also using new blog software. Actually we're not actually running software at all anymore but using a hosted blog at Blogspot (that's where you are right now). Links to old postings on the old blog will continue to work for some time, but life is much simpler for us here not having to maintain blog software and it's good to have one less thing to worry about.
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Allright, a try at a somewhat more indepth view of the demo I attended yesterday.
First of all one has to realise that V6 is still in development and that design clearly wasn't yet implemented ... i.o.w. it looked reasonably crappy, but I wasn't paying attention to how it looked, but as to how it functioned. Also I have to take into account that was just a demo on a limited database that can't compare with the MediaMax community as a whole so whatever I say is based on this demo. Final judgement will hopefully reflect the same feelings, but will not be made until I have experienced the final product myself.
During the demo Steve and John Hood said that they had taken a look at the wish list on this blog and that basically everything that was on there was or will be build into V6. I didn't see every wish being implemented during the demonstration, but these are the ones I can confirm and I have no doubt the others are or will be there as well. From my own list I saw item 2, 6, 8, 15-17 and 19-21. Afaik, there are no more demo's but if there is another one I'd love for people that attend to see if the others are already there as well.
Now for some highlights / points of interests:
- FILE RECOVERY PROCESS: basically this is finished and according to Steve they nearly got everything back that was accidentely deleted. Now I know Martin here has different figures which may have something to do with the entire system being unstable as I've seen files coming and going. The problem of file availability should be clear when the next step is taken ...
- CONVERSION: in order to go from V5 to V6 were going to have to endure another conversion. This is inevitable since they rewrote the entire code and atm this is expected to last 2-4 weeks when they flip the switch. A special note of interest is that MM will NOT convert links to files that are corrupt or no longer there. What this means is that every file you have in your V6 account is actually there and that there will be no more dead links or unavailable files like we had previously. Now in relation to file recovery process this means that basically until we're in V6 mode there will be no sure way to tell which files have been lost and which have been restored. I can only hope that MM is right about the number of files they have lost. Time will tell.
- SENDING: MM has reworked their sending system which may not to be everyones liking, but my guess it's a question of getting acustomed to it. Whether or not it solves one of their problems I'm not really sure. One of the problems MM is having is that their database is spiraling out of control with the number of lines it has to index/maintain.
Basically atm it works like this. If person A sends a folder to person B, then the database creates a copy of the the database lines for every file in that folder of person A and puts that into the account of person B. The problem seems to lie in the fact that people often send eachother a massive amount of files while only a small number is needed. Still the database has to make duplicate entries for each and everyone of those files.
In order to try and cut back on the number of lines their database has to create / maintain the new system will work like this (I hope I remember this right as I had a lot to keep up with attending the demo so correct me if I'm wrong): Person A sends person B a folder containing several files while person B is only interested in one. Instead of receiving that folder in the inbox like we were accustomed to, this folder now will be put on a share page from person A. If person B really wants it then person B has to go to the share page of person A, select the file and save it to his own account. Only when that has been done the database will create a new line for person B for that one file only and ignore the rest. To be honest I have my doubts if it will really work like this as what is to prevent someone saving the entire folder and then still only download the single file from his account?
- STORAGE: I'm not sure exactly how much is plan/wish or just mere thought, but it might be that MM is going to take a look at the amount of stuff people have stored. From what Steve said paid users will get a certain amount of space to store stuff on. People that have the same files will have the file counted against their storage capacity as file size divided by numer of people having the file (so a 100MB file present in 2 MM accounts, will count for 50MB against both accounts).
This will turn out to be a problem for large account holders that serve as an archive as they usually retain everything while the rest of the community benefits from that. You can rest assured I have mentioned this to Steve already. He said they basically don't want to change the way people use MM, but he said that some people are using MM in a way it was not intended storing massive logs on it and they they were looking at a way to clear of the dead weight on their servers. While I can understand their motive one of the edges MM has was their unlimited storage so cutting into that is not exactly the way to do it imho not to mention the fact that I (and others in my position) will be hurt by this. I do forego the probable grandfathering of old accounts, but it will mean that potential customers that are looking for a storage company probably will be put off. Also with the total amount of revenue they get they should be able to afford expanding their server capacity faster then we can fill it.
- UPLOADING: I'm told by someone who attended another demo then I did that FTP is postponed for now until at least the new service is operational, but that the old SL uploader will be back in a revamped fashion and that it will replace MM XL which is to be disbanded. Also I'm not quite sure how I should interpret this, but it was said that the processing stage of files in V6 will no longer be present. If you upload something it will appear straight away in your account.
- SHARING: basically the same thing what we now call hosting only in a working fashion and with a lot more options like auto expire, only visible for other (designated) MM account holders and a couple of more things I can't recall right now.
- FRIENDS / GROUPS: there was only minimum 'footage' of the Friends part. The only thing I recall offhand is that your friends will be incorporated in a quick list so if you have to send stuff regularly to the same account(s) you have short cuts for sending to them.
I hope I at least provided some glimpse as what V6 aspires to be and what is or may be to come. As I said earlier, I realise that this is only a demo and the real test will first be when we're allowed to alpha/beta test it, and after that when the MM community as a whole will be switched. IF, and I repeat IF, they manage to make the new system run as was presented at the demo then I think most of you will be happy to see the MM system back into action as it should have been from the beginning of V5. I've also made it clear that they will not get a 2nd chance. Failure this time is not an option. When they release V6 to the public they better be absolutely sure that it is indeed stable and reliable.