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Skype finalizes its move to the cloud, ignores the elephant in the room

arstechnica.com

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Re: Skype finalizes its move to the cloud, ignores the elephant in the room

#71

Post by dredmorbius »

mrweasel wrote: post #9
dzdt wrote: post #5

Isn't the elephant in the room competing services : facetime, or facebook messenger, or whatever the google product is?

Which are all terrible in a business setting. Facebook is block at my employer, because most people doesn't seem to understand that they shouldn't be on Facebook during work hours. Also many companies doesn't exactly like it when you use a private account for business related communication. Google Hangout is just horrible, and not only because I'm require to have an Google account (and I'm NOT using person accounts f…

I've long thought the idea of Hangouts was good, and on the few times I've attempted to use it (1:1 calls mostly), it's been acceptable.

I'd like to be able to fully disable video. Not sure that's an option, but for bandwidth-limited situations, it should help.

The account requirement, though, is the absolute killer. It seems to have arisen from Google's desperate effort to push world+dog to G+, despite exceptionally strong reluctance and/or resistance to do so.

If instead they'd followed the WebRTC mode described above (first I've heard of that -- someone's failing to market), with the call coordinator / originator needing an ID, but no other party, then it might actually have taken off.

I've found the implementation, integration with other tools (it's where I don't want it, it's not where I do, it keeps activating when I don't want it, for a long time it was impossible to log off, etc., etc), name, and pretty much everything else to be pants. The idea, however, is capital.

Sad, really.

Re: Skype finalizes its move to the cloud, ignores the elephant in the room

#72

Post by morgante »

mrweasel wrote: post #9
dzdt wrote: post #5

Isn't the elephant in the room competing services : facetime, or facebook messenger, or whatever the google product is?

Which are all terrible in a business setting. Facebook is block at my employer, because most people doesn't seem to understand that they shouldn't be on Facebook during work hours. Also many companies doesn't exactly like it when you use a private account for business related communication. Google Hangout is just horrible, and not only because I'm require to have an Google account (and I'm NOT using person accounts f…

You might want to check out http://appear.in. There are no signups required, and I've found it to be more reliable than any other service I've used.

Re: Skype finalizes its move to the cloud, ignores the elephant in the room

#73

Post by BrandoElFollito »

undersuit wrote: post #62
lkrubner wrote: post #18

A personal anecdote: I had the same account on Skype for most of the last 10 years. The same username. It was stable. Lots of people could contact me reliably. It was an account that was created long before Skype was bought by Microsoft. Then came the update that they pushed out last year. Now everyone needed a Microsoft ID to login. There was some kind of "improvement" in the way authentication was done. So I had to…

I have a similar issue with Minecraft every few months. I have a Minecraft.net account and a Mojang.com account. I'll spend 15 or so minutes setting passwords across both accounts, never really sure where I should put things. Maybe Microsoft will make it one account instead of three.

Same here. I was hoping that the acquisition of Mojang would quickly fix that. Now I do not have much hope anymore.

Re: Skype finalizes its move to the cloud, ignores the elephant in the room

#74

Post by smegger001 »

undersuit wrote: post #62
lkrubner wrote: post #18

A personal anecdote: I had the same account on Skype for most of the last 10 years. The same username. It was stable. Lots of people could contact me reliably. It was an account that was created long before Skype was bought by Microsoft. Then came the update that they pushed out last year. Now everyone needed a Microsoft ID to login. There was some kind of "improvement" in the way authentication was done. So I had to…

I have a similar issue with Minecraft every few months. I have a Minecraft.net account and a Mojang.com account. I'll spend 15 or so minutes setting passwords across both accounts, never really sure where I should put things. Maybe Microsoft will make it one account instead of three.

Good its not just me. My minecraft logins are screwed up regularly too. I also have had problems with logging into live.com based .edu account I got at college as well as my xbox live accounts. I know its not me messing up the passwords as I save them in keepass. Its like Microsoft can"t figure out how to maintain a simple login system. Its to the point where I just automaticly go to password recovery when I use a MS run service rather than seeing if it will take my password this week.

Re: Skype finalizes its move to the cloud, ignores the elephant in the room

#75

Post by LoSboccacc »

wslh wrote: post #28
lkrubner wrote: post #18

A personal anecdote: I had the same account on Skype for most of the last 10 years. The same username. It was stable. Lots of people could contact me reliably. It was an account that was created long before Skype was bought by Microsoft. Then came the update that they pushed out last year. Now everyone needed a Microsoft ID to login. There was some kind of "improvement" in the way authentication was done. So I had to…

> Then came the update that they pushed out last year. Now everyone needed a Microsoft ID to login. No, I am using the same id since Skype started. Never linked it to a Microsoft account. This is not a Microsoft endorsement since Skype works really bad.

I am luky as I got a microsoft account with my non ms email provider in the period that was allowed on xbox

Re: Skype finalizes its move to the cloud, ignores the elephant in the room

#76

Post by inopinatus »

lkrubner wrote: post #18

A personal anecdote: I had the same account on Skype for most of the last 10 years. The same username. It was stable. Lots of people could contact me reliably. It was an account that was created long before Skype was bought by Microsoft. Then came the update that they pushed out last year. Now everyone needed a Microsoft ID to login. There was some kind of "improvement" in the way authentication was done. So I had to…

Two more credential-related UX disasters for the archives:

Vodafone Australia truncate passwords to 16 characters in their sign-up form. But they will accept a 20-character password in the login form. That is how I got my account locked.

Square Enix do something similar, but you can unlock your account using a secret Q&A. Unfortunately I had set my answer using a PS4, and PS4s have an input mode quirk that silently appends a space to strings. It took me two days to figure out that I needed a trailing space after my first car's maiden name.

Hilariously, with Square Enix you have to get the question right too, not just the answer. If you had a dog, and a car, and a mother, and a primary school, you might need a few tries...

Re: Skype finalizes its move to the cloud, ignores the elephant in the room

#77

Post by inopinatus »

sandworm101 wrote: post #56
lkrubner wrote: post #18

A personal anecdote: I had the same account on Skype for most of the last 10 years. The same username. It was stable. Lots of people could contact me reliably. It was an account that was created long before Skype was bought by Microsoft. Then came the update that they pushed out last year. Now everyone needed a Microsoft ID to login. There was some kind of "improvement" in the way authentication was done. So I had to…

>I am a professional computer programmer. If I can't figure out how to reset a password on Skype, then what are the chances that a less technical person can do it? The days of 'being good with computers' are gone. UIs change so rapidly that core skills are useless in comparison to daily use. You could be a linux guru with decades of database dev skills, but any 14yo youtuber will probably navigate a website better. I…

This isn't true. I know plenty of "Linux gurus with decades of experience" who navigate websites with the dexterity and awareness of a FPS champion.

I don't know if it's a matter of choice or aptitude, but we don't all ossify as we age.

Re: Skype finalizes its move to the cloud, ignores the elephant in the room

#78

Post by discodave »

morgante wrote: post #67

Skype is my go-to example of why software quality matters. They dominated the market. Tons and tons of people had Skype accounts and, to this day, "Skype" is informally used as a generic verb for videoconferencing. The problem is that the quality has fallen substantially over time. Now things like http://appear.in are much better solutions for basic videoconferencing and Slack has eaten the communications space which…

> Slack has eaten the communications space which Slack should have owned.

I think you accidentally a word :)

Re: Skype finalizes its move to the cloud, ignores the elephant in the room

#79

Post by sangnoir »

ignasl wrote: post #64
SeanDav wrote: post #24

It is pretty much assumed by almost everyone out there that Skype is fully under surveillance and intercepted. If you care in the slightest bit about security, don't use Skype. Other than that I find it useful for keeping in contact with friends and family. For gossip and inane chatter it works well.

Yeah I also don't use skype to discuss my evil world domination plans!

I think risqué Skype calls are the more common concern: long-distance relationships (and teens) outnumber moustache-twirling villains by millions-to-one

Re: Skype finalizes its move to the cloud, ignores the elephant in the room

#80

Post by awqrre »

busterarm wrote: post #29
lkrubner wrote: post #18

A personal anecdote: I had the same account on Skype for most of the last 10 years. The same username. It was stable. Lots of people could contact me reliably. It was an account that was created long before Skype was bought by Microsoft. Then came the update that they pushed out last year. Now everyone needed a Microsoft ID to login. There was some kind of "improvement" in the way authentication was done. So I had to…

This also happened to me with Hotmail and a few times with Xbox Live. I haven't tried to log into Skype in years and I don't expect to start. Live ID is the worst thing that they've ever done.

Hotmail basically locked me out of my account because I won't give them a phone number or an alternate email address (they say "Help us protect your account")... I can edit the URL to get out of this requirement but it probably won't last forever... I probably had this email address for 15 years or more...
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