Tuesday, August 28, 2007

More Mediamax site news

The missing file I was monitoring for signs of progress is now back! I'll do a more systematic test to see if the rest are too.

This is new on the official Mediamax blog. As usual, you can't leave comments there, so leave them here. Hopefully someone from Mediamax will drop by some time to address some of the points people have been leaving in comments:

http://mediamaxblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/site-update_28.html

---Mediamax blog quote

Site Update

Thanks for your feedback regarding FTP availability and MediaMax XL performance. We're listening to your concerns and in response are in the process of doubling our Engineering staff. This will enable us to respond faster to user issues.

As we've mentioned earlier, we have a completed FTP product that we are in the process of QA'ing. It's taking a while, but we need that time to ensure we release a quality product that you will enjoy using.

MediaMax XL is still a beta product. We hope to release the newest beta release shortly. We've gotten a lot of good customer feedback that will greatly enhance the usability of this product as it evolves.

Upload performance continues to improve. We had another record week in this area which is reflected in a decrease in support queries regarding uploading.

Thanks for your business and your support!
---ends

I wonder what it means when they say they are doubling engineering staff. We have learnt through this blog that less than a dozen people work at Mediamax. Take off the CEO, Customer Support manager, at least a few customer support staff (there have been a few different names appearing), accounts, security, reception etc. then 'doubling' could actually mean employing one more person!! Two if we are lucky.

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL. Sorry, but that's funny. Reception? Security? I wish.
I do accounts. That leaves Steve, a handful of reps and a handful of Engineers.

Anonymous said...

I am still trying the uploads regularly and last night it happened again upload an album, around 150 Mb takes me 2 hrs and gr....... all files disappear. Btw this happened twice.
Last friday I was able to upload 3 albums succesfully so things are not really stable. As long there is no decent explanation about why this is happening and what will be done to solve it. I don't care about FTP promises and more marketing talk. What matters is a service that works !!!

Anonymous said...

To be more specific about the amount of people working at streamload I can find the following through linkedin

Member of Technical Staff at Streamload 2
Software Engineer at Streamload 1
Director of Business Development at Streamload 1
Director of Customer Support at MediaMax; Co-Owner/CEO at Camp Balanza 1 Mr John Hood I assume

There are quite some people who used to work for Streamload

Anonymous said...

Glad you can see the joke John, but I can't help wonder why taking on more staff is a decision that has been just made!? It's not like there haven't been troubles with MediaMax only since june.

Also I'm still baffled that it was neccessary to disable FTP uploads while you are busy creating/testing your own product. I mean as storage company nr 1 (your own words) you can't spare a server for testing? Give me a break here.

I'd like to refer back to my last entry in the previous blog post for comments about performance about uploading/processing.

As for MediaMax XL, this used (note the past tense) work next to perfect for me. Granted, it usually crashed on me with first login, but after that it managed sustained 200-250Kbyte upload speed AND it reckognised if you had uploaded a file previously (never really used it for downloading as I found general download managers to be much faster), but since june I often can't login at all and when I can and upload something it's speed goes between 0-20Kbyte. Ofcourse that still leaves to see if it clears the hurdle of it actually being processed. So I for one am eager to see the new MM XL in the hope it's speed is back to normal.

Anonymous said...

I thought I had said enough
but to say "number of calls decreased to support" Maybe people stopped to wirte to support because you don't answer most of them.
I have written also a number of emails to which I received 1 response with the question whether I would be satisfied with free dl. I have written back that a satisfactory solution for me and probably lot's of others is postpone payments until the service is acceptable, still waiting for the answer though.
As John seems to be listening in. If you don't agree, maybe instead of answering you can set my account (joewiththebanjo) to freeloader

Luzo Orbit said...

Thanks to John Hood for posting here and responding to a mass of comments on this post:
http://mediamaxusers.blogspot.com/2007/08/site-news-from-mediamax.html

So again we learn something new. There will be two handfuls of engineers working on the problems!!

Anonymous said...

G'day John
Keith Mans here as I said uploading is a separate issue, and it is still very frustrating,after many weeks that in all honesty it is no better, the MM blog says 20% more uploads, they are in all probability Re-uploads of files that don't appear within 48hrs. File unavailable, for files in accounts before July31 2007 is still a major problem.
I am glad you look at the comments posted hear and try to look upon them as help to solve the problems the system has. the one thing I will still say is. "Patience has a time span" as I'm sure you are finding out, with people canceling their accounts.
A thank you though you always to my direct mails, support a bit behind, they replied 2 days ago to a mail I sent 8 weeks ago.
As for extra staff perhaps you need to recruit from the people that use MediaMax, as they know all about the problems, and many are in the Industry
Donk51

Anonymous said...

I wonder how big the hands of John are?

Anonymous said...

jd: i stand by what i said about uploads and i again ask for your username to follow up. I think the key word in your in your Linkedin reference is people who USED to work for Streamload. Steve's been pretty clear that there's been a split. Check Techcrunch
WillTRiker: Again, I refer back to Steve's statement on Techcruunch and our blog. We're two different companies now since June 30. Since June 30 our Engineering staff has doubled. Having said that, you and davcin are our favorite customers and will see the new version before it is released.
Keith: If we answered you from support 8 weeks late that's only because Tracy and I have answered you earlier.
Luzo: you rock.
jd: I can palm a basketball.
joewiththebanjo: I'll take care of it in the AM.

Thanks everyone,

-jh

Anonymous said...

John

Forgot to use my alias in the anonymous post but I have / am joewiththebanjo mm user. I'm sorry to be still sceptical but I am glad you take the path of communication now and listen to our messages.
I am convinced that on this path you will gain more respect and added value from all your users.

The uploads still behave strange because yesterday I lost a complete album uploaded twice. I use pippil now for testing

Anonymous said...

Hi John, looking forward to seeing your new service ... hopefully soon(ish). Guess it would be tempting the gods to ask you to come up with a timeframe?

Am still encountering a lot of resistance from MM in the uploading department. Right now I'm forced to upload single file only and even then it doesn't work really well. Just found a 300MB file that I was uploading had been reset to 0 Kbyte. It seems that especially large (relatively speaking, 200MB+) files are victim of encountering problems during upload.

As for the Techcrunch article. I know that you guys split up into 2 parts since june, but I was meaning that MediaMax had troubles before that time that also warranted some more staff our hired outside help to fix it.

Like JD said, having you around here and listening to us and helping out individuals is earning you more respect then most of what MM has been doing this past year.

Anonymous said...

I've been ripped off and lied to by mediamax for months so I'm not about to go easy on John Hood just because he posts a few friendly messages here. Until I get my pdf's back Mediamax are still evil bastards in my opinion. This mess has caused me considerable frustration, stress, and embassassment. 80% of my files are still unavailable and I've seen no improvement in that area. I want the truth John. Am I definately going to get my pdf's back or is this still a lottery? Do I need to send you the file names? Are you treating everyone equally or are you giving priority to whoever spends the most or screams the loudest?

Anonymous said...

John, hope you cruise by again and read this, but I'm hearing a lot of grief about uploading again as well as experiencing it myself.

I just saw a 600MB single web upload being reset to "0 kbyte of 0 Kbyte File: null" in mid transfer not once, but twice. Every single file upload I started after that will not start at all and will immediately show the 0 KByte Null File message. I'll keep trying, but your techs really should take a look at this.

I'm also hearing that files that have been uploaded do not make it to the file manager or i.o.w. don't make it through processing or at the very least are delayed massively again.

Anonymous said...

As WillT has said, uploading is still one of the more bothersome issues that MM has going. Last night I uploaded batches of files, many of which NEVER appeared. Most of the files were in the 250-350 MB range. It is a crap shoot as to which files appear. One batch of 5 files never appeared at all, another had 1 file appear, and another, after uploading twice, had all five file appear, 5 hours later.

I also agree that the amount of complaints going down is simply due to folks giving up because they are not answered except by automated response.

Since last night, there have also been intermittent run time errors.

Billing problems and questions to billing also are a nightmare. One friend, account lems, had a YEARLY plan on Streamload 4. That should have renewed at $45 per *year*! Intead it was charged at $179.80 TWICE! After writing, only 1 charge had been credited, still leaving the account severly OVERCHARGED.

Anonymous said...

Since I didn't get a response to my email and the official blog doesn't allow comments, I thought I would leave a message here and hope John or somebody sees it.

My username is clord and this month I was charged twice for the service. It's disgusting I'm having to pay for anything right now considering a massive chunk of my files are inaccessible but seeing that Mediamax charged me twice is just adding insult to injury.

Anonymous said...

Woke up just yet to find the MediaMax site virtually totally unresponsive. I could get to the file manager twice, but the main page takes forever to load if it loads at all.

Tried to upload, but seeing how the main page is responding I shouldn't have bothered as sure enough, my two attempts to upload saw their speed crashed to zero shortly after starting and then going into error state.

Bleh ... ofcourse it's still zzz time where MediaMax resides so unless I'm lucky enough that there is tech personel on standby duty (which I doubt) it looks like it will be another 'productive' uploading day -_-

Anonymous said...

What the hell are we supposed to do? I can't upload EXACTLY the same pdf to replace one thats lost. (THAT won't work). So I can either change the pdf file size and upload it with the same name after deleting the old file name. OR I can change the file size AND the file name. But if a choose the latter what do I do with the old file name thats still sitting in my hosted file? Do I leave it, confusing everyone but hoping that it will magically be useful again one day? Are recovered files going to screw up new files that have the same name? Mediamax are providing no info on the mechanics of this recovery program. I dont want to undertake a heap of work if I can be confident that lost files will be recovered. On the other hand I dont want to sit on my thumb waiting for mediamax to get their crap together.

Anonymous said...

Beau, you can't use the same filename twice. If you move/copy a file to a place in your file manager and there happens to be a file with the exact same name there already, the file you are moving/copying will get -1 added before the .extension. It doesn't matter in this situation if one/both of the files is/are unavailable or not.

I don't know what position you're in, but if you link to your files inserting a 2nd copy with the exact same name will not help you as the link will still point to the unavailable file and not the newly "-1" version.

If you want to restore (partial) access I would suggest you creating a new directory and move the original files in there. Alter the filesize (or rather checksum) of the files you have on your HD, upload those and put them were the original files used to be. Any outside link should be working again and you can check your original files from time to time to see if they have come back.

I know, a pain in the ass and probably tons of work, but it's either that or wait another 4-6 weeks and see how much MediaMax was able to recover which could mean that you may have done a lot of work for nothing ... or not. Be glad though that you're dealing with (relatively) small pdf files instead of my movie files -_-

On a side note ... seems that MediaMax site is back. Can't tell if problem was local on my or not ... uploaded 2 files which unfortunately, but also unsurprisingly, haven't shown up in the file manager (yet ... hopefully).

Anonymous said...

Guys,

Your living in a dream world if you think this will all be resolved by waiting another 6-8 weeks.

Mediamax hasn't worked properly since August 06 - That is a year exactly.

I can't understand people still uploading stuff to Mediamax.

It isn't going to work, it hasn't worked for a year, and are you still going to trust them after all this?

This company is heading for whole load of trouble and the way they keep taking money of people, it won't be long before someone hauls them in front of a court of law.

They are rip off merchants, nothing more, nothing less.

Anonymous said...

Willtriker... I can upload files with exactly the same name into the same Hosted folder provided I delete the old file name first AND slightly change the size of the pdf. (I can then download these new files OK). Its a tedious process but its do-able. My main problem however is that most of the lost files weren't uploaded by me in the first place so I have no backups. I just have to wait and cross my fingers that they will re-appear. My entire storage only amounts to a piddling 2 gig but I had shelled out for a paid account because the downloads by my group were exceeding 10G a month.

Anonymous... I'd split if I could but I really have to hang in til I know if I can get these files back.

And another thing. As much as i hate to admit it, mediamax still has the best upload/hosting concept for my needs. Anyone can upload to my account simply by going to the medimax homepage. They don't have to 'join' anything. All they have to know is the account name. And likewise anyone can download from my account simply by going to mediamax/myaccountname and picking out the file they want. It's a good, simple system when it works. The other systems I looked at all required too much work. (Irony!!)

Anonymous said...

John

When you reacted this I did get a little bit positive because you really reacted. I meant what I said
about the effect of communication.
You said you were going to unblock my account and change it to freeloader next am. Does a day also 24 hours on your side because I am still waiting on this.
You sure know that lot's of people cancelled their account already. Those sticking by are hoping you can fix your problems and become once again one of the best service providers. You also know all these users stay because they hope and need you to recover their files.
I do hope you will open up more about what is going on and what not because silence is undermining the faith even more that you might succeed in solving your problems. John come on and let us in on what is happening and why the service is still below acceptable !
joewiththebanjo

Anonymous said...

Uploading is again unpredicatabe
2 albums went ok, 3th and 4th are reported to have arrived ok but they won't show up in the filemanager
John in previous mm version there was something like files to be processed. Can't you put something back like that or some other generic counter on the site so we can see whether
we waist it in a trashcan or it arrives ok?
sigh I wish I could understand what is happening because it costs so much time this

Anonymous said...

Great news...The Billing feature is still working flawlessly.Just got billed again...on labor day no less.What a great company this is

Anonymous said...

Personally, I don't give a shit about uploads because I'm not planning on ever uploading anything to Mediamax again. I care too much about my data to ever want to store anything there again. I'm just waiting to see if my files will come back so I can retrieve them and leave the sinking ship.

Anonymous said...

Agree. Uploads can wait till they get that working. Most just want access to all their files.
None of the files I have been tracking/checking daily since they went down are working yet :(

Anonymous said...

"To keep users better informed on site status we'll be creating a second blog that will be dedicated to site maintenance. We'll be debuting the maintenance blog within the next two days."

That was anounced on Aug 22. Nearly 2 weeks later we're still waiting. Same old, same old...

Anonymous said...

Beau, that 2nd Blog got cancelled. To quote John from the previous blog post: "The maintenance page would have been pretty static and wouldn’t have said anything beyond what the regular blog said. It seemed superfluous so I decided not to do it."

Anonymous said...

FFS, uploading or rather processing is utter bollocks since last night. It's times like this I really wonder if they really can fix their system ... and not importantly make sure it stays fixed. Luckily my account is payed for until september 2008 -_-

Anonymous said...

I heard reports of again massive amount of files deleted. There is a new post on the mm official blog stating recovery is heading towards plan. But hearing on the other side files disappear again which were already processed I do wonder what is true and what is not.
John I really hope you stay listening here and explain a lot more of what is happening and what not !

Anonymous said...

As regarding to the download problems what we really could use is a link validater.

Anonymous said...

I am a new to Mediamax, after having found an article giving them a good rating at pcworld.com (article from the summer of 2006---looks like things changed).
I tried to upload a few files, it failed, but has anyone noticed (and I emailed tech support; although now I guess I shouldn't expect a reply), but everytime I try to upload batch files, i get a Java error stating the site certificate it has expired (it expired in Nov., 2006). I get the same error logging into my account, checked the certificate, and again 11/06 expiration date.
I am wondering if anyone's home, I am a free account user, I wanted to test it first. So far they failed the test.
I'll watch, and hopefully things improve.

Anonymous said...

Can't be arsed to see if I can find it again, but there was far more recent review where MediaMax came out as nr 1 storage company. A collective roar of laughter could be heard when my community got wind of that one I tell you. When MediaMax get their system to work as it should again I'd say their claim being nr 1 is not deserved, but as things have been the last year .... no way. I'd recommend you to stay freeloader for now .... oh, and upload by using the single file uploader and preferably upload file by file (3 is the maximum that has worked for me, but this is rare). That batch one never worked for me as well.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the reply. It was nice to see someone offering 25Gb of space, but I guess I'll have to look elsewhere.
I'll try the single file next time, although the java certificate error comes up there also.
That is an embarrassment for MediaMax that no one thought to renew a security certificate from Nov of last year.