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New Skype Update Is Horrible

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231–240 of 334 posts

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#231
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The version I have is from the Mac App Store

I'll start using it again. I might have been mixing up my memories of the web app.

Yep, previously they had a web app only (not even Electron, just a website). The MAS version came after that. We use it heavily day-to-day.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is nonsense. I don't think there's a reason to do that except to scam users. Any UX-UI Dev / Engineer / Person with common sense knows that users would not understand the process. 180 days and my credit is disabled but I can reactivate it again anytime? what the hell? What I'm not sure of is what happens if you buy credit without reactivating the inactive balance... Does it reactivate the inactive balance or not?…

My wild guess would be that their finance people do not like a monotonically increasing liability on the books. Since some users will never use their credits, this is their way of satisfying the bean counters.

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Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#233
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait. You actually think that individual consumers should be able to, essentially, construct their own unique snowflake version of an app which only fixes bugs but retains the UI (and god knows what other code) from an arbitrary previous version? Look, I don't like some of these stupid updates either, but that idea is completely unworkable.

I wish I had the downvote feature just for your comment. Unworkable? Are you kidding? It's absolutely brilliant. It's exactly what I want. Give me a feature set. Give me a separate UI which interacts with that feature set. Let me pick and choose both of them, completely separately. That's what an API is supposed to be and do.

Use well designed, minimalist, open source software then. No need to write a law.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#235
post #169

My worst Skype annoyance was when they seized your purchased credits if your account was left unused for 180 days. As a sporadic user of Skype when I needed to place an international call etc, having purchased credits reset automatically was such a provocation [0]. Every time I have to re-install Skype for some reason, there's always a new regression or dark UX pattern in use. [0] https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/01…

I had a similar experience: Microsoft deleted all my childhood email because I didn't log into hotmail frequently enough. This included the emails I sent to my first love. And the ones she sent me. All gone. Because Microsoft wanted to save some tiny amount of space. I love Microsoft and an writing this on a Surface device now but Christ, that was awful and would make me think twice about using Microsoft online servi…

[deleted]

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#236
I've never liked the feel of Skype since its inception (before Microsoft even bought it.) There are already too many chat apps, Messenger and SnapChat (in the US) are the two dominant players. I assume that Skype for Business will eventually be phased out and become a sort of extension for Microsoft Teams. Skype will go back to being more consumer based, and as much as it hurts to hear from former Skype users...this is the type of crap most tweens want now, and it's easier to monetize to consumers. There's a reason why every other chat app is copying SnapChat. So it's not a surprise Microsoft would go this direction, I'm sure it will get better with time in this format.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#237
post #72
post #10

What could I switch to (on both Mac and PC) that would give me better video chat functionality? Edit: Just to clarify, here's what I'm looking for: 1. Free plan; available everywhere in the world (I have family outside the US). 2. Both Mac and PC clients that are actually good. 3. Video chat quality (including noise filtering and such) that matches or exceeds what Skype can do. 4. IM-like client that supports text, v…

viber is great, is popular in Europe, I dont know why more Americans dont use it.

Whatsapp and FB Messenger are popular in Europe. Viber used to be but it is the number one messenger only in a few eastern countries now https://www.similarweb.com/blog/popular-messaging-apps-by-co...

I personally don't know anybody using it past early 2016. It's all Whatsapp, Messenger, Telegram (but many people don't know what it is) and Skype on the desktop. Snapchat among the kids.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#238
post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm likely channeling Jason Scott here, but this rhetoric is not helping. Yes of course people should back things up, but responding to "I just lost things of sentimental value to me" with "well you should've backed things up" doesn't come off as helpful advice. Really, the problem is that online services (startups that are shutting down are the worst offenders[1]) are allowed to destroy user data with reckless aband…

> Really, the problem is that online services (startups that are shutting down are the worst offenders) are allowed to destroy user data with reckless abandon. How much are you paying them, per month, to safeguard your data?

Whatever their ads or user statstics pitched to VCs brings in.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#239
post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm likely channeling Jason Scott here, but this rhetoric is not helping. Yes of course people should back things up, but responding to "I just lost things of sentimental value to me" with "well you should've backed things up" doesn't come off as helpful advice. Really, the problem is that online services (startups that are shutting down are the worst offenders[1]) are allowed to destroy user data with reckless aband…

> Really, the problem is that online services (startups that are shutting down are the worst offenders) are allowed to destroy user data with reckless abandon. How much are you paying them, per month, to safeguard your data?

Respectfully, I don't think that's the right question to be asking. Yes, you're correct that since I haven't paid them they currently have no legal obligation to treat my data with respect (usually because I've agreed to non-binding EULA that is vague enough to allow for most abuses).

But look at it from a user's perspective. A small company shows up and says "hey, look at this great 'experience' you can get if you just give us some of your data". So the user gives them some of their data, and that overall builds the community around whatever the company is selling. Then one day the company decides to delete the user's data without warning (or without their acknowledgement or consent). The data itself had worth to the users, but more importantly it is the reason why the company has a community. The fact they didn't treat it with respect is an ethics problem. Just because users didn't pay you to act as a decent person doesn't mean you should treat their data as though it was worthless.

When Yahoo deleted GeoCities they managed to set the world record for the fastest destruction of the largest amount of user-created content. The entireity of GeoCities was several terabytes (in 2009 that was small enough to fit a few hundred dollars worth of hard-drives). Was Yahoo legally obligated to not delete 22 years worth of user content in a single afternoon? No. Were they complete and utter assholes for doing it? Absolutely. Was completely un-necessary? Yes.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#240
post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm likely channeling Jason Scott here, but this rhetoric is not helping. Yes of course people should back things up, but responding to "I just lost things of sentimental value to me" with "well you should've backed things up" doesn't come off as helpful advice. Really, the problem is that online services (startups that are shutting down are the worst offenders[1]) are allowed to destroy user data with reckless aband…

It seems helpful to me. Microsoft is not a startup, there is no reason to assume they would just purge Hotmail accounts one day. Reminding people that corporations lose data, whether accidental or intentional, and that they should take individual responsibility for the data they consider significant, is important. It probably doesn't help the parent feel much better about his situation, but it does help all the other…

My point was that "you should make backups" is useful advice. "You should've made backups" is not, because it places blame on the user for placing trust in someone else.

Sure, you and I know that effectively all "cloud" companies will resort to this sort of scummy bullshit, but let's not blame users who have lost data because a company decided to delete their data with reckless abandon.

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