Prior to the new Unofficial Nirvanix Users blog opening Nirvanix was specifically invited to comment on media reports that it was a Nirvanix employee that deleted millions of users files, but in its reply, did not do so. Today it has emailed alleging the TechCrunch article that reproduced a comment apparently from Charlie Jackson is 'inaccurate and libelous'.
Comments on this blog may refer to these allegations, so please see Nirvanix's response, linking to a longer article on its blog, at:
http://nirvanixusers.blogspot.com/2008/07/nirvanix-comment.html
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Unofficial Nirvanix users blog
If you are concerned that Nirvanix has your data and you would like it back, see:
http://nirvanixusers.blogspot.com/2008/07/about-this-blog.html
To my mind, Nirvanix should show a little more concern for users. If it was a company warehousing house contents I doubt it would be able to dump everything in the incinerator simply because an agent had mislaid some keys and their filing cabinet had fallen over and the index cards had become mixed up. Particularly if the warehousing company was part of the same enterprise when entrusted with the items.
http://nirvanixusers.blogspot.com/2008/07/about-this-blog.html
To my mind, Nirvanix should show a little more concern for users. If it was a company warehousing house contents I doubt it would be able to dump everything in the incinerator simply because an agent had mislaid some keys and their filing cabinet had fallen over and the index cards had become mixed up. Particularly if the warehousing company was part of the same enterprise when entrusted with the items.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Message from Nirvanix
The main discussion now is on The Linkup Users blog. See:
http://thelinkupusers.blogspot.com/
The latest post there is a message from Nirvanix regarding the files on its servers.
http://thelinkupusers.blogspot.com/
The latest post there is a message from Nirvanix regarding the files on its servers.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
The file backup service that never was: Mediamax is closing
This is from the unofficial users blog for The Link Up, the successor to Mediamax.
Those checking back to the official The Link Up blog for an update on the 29 June posting (which said the site was down for maintenance, though it was already back up), will have been shocked at the post today, 9 July 2008: "Mediamax / The Linkup is closing". The full post is included below.
The post states: "It was not possible to satisfactorily complete the move of files from MediaMax to The Linkup as we had expected, and as a result cannot offer a service that meets your expectations and our business requirements. This is a very disappointing outcome for us, and we know it has been a frustrating experience for many of our customers."
I would imagine it is frustrating for all customers who have until 8 August to download any files that have not already been lost by this company or were deleted with little or no notice when the switchover to The Linkup began in April.
So far there is no indication of whether those of us paying annual subscriptions will receive a refund. Personally my last payment was in March 2008 and my hosted links have not worked since the switch over in April. This is despite the fact that Mr. John Hood, communications director, posted here on 4 July in response to me raising this: "His statement about the TLU supporting links is a half truth. Yes, there were issues with existing links but that's because they the files that were in users hosted section were some of the last to migrate. We OBVIOUSLY still support embedded links." My files turned up in The Linkup long ago, but still the hosted links don't work. My podcast has fallen silent (and I've given up on it for now in frustration, thanks John), as have other streams.
I first began a blog on Mediamax because of lack of response from customer support when files went missing en masse. Comments were disabled on the official blog, so the idea was people could leave their comments on the users blog instead. It was called: "Mediamax - we need you!" and was an appeal for the company to engage with customers and address the problems.
For a while there was some productive discussion, or so it seemed. But then the transfer to The Linkup was sprung on us, a system still in beta. Those with free accounts on Mediamax were told with a week's notice or no notice at all that their accounts would be closed and all files deleted.
The transfer was a disaster, with a scheduling tool quickly abandoned and the promise that our files would all be transferred by the company. But for many, files have still not appeared. We were told hosted links would be maintained until December 2008. Mine have never worked, despite John's claim that OBVIOUSLY they are supported.
The only good news was that the official The Linkup blog allowed comments and so this one fell silent as many of us left our reports of system failures and appeals for help there. It felt like we were talking into a void, however. Now the comments there have all been deleted.
So The Linkup will soon be no more. Hopefully the warning at the top of this blog suggesting those thinking of signing up to The Linkup wait to see if it resolves its problems will have saved some people their money and the heartbreak many posters here report as family photos and important documents they thought they had backed up are lost forever.
I am sure the closure of The Linkup was not the outcome most people on this blog wanted. We wanted clear communication, a working system and either lost files back or at least an admission that they were gone forever and some form of compensation. Waiving of fees for those of us who have forked out good money for nothing would have been nice.
It seems, however, that it is easier for The Linkup to dump its historic customers.
Perhaps those involved will resurface in another guise promising secure storage and many other things. As it has failed to deliver or honour these commitments in the past, I would be loathe to trust it again. We can have no confidence this team will not be as incompetent in future.
It may not only be the desire to escape historic commitments that has brought about the closure. As has been mentioned in comments here, people were finding the files of strangers turning up in their accounts. While the terms and conditions may protect the company from losing files, breaking the security of personal data is perhaps a more serious issue as it is regulated by legislation in many countries, including, no doubt, the US. Perhaps it is the real risk of customers finding their personal information being abused that has prompted the company to pull the plug.
It is sad to see that the company blames others instead of looking at its own failings. John Hood said he disabled comments on the official blog, not because he didn't want to respond to the comments, but because : "the blog was full of bickering between posters and people spreading half truths. to say there a lot of sharing of information is a joke." See:
http://thelinkupusers.blogspot.com/2008/07/john-hood-disabled-comments.html
In what he billed as his 'last post' just last Friday in a comment on that entry, there was a portent of the imminent closure as he attempted to blame me for running this blog: "My point here is that he's not trying to do anything constructive here. He's just here to try to bring TLU down." He falsely claimed I had never contacted the company. I have the emails to prove it and left comments on the official blog, though John has deleted those.
Mr. Hood wrote: "Don't hide under the pretense that you're trying to provide a forum where people can get information."
Well, it has been no pretense. I hope this blog and its predecessor has provided a useful service. Certainly there has been a lot of information sharing going on. You wouldn't know from the official blog that wayward files have been turning up in other people's accounts, for example. This blog may even help the owners to be found. The Mediamax blog had a series of very useful posting, in my opinion, such as sharing information on file recovery progress.
So farewell to The Linkup. Good luck for whatever your people do next - I sincerely hope it has nothing to do with file storage or customer service. Oh, and please, at the very least, refund our fees.
Here then is the posting from the official blog telling us our files are soon to be deleted forever. See:
a href="http://tlublog.blogspot.com/2008/07/mediamax-linkup-is-closing.html:
---
MediaMax / The Linkup is closing
We regret to inform you that we will be closing The Linkup service on Friday, August 8 at 5:00 pm PDT.
The Linkup is no longer accepting any uploads or new accounts, and no further charges will be made to your credit card. After August 8, your account will not be accessible, all your personal information will be deleted (username, billing information, history, etc), and your files will be deleted. Please download any files that are in your account that you wish to keep before Friday, August 8 at 5:00 pm PDT.
It was not possible to satisfactorily complete the move of files from MediaMax to The Linkup as we had expected, and as a result cannot offer a service that meets your expectations and our business requirements. This is a very disappointing outcome for us, and we know it has been a frustrating experience for many of our customers.
We are very sorry that we have not been able to rebuild our service as we had envisioned. We sincerely appreciate those of you who stuck by us and held out hope for the return of a great service, and apologize that things did not work out better. And also a special thanks and apology to those developers who have been developing applications on The Linkup API that can no longer be supported.
Sincerely,
The Linkup Team
---
Those checking back to the official The Link Up blog for an update on the 29 June posting (which said the site was down for maintenance, though it was already back up), will have been shocked at the post today, 9 July 2008: "Mediamax / The Linkup is closing". The full post is included below.
The post states: "It was not possible to satisfactorily complete the move of files from MediaMax to The Linkup as we had expected, and as a result cannot offer a service that meets your expectations and our business requirements. This is a very disappointing outcome for us, and we know it has been a frustrating experience for many of our customers."
I would imagine it is frustrating for all customers who have until 8 August to download any files that have not already been lost by this company or were deleted with little or no notice when the switchover to The Linkup began in April.
So far there is no indication of whether those of us paying annual subscriptions will receive a refund. Personally my last payment was in March 2008 and my hosted links have not worked since the switch over in April. This is despite the fact that Mr. John Hood, communications director, posted here on 4 July in response to me raising this: "His statement about the TLU supporting links is a half truth. Yes, there were issues with existing links but that's because they the files that were in users hosted section were some of the last to migrate. We OBVIOUSLY still support embedded links." My files turned up in The Linkup long ago, but still the hosted links don't work. My podcast has fallen silent (and I've given up on it for now in frustration, thanks John), as have other streams.
I first began a blog on Mediamax because of lack of response from customer support when files went missing en masse. Comments were disabled on the official blog, so the idea was people could leave their comments on the users blog instead. It was called: "Mediamax - we need you!" and was an appeal for the company to engage with customers and address the problems.
For a while there was some productive discussion, or so it seemed. But then the transfer to The Linkup was sprung on us, a system still in beta. Those with free accounts on Mediamax were told with a week's notice or no notice at all that their accounts would be closed and all files deleted.
The transfer was a disaster, with a scheduling tool quickly abandoned and the promise that our files would all be transferred by the company. But for many, files have still not appeared. We were told hosted links would be maintained until December 2008. Mine have never worked, despite John's claim that OBVIOUSLY they are supported.
The only good news was that the official The Linkup blog allowed comments and so this one fell silent as many of us left our reports of system failures and appeals for help there. It felt like we were talking into a void, however. Now the comments there have all been deleted.
So The Linkup will soon be no more. Hopefully the warning at the top of this blog suggesting those thinking of signing up to The Linkup wait to see if it resolves its problems will have saved some people their money and the heartbreak many posters here report as family photos and important documents they thought they had backed up are lost forever.
I am sure the closure of The Linkup was not the outcome most people on this blog wanted. We wanted clear communication, a working system and either lost files back or at least an admission that they were gone forever and some form of compensation. Waiving of fees for those of us who have forked out good money for nothing would have been nice.
It seems, however, that it is easier for The Linkup to dump its historic customers.
Perhaps those involved will resurface in another guise promising secure storage and many other things. As it has failed to deliver or honour these commitments in the past, I would be loathe to trust it again. We can have no confidence this team will not be as incompetent in future.
It may not only be the desire to escape historic commitments that has brought about the closure. As has been mentioned in comments here, people were finding the files of strangers turning up in their accounts. While the terms and conditions may protect the company from losing files, breaking the security of personal data is perhaps a more serious issue as it is regulated by legislation in many countries, including, no doubt, the US. Perhaps it is the real risk of customers finding their personal information being abused that has prompted the company to pull the plug.
It is sad to see that the company blames others instead of looking at its own failings. John Hood said he disabled comments on the official blog, not because he didn't want to respond to the comments, but because : "the blog was full of bickering between posters and people spreading half truths. to say there a lot of sharing of information is a joke." See:
http://thelinkupusers.blogspot.com/2008/07/john-hood-disabled-comments.html
In what he billed as his 'last post' just last Friday in a comment on that entry, there was a portent of the imminent closure as he attempted to blame me for running this blog: "My point here is that he's not trying to do anything constructive here. He's just here to try to bring TLU down." He falsely claimed I had never contacted the company. I have the emails to prove it and left comments on the official blog, though John has deleted those.
Mr. Hood wrote: "Don't hide under the pretense that you're trying to provide a forum where people can get information."
Well, it has been no pretense. I hope this blog and its predecessor has provided a useful service. Certainly there has been a lot of information sharing going on. You wouldn't know from the official blog that wayward files have been turning up in other people's accounts, for example. This blog may even help the owners to be found. The Mediamax blog had a series of very useful posting, in my opinion, such as sharing information on file recovery progress.
So farewell to The Linkup. Good luck for whatever your people do next - I sincerely hope it has nothing to do with file storage or customer service. Oh, and please, at the very least, refund our fees.
Here then is the posting from the official blog telling us our files are soon to be deleted forever. See:
a href="http://tlublog.blogspot.com/2008/07/mediamax-linkup-is-closing.html:
---
MediaMax / The Linkup is closing
We regret to inform you that we will be closing The Linkup service on Friday, August 8 at 5:00 pm PDT.
The Linkup is no longer accepting any uploads or new accounts, and no further charges will be made to your credit card. After August 8, your account will not be accessible, all your personal information will be deleted (username, billing information, history, etc), and your files will be deleted. Please download any files that are in your account that you wish to keep before Friday, August 8 at 5:00 pm PDT.
It was not possible to satisfactorily complete the move of files from MediaMax to The Linkup as we had expected, and as a result cannot offer a service that meets your expectations and our business requirements. This is a very disappointing outcome for us, and we know it has been a frustrating experience for many of our customers.
We are very sorry that we have not been able to rebuild our service as we had envisioned. We sincerely appreciate those of you who stuck by us and held out hope for the return of a great service, and apologize that things did not work out better. And also a special thanks and apology to those developers who have been developing applications on The Linkup API that can no longer be supported.
Sincerely,
The Linkup Team
---
Game over man, game over.
Just picked this up from the TLU blog (http://tlublog.blogspot.com/) and it's visible if you have to login to the site as well.
[quote]
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
MediaMax / The Linkup is closing
We regret to inform you that we will be closing The Linkup service on Friday, August 8 at 5:00 pm PDT.The Linkup is no longer accepting any uploads or new accounts, and no further charges will be made to your credit card. After August 8, your account will not be accessible, all your personal information will be deleted (username, billing information, history, etc), and your files will be deleted. Please download any files that are in your account that you wish to keep before Friday, August 8 at 5:00 pm PDT.It was not possible to satisfactorily complete the move of files from MediaMax to The Linkup as we had expected, and as a result cannot offer a service that meets your expectations and our business requirements. This is a very disappointing outcome for us, and we know it has been a frustrating experience for many of our customers.We are very sorry that we have not been able to rebuild our service as we had envisioned. We sincerely appreciate those of you who stuck by us and held out hope for the return of a great service, and apologize that things did not work out better. And also a special thanks and apology to those developers who have been developing applications on The Linkup API that can no longer be supported.Sincerely,The Linkup Team
Posted by Team Linkup at 12:41 AM
[/quote]
Well, I suppose some people will be glad to see them finally go under. Personally I feel sad for the people, like me, that hoped they would pull through as we had so much invested in them that there really wasn't an alternative. For me it means the work of about 6 years of collecting nearly every anime / manga and Jdrama release and putting it on Streamload -> MediaMax - > TheLinkUp just went out of the window. Everything we have done to try and make it work is in the end all for nothing.
To me it looks they at first were a victim of their succes (Streamload) and when they tried to built a system that could continue to carry the load (MediaMax followed by TLU) they made some monumental bad decisions and plainly weren't up to the task at hand. This they coupled with an attitude of downplaying and stonewalling problems with an apology here and there to not alienate every customer they had. I had really hoped when they announced TLU and actually let their user participate in the development and testing that things would turn out alright in the end, but it seems that as with MediaMax, TLU, or rather the people behind it, have not been up to the task and were unable to give us what we wanted, needed and basically something that could be expected of a company that is supposed to deliver a good product.
To add injury to insult them cutting off the system at the mentioned date will mean a lot of users have paid for a subscription that was supposed to last longer then it now will and I didn't see a word about restituting at least some of subscription fees.
WillTRiker
[quote]
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
MediaMax / The Linkup is closing
We regret to inform you that we will be closing The Linkup service on Friday, August 8 at 5:00 pm PDT.The Linkup is no longer accepting any uploads or new accounts, and no further charges will be made to your credit card. After August 8, your account will not be accessible, all your personal information will be deleted (username, billing information, history, etc), and your files will be deleted. Please download any files that are in your account that you wish to keep before Friday, August 8 at 5:00 pm PDT.It was not possible to satisfactorily complete the move of files from MediaMax to The Linkup as we had expected, and as a result cannot offer a service that meets your expectations and our business requirements. This is a very disappointing outcome for us, and we know it has been a frustrating experience for many of our customers.We are very sorry that we have not been able to rebuild our service as we had envisioned. We sincerely appreciate those of you who stuck by us and held out hope for the return of a great service, and apologize that things did not work out better. And also a special thanks and apology to those developers who have been developing applications on The Linkup API that can no longer be supported.Sincerely,The Linkup Team
Posted by Team Linkup at 12:41 AM
[/quote]
Well, I suppose some people will be glad to see them finally go under. Personally I feel sad for the people, like me, that hoped they would pull through as we had so much invested in them that there really wasn't an alternative. For me it means the work of about 6 years of collecting nearly every anime / manga and Jdrama release and putting it on Streamload -> MediaMax - > TheLinkUp just went out of the window. Everything we have done to try and make it work is in the end all for nothing.
To me it looks they at first were a victim of their succes (Streamload) and when they tried to built a system that could continue to carry the load (MediaMax followed by TLU) they made some monumental bad decisions and plainly weren't up to the task at hand. This they coupled with an attitude of downplaying and stonewalling problems with an apology here and there to not alienate every customer they had. I had really hoped when they announced TLU and actually let their user participate in the development and testing that things would turn out alright in the end, but it seems that as with MediaMax, TLU, or rather the people behind it, have not been up to the task and were unable to give us what we wanted, needed and basically something that could be expected of a company that is supposed to deliver a good product.
To add injury to insult them cutting off the system at the mentioned date will mean a lot of users have paid for a subscription that was supposed to last longer then it now will and I didn't see a word about restituting at least some of subscription fees.
WillTRiker
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Linkup poll
What do you think of the change over to The Linkup?
Vote in the poll on the new unofficial blog for Linkup users at:
http://thelinkupusers.blogspot.com/
Vote in the poll on the new unofficial blog for Linkup users at:
http://thelinkupusers.blogspot.com/
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Leave your comments on The Linkup blog
Well MediaMax is now dead and The Linkup, if not properly live, is certainly touting for business.
It bills itself as: "The best place to store and share files on the web."
Maybe if 'store' is taken to mean 'upload with a risk of losing forever and the possibility of having your free account closed down and all files dumped with just a week's notice', which is the service MediaMax provided.
And 'share' has to mean 'share until we decide to change the name to escape our piss poor image in which case links to you files will die when we can no longer be bothered to redirect them'.
One positive development is The Linkup blog accepts comments. So leave them at:
http://tlublog.blogspot.com/
If comments are disabled there, you can use the unofficial blog at:
http://thelinkupusers.blogspot.com/
This blog will remain as a historic record of how MediaMax delivered on its claim to be the best file storage and sharing service.
It bills itself as: "The best place to store and share files on the web."
Maybe if 'store' is taken to mean 'upload with a risk of losing forever and the possibility of having your free account closed down and all files dumped with just a week's notice', which is the service MediaMax provided.
And 'share' has to mean 'share until we decide to change the name to escape our piss poor image in which case links to you files will die when we can no longer be bothered to redirect them'.
One positive development is The Linkup blog accepts comments. So leave them at:
http://tlublog.blogspot.com/
If comments are disabled there, you can use the unofficial blog at:
http://thelinkupusers.blogspot.com/
This blog will remain as a historic record of how MediaMax delivered on its claim to be the best file storage and sharing service.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
The Link Up - your mediamax hosted links will die
I asked a question about hosted links on the last entry here as follows:
---
Okay, so having tried the mover I have some questions.
It asks me to set a date for when I want my files moved. Why?
My guess is all the old links to my MediaMax hosted files will die. Is that correct John Hood?
Do we have to trawl the internet changing the http://www.mediamax.com/ URL to the http://www.thelinkup.com/ URL?
If not, then why does the date matter?
---
The response from John Hood was:
---
it's just a date to schedule your transfer. that's it. your links will be fine. the exception would be imbedded links which we eventually won't support since we're discontinuing download limits.
---
I wasn't sure what 'imbedded links' meant, but was pleased to hear the http://www.mediamax.com/ URLs would continue to work.
Except it seems they won't.
This is from a later posting from John Hood:
---
Hosted Files. We will support existing MediaMax hosted links through Dec 31, 2008. For example, a file that is hosted at: [no link appears in John's comment, but I guess this means the mediamax.com URL]
If people need more time (beyond Dec 2008) to update links to the new "thelinkup.com" URL, we will consider extending this deadline near the end of the year. But please start using the new www.thelinkup.com URL as soon as possible.
---
So my fear is justified. Hosted mediamax links WILL DIE at the end of the year. So if, like me, you subscribed to mediamax to link to hosted mp3s then beware.
Is that right John?
---
Okay, so having tried the mover I have some questions.
It asks me to set a date for when I want my files moved. Why?
My guess is all the old links to my MediaMax hosted files will die. Is that correct John Hood?
Do we have to trawl the internet changing the http://www.mediamax.com/ URL to the http://www.thelinkup.com/ URL?
If not, then why does the date matter?
---
The response from John Hood was:
---
it's just a date to schedule your transfer. that's it. your links will be fine. the exception would be imbedded links which we eventually won't support since we're discontinuing download limits.
---
I wasn't sure what 'imbedded links' meant, but was pleased to hear the http://www.mediamax.com/ URLs would continue to work.
Except it seems they won't.
This is from a later posting from John Hood:
---
Hosted Files. We will support existing MediaMax hosted links through Dec 31, 2008. For example, a file that is hosted at: [no link appears in John's comment, but I guess this means the mediamax.com URL]
If people need more time (beyond Dec 2008) to update links to the new "thelinkup.com" URL, we will consider extending this deadline near the end of the year. But please start using the new www.thelinkup.com URL as soon as possible.
---
So my fear is justified. Hosted mediamax links WILL DIE at the end of the year. So if, like me, you subscribed to mediamax to link to hosted mp3s then beware.
Is that right John?
Friday, April 18, 2008
Moving over to Linkup - watch out non-paying users you could lose your files
Thanks to everyone, and in particular WillTRiker, for keeping this blog going.
Great to see John Hood is a regular poster, responding to people's concerns here. Nice to get requests from you for adding links to help people using the blog, but may I suggest MediaMax looks to its own blog (comments still disabled) and poor communications at the same time.
Which is the issue that prompts me to come back today. I follow what's going on as comments are posted and hear that many people have not yet received a notification email from MediaMax. Mine has just arrived, so I'm posting it below. Like some people who have commented here, I am concerned that the switch over is to take place next week and I'm only being informed now.
It is an utter disgrace to read that free Mediamax subscribers need to upgrade by 25 April: "Otherwise, your account will be deleted and all your files will be lost."
Hasn't MediaMax learned a thing about the misery it causes when it loses people's files?
Anyway, the latest poll presents some other options, so give your view. For the record, the last poll showed that in January 70% of voters had extreme problems with MediaMax, 16% significant problems, 9% rare problems and 5% no problems.
This is the email I've just received. I'll join in with posting my comments on the switch over here later.
Luzo.
---MediaMax email received 18 April (ie one week before free subscribers will lose all their files)
We have some exciting news to share! We will be launching a major upgrade to MediaMax this month. With this release, we're going to be renaming our service to "The Linkup" (www.thelinkup.com). The Linkup supports all of the current functionality of MediaMax, but also has some exciting new features.
The basic info you need to know:
"The Linkup": MediaMax will be renamed to "The Linkup" on April 25. The new URL will be www.thelinkup.com and we're expecting that you'll love the new service and features. You can check out a preview now at:
http://www.thelinkup.com/
Current subscribers: If you are currently a paying subscriber to MediaMax, you don't need to do anything. Your account will automatically be moved from MediaMax to The Linkup before the end of the month. All files that you uploaded to MediaMax after July 1, 2007 will be automatically moved to The Linkup. If you'd like to move additional files, please select them here using the "mover" tool:
http://www.thelinkup.com/mover
We'll process requests made using this tool once per day through the end of this month. You can use this tool more than once if you forgot some files the first time.
Current non-paying users: If you are not currently a paying subscriber to MediaMax, you need to upgrade your account before April 25 to be included in the move. Otherwise, your account will be deleted and all your files will be lost. Click here to upgrade your MediaMax account:
Upgrade now:
http://www.mediamax.com/Brands/MediaMax/home/pricing_plan.aspx
The Linkup Prices: Effective April 25, we will be increasing the prices of all of our premium subscriptions, but, in addition to the increased stability and new features that The Linkup provides, we are also removing bandwidth limits on all accounts, so there will be no more bandwidth "overage" charges (for personal, non-commercial use only). For example: $4.95/mo subscribers will now be paying $5.95/mo; $9.95/mo subscribers will now be paying $11.95/mo. Your MediaMax subscription will be automatically moved to a The Linkup subscription that is closest to what you currently pay. Additional subscription details will be available on The Linkup web site.
That's it! If you're currently a paying subscriber, there is nothing for you to do (except for selecting extra files that you'd like to have moved). For additional information please visit our blog: http://mediamaxblog.blogspot.com/
Thanks for reading, and we're looking forward to having you at The Linkup!
MediaMax & The Linkup Support Team
support@mediamax.com
---
Great to see John Hood is a regular poster, responding to people's concerns here. Nice to get requests from you for adding links to help people using the blog, but may I suggest MediaMax looks to its own blog (comments still disabled) and poor communications at the same time.
Which is the issue that prompts me to come back today. I follow what's going on as comments are posted and hear that many people have not yet received a notification email from MediaMax. Mine has just arrived, so I'm posting it below. Like some people who have commented here, I am concerned that the switch over is to take place next week and I'm only being informed now.
It is an utter disgrace to read that free Mediamax subscribers need to upgrade by 25 April: "Otherwise, your account will be deleted and all your files will be lost."
Hasn't MediaMax learned a thing about the misery it causes when it loses people's files?
Anyway, the latest poll presents some other options, so give your view. For the record, the last poll showed that in January 70% of voters had extreme problems with MediaMax, 16% significant problems, 9% rare problems and 5% no problems.
This is the email I've just received. I'll join in with posting my comments on the switch over here later.
Luzo.
---MediaMax email received 18 April (ie one week before free subscribers will lose all their files)
We have some exciting news to share! We will be launching a major upgrade to MediaMax this month. With this release, we're going to be renaming our service to "The Linkup" (www.thelinkup.com). The Linkup supports all of the current functionality of MediaMax, but also has some exciting new features.
The basic info you need to know:
"The Linkup": MediaMax will be renamed to "The Linkup" on April 25. The new URL will be www.thelinkup.com and we're expecting that you'll love the new service and features. You can check out a preview now at:
http://www.thelinkup.com/
Current subscribers: If you are currently a paying subscriber to MediaMax, you don't need to do anything. Your account will automatically be moved from MediaMax to The Linkup before the end of the month. All files that you uploaded to MediaMax after July 1, 2007 will be automatically moved to The Linkup. If you'd like to move additional files, please select them here using the "mover" tool:
http://www.thelinkup.com/mover
We'll process requests made using this tool once per day through the end of this month. You can use this tool more than once if you forgot some files the first time.
Current non-paying users: If you are not currently a paying subscriber to MediaMax, you need to upgrade your account before April 25 to be included in the move. Otherwise, your account will be deleted and all your files will be lost. Click here to upgrade your MediaMax account:
Upgrade now:
http://www.mediamax.com/Brands/MediaMax/home/pricing_plan.aspx
The Linkup Prices: Effective April 25, we will be increasing the prices of all of our premium subscriptions, but, in addition to the increased stability and new features that The Linkup provides, we are also removing bandwidth limits on all accounts, so there will be no more bandwidth "overage" charges (for personal, non-commercial use only). For example: $4.95/mo subscribers will now be paying $5.95/mo; $9.95/mo subscribers will now be paying $11.95/mo. Your MediaMax subscription will be automatically moved to a The Linkup subscription that is closest to what you currently pay. Additional subscription details will be available on The Linkup web site.
That's it! If you're currently a paying subscriber, there is nothing for you to do (except for selecting extra files that you'd like to have moved). For additional information please visit our blog: http://mediamaxblog.blogspot.com/
Thanks for reading, and we're looking forward to having you at The Linkup!
MediaMax & The Linkup Support Team
support@mediamax.com
---
Saturday, April 12, 2008
MediaMax is dead, long live TLU
Late to the party, but I'm probably not the only one that missed the announcement of MediaMax that V6, which is called The Link Up, will go live on april 25 at which time V5 will be discontinued and news like that deserves it's own topic.
I and others have been, and still are betatesting TLU and I will admit that, so far, it has been very stable. If it remains this way will become clear on 25 april I guess. Personally speaking, I'm a little worried and think we're a little to early. For one thing, a key element, the sharing part, isn't really working as it should at the moment, but I assume that can be fixed before the 25th. More dissapointing to me is that a couple of features that either we have even in V5 or that were talked about in the demo that was shown last year are not present (yet) in TLU. Now I know that it is not to be expected that every wish we had for the new system will be granted in the first release but that's not what I'm expecting. A few things though I had hoped to see in the first public release and frankly, if that takes another month of coding / betatesting, MM should have taken this month. After all, some people have been waiting for a fix since octobre 2006 so what's one more month and wouldn't it be better if you had your first release with a bit more bells and whistles?
There is also confusion about what kind of grandfathered rights we're going to take with us from V5 to TLU to which MM needs to make a clear and proper statement as to what kind of rights our accounts have after april 25.
Unrest also about MMs plan to convert only files that have been uploaded after july 1, 2007 and give people a tool so that they can decide which (if any) older files they also want to convert. I understand MM wants to take this opportunity to see if they can clear some dead weight from their database, but I'm a little worried on how well the auto conversion and this tool will work, because lets face it, MM and conversions haven't been exactly on good standing over the years. As Shamana in the previous thread already pointed out most people will have files and folders of mixed dates lumped together and usually in an organised structure. Will that structure be preserved or will we find one giant lump of files in our new TLU account for us take sort out from scratch again? Also what about certain structures that don't exist in TLU (for instance there is no more inbox and saved attachement folders). Files that currently reside there, often out of neccesity because of V5 bugs, what will happen to them?
I also understand people that use MediaMax as a backup / archive and just want to get all their files converted no matter if they are dormant or not. The purpose of an archive IS to provide backup in case you loose something so even when the tool that we are to get can still get every (working) file over to TLU it's still somewhat vexing that we have to be put through this. Like I said, I understand MM wanting to try and clear up their database, but I'd like to get some good answers on the questions above and sure hope MM really has this down to the numbers, because I see a huge potential for some major catastrophes here and like this is not something they can afford again.
I'm hoping John Hood / Steve Iverson will adress our concerns and will manage to amaze us with a conversion that does NOT look a traffic accident like we experienced in the past. Time will tell.
Speaking about telling. Since this is major news for all current MM account holders (freeloader or not) I'm somewhat amazed that a public notification hasn't been send to all accounts about this. Especially for people that have turned freeloader awaiting better times MMs upcoming conversion plan can have drastic and unwanted effects and some early warning for them probably is a good idea.
Constructive critism, thoughts and suggestions are welcomed.
I and others have been, and still are betatesting TLU and I will admit that, so far, it has been very stable. If it remains this way will become clear on 25 april I guess. Personally speaking, I'm a little worried and think we're a little to early. For one thing, a key element, the sharing part, isn't really working as it should at the moment, but I assume that can be fixed before the 25th. More dissapointing to me is that a couple of features that either we have even in V5 or that were talked about in the demo that was shown last year are not present (yet) in TLU. Now I know that it is not to be expected that every wish we had for the new system will be granted in the first release but that's not what I'm expecting. A few things though I had hoped to see in the first public release and frankly, if that takes another month of coding / betatesting, MM should have taken this month. After all, some people have been waiting for a fix since octobre 2006 so what's one more month and wouldn't it be better if you had your first release with a bit more bells and whistles?
There is also confusion about what kind of grandfathered rights we're going to take with us from V5 to TLU to which MM needs to make a clear and proper statement as to what kind of rights our accounts have after april 25.
Unrest also about MMs plan to convert only files that have been uploaded after july 1, 2007 and give people a tool so that they can decide which (if any) older files they also want to convert. I understand MM wants to take this opportunity to see if they can clear some dead weight from their database, but I'm a little worried on how well the auto conversion and this tool will work, because lets face it, MM and conversions haven't been exactly on good standing over the years. As Shamana in the previous thread already pointed out most people will have files and folders of mixed dates lumped together and usually in an organised structure. Will that structure be preserved or will we find one giant lump of files in our new TLU account for us take sort out from scratch again? Also what about certain structures that don't exist in TLU (for instance there is no more inbox and saved attachement folders). Files that currently reside there, often out of neccesity because of V5 bugs, what will happen to them?
I also understand people that use MediaMax as a backup / archive and just want to get all their files converted no matter if they are dormant or not. The purpose of an archive IS to provide backup in case you loose something so even when the tool that we are to get can still get every (working) file over to TLU it's still somewhat vexing that we have to be put through this. Like I said, I understand MM wanting to try and clear up their database, but I'd like to get some good answers on the questions above and sure hope MM really has this down to the numbers, because I see a huge potential for some major catastrophes here and like this is not something they can afford again.
I'm hoping John Hood / Steve Iverson will adress our concerns and will manage to amaze us with a conversion that does NOT look a traffic accident like we experienced in the past. Time will tell.
Speaking about telling. Since this is major news for all current MM account holders (freeloader or not) I'm somewhat amazed that a public notification hasn't been send to all accounts about this. Especially for people that have turned freeloader awaiting better times MMs upcoming conversion plan can have drastic and unwanted effects and some early warning for them probably is a good idea.
Constructive critism, thoughts and suggestions are welcomed.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
'MediaMax' V6 beta underway
After several delays it's for real. Beta testing v6 is underway since the early hours march 15 after receiving a mail from Steve Iverson. I can't tell very much about it as I'm asked to keep everything under wraps for now as not to clutter the new beta service with any other persons then the beta testers.
I can tell you though that the name MediaMax will be a thing of the past as there is a new name and a new website that goes along with it which won't suprise anybody with a hint of marketing sense. Atm, the beta testsite is really only a bare product as beta testers are asked to evaluate download, folder management functionality and especially upload performance. In the next couple of weeks other functionality as sharing and searching will be added for us take apart as well.
I've run into a couple of snags at the moment which have to do with the setup of my test account, but I can report that the upload speed (webupload) is back at the level before their last major outage. Granted, there aren't to many people on the new system, but the fact that the speed is back is a good first sign. I'm also told I'll be getting my hands on a windows client uploader soon to try out so webupload won't be the only option available.
I can tell you though that the name MediaMax will be a thing of the past as there is a new name and a new website that goes along with it which won't suprise anybody with a hint of marketing sense. Atm, the beta testsite is really only a bare product as beta testers are asked to evaluate download, folder management functionality and especially upload performance. In the next couple of weeks other functionality as sharing and searching will be added for us take apart as well.
I've run into a couple of snags at the moment which have to do with the setup of my test account, but I can report that the upload speed (webupload) is back at the level before their last major outage. Granted, there aren't to many people on the new system, but the fact that the speed is back is a good first sign. I'm also told I'll be getting my hands on a windows client uploader soon to try out so webupload won't be the only option available.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Processing Delays revisited
The last entry on the MediaMax blog dates from march 6, but that problem was solved even though their blog hasn't been updated to reflect that. However, since the last 2 days it has reared it's ugly head again. For the last 2 days hardly any uploads will show up in your account and for the very few uploads that do there isn't any pattern noticeable. Don't bother re-uploading the file either as experience has shown it will not improve your chance of seeing it popup in your account so we can only sit tight, wait, and hope MediaMax figures out where our uploads go and can fix it without having us to re-upload all files that haven't shown up so far.
We're also, again, at countdown for V6 beta testing which should start the 15th if memory serves ... if it's not postponed again that is.
We're also, again, at countdown for V6 beta testing which should start the 15th if memory serves ... if it's not postponed again that is.
Monday, March 3, 2008
New update from Mediamax
Thanks to John Hood for posting comments in the previous entry, including the following update from the MediaMax blog:
"An update from our hosting company:
The SSC has received multiple alerts for loss of connectivity to customer equipment in the NJ2, AT1, SC8, DC4, DC2, CH3 and HDC data center. Engineers are taking appropriate mitigation steps to recover client managed services. Engineers are investigating the configuration of the Intelligent Agent as a possible cause.
Currently all Blade Frames are being worked in parallel for recovery.
UPDATE: Engineers have identified a how to restore connectivity and are bringing clients back online now."
I had to post it here because I'd be interested if there's anyone out there who could translate it? :-)
"An update from our hosting company:
The SSC has received multiple alerts for loss of connectivity to customer equipment in the NJ2, AT1, SC8, DC4, DC2, CH3 and HDC data center. Engineers are taking appropriate mitigation steps to recover client managed services. Engineers are investigating the configuration of the Intelligent Agent as a possible cause.
Currently all Blade Frames are being worked in parallel for recovery.
UPDATE: Engineers have identified a how to restore connectivity and are bringing clients back online now."
I had to post it here because I'd be interested if there's anyone out there who could translate it? :-)
Monday, February 11, 2008
Uploading problems continue
Mediamax has struggled for the past several weeks with uploads and processing which were originally addressed to an uptick in upload traffic, but later reported to be caused by a database error which they hoped to have fixed soon.
Since around midday yesterday (CET) the upload system seem to have collapsed totally with upload speed being only a fraction of what people used to get and almost always sooner or later dropping to near zero before the upload crashing altogether. I have not notice an entry about this on MediaMax own blog about this also and seeing V6 beta has been delayed and we still have to muddy around with V5 it would be a good thing if they could patch up the system a little at least.
Since around midday yesterday (CET) the upload system seem to have collapsed totally with upload speed being only a fraction of what people used to get and almost always sooner or later dropping to near zero before the upload crashing altogether. I have not notice an entry about this on MediaMax own blog about this also and seeing V6 beta has been delayed and we still have to muddy around with V5 it would be a good thing if they could patch up the system a little at least.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Version six delayed - 84% of voters with significant or extreme problems with Mediamax
There is a posting on the last blog entry here from John Hood of Mediamax, stating:
---quote begins
We've had a huge uptick in uploading recently which has taxed our resources. This situation will be alleviated with v6.
beta testing has been delayed until the UI is finished. we want to create a quality product and think that's more important than rushing something out which is what happened with v5. I think we can all agree that was an unfortunate decision as we've said before. Having said that, we should be releasing the api shortly.
Thanks for your patience.
---quote ends
I've missed updating the voting figures.
The response to the question "How do you rate the Mediamax service in December 2007?" was:
A: No problems : 4 votes (10.5%)
B: Rare problems : 6 votes (15.8%)
(within tolerable levels)
C: Significant problems : 10 votes (26.3%)
(difficult to tolerate)
D: Extreme problems : 18 votes (47.4%)
(causing severe difficulties)
There were just 39 votes in this round and I didn't manage to set things up for January voting.
It seems we are all a bit tired of the situation with Mediamax.
If anyone would like posting rights for this blog to keep people informed of experiences with version 6, please let me know.
---quote begins
We've had a huge uptick in uploading recently which has taxed our resources. This situation will be alleviated with v6.
beta testing has been delayed until the UI is finished. we want to create a quality product and think that's more important than rushing something out which is what happened with v5. I think we can all agree that was an unfortunate decision as we've said before. Having said that, we should be releasing the api shortly.
Thanks for your patience.
---quote ends
I've missed updating the voting figures.
The response to the question "How do you rate the Mediamax service in December 2007?" was:
A: No problems : 4 votes (10.5%)
B: Rare problems : 6 votes (15.8%)
(within tolerable levels)
C: Significant problems : 10 votes (26.3%)
(difficult to tolerate)
D: Extreme problems : 18 votes (47.4%)
(causing severe difficulties)
There were just 39 votes in this round and I didn't manage to set things up for January voting.
It seems we are all a bit tired of the situation with Mediamax.
If anyone would like posting rights for this blog to keep people informed of experiences with version 6, please let me know.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)