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InfluxDB Cloud shuts down in Belgium; some weren't notified before data deletion

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Re: InfluxDB Cloud shuts down in Belgium; some weren't notified before data deletion

#81

Post by irjustin »

js2 wrote: post #34
pauldix wrote: post #29

Hi, cofounder and CTO here. We notified everyone via email on February 23, April 6 and May 15th. We also offered to help migrate all users. I realize that it's not ideal that we've shut down this system, but we made our best efforts to notify affected users and give them options to move over to other regions. If you've been impacted by this, please email me personally and I will do my best to help out: paul at influx…

Paul: I'm surprised you didn't do a scream test. Not everyone is going to see those emails and even those that do may not understand what they are reading. Internally at my company we always do scream tests as part of our EOL process because we know we can't reach everyone, even our own employees. https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/microsoft-uses-a-... Fun story: my mortgage got sold last year. Not the first…

> I was like: you guys should've FedEx'd me this in the first place. For all they knew, I wasn't getting their emails or letters in the first place because nothing had been sent signature required.

I love the scream test, but the analogy you bring up actually - this seems unfair. The cost of Fedex'ing everyone is astounding (for many businesses).

But I like the concept. Definitely a sort of "shut off the server for like an hour" and then see who yells.

Phone calls for any account that still operating on the location.

100% agreed 3 emails is... hardly anything.

Re: InfluxDB Cloud shuts down in Belgium; some weren't notified before data deletion

#82

Post by MarkSweep »

jlund-molfese wrote: post #38
js2 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paul: I'm surprised you didn't do a scream test. Not everyone is going to see those emails and even those that do may not understand what they are reading. Internally at my company we always do scream tests as part of our EOL process because we know we can't reach everyone, even our own employees. https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/microsoft-uses-a-... Fun story: my mortgage got sold last year. Not the first…

I even (sort of) do this when I'm deprecating something which my team is the only user of, because sometimes it's hard to tell if something's really unused! First shut off the VPC access while leaving all the other infrastructure and data intact, wait a week or two and see if everything breaks, then get rid of everything else

There is another variant of this: if you can show that the code you are deleting never worked, there is no need to do a scream test. That is, if anyone cared about the code you are deleting, they would have already been screaming.

Re: InfluxDB Cloud shuts down in Belgium; some weren't notified before data deletion

#83

Post by hoffs »

irjustin wrote: post #81
js2 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paul: I'm surprised you didn't do a scream test. Not everyone is going to see those emails and even those that do may not understand what they are reading. Internally at my company we always do scream tests as part of our EOL process because we know we can't reach everyone, even our own employees. https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/microsoft-uses-a-... Fun story: my mortgage got sold last year. Not the first…

> I was like: you guys should've FedEx'd me this in the first place. For all they knew, I wasn't getting their emails or letters in the first place because nothing had been sent signature required. I love the scream test, but the analogy you bring up actually - this seems unfair. The cost of Fedex'ing everyone is astounding (for many businesses). But I like the concept. Definitely a sort of "shut off the server for l…

The price doesn't matter in this analogy since it still mostly works

Re: InfluxDB Cloud shuts down in Belgium; some weren't notified before data deletion

#84

Post by pmarreck »

js2 wrote: post #34
pauldix wrote: post #29

Hi, cofounder and CTO here. We notified everyone via email on February 23, April 6 and May 15th. We also offered to help migrate all users. I realize that it's not ideal that we've shut down this system, but we made our best efforts to notify affected users and give them options to move over to other regions. If you've been impacted by this, please email me personally and I will do my best to help out: paul at influx…

Paul: I'm surprised you didn't do a scream test. Not everyone is going to see those emails and even those that do may not understand what they are reading. Internally at my company we always do scream tests as part of our EOL process because we know we can't reach everyone, even our own employees. https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/microsoft-uses-a-... Fun story: my mortgage got sold last year. Not the first…

Something similar happened to me when I lived at a condo in Boston and the management company changed and I somehow missed the memo.

I kept sending checks to the old management company for a few months before the problem was discovered. Unfortunately, someone at the old management company apparently had a bit of a gambling habit and petty-thefted that money away, and I never saw it again even though she lost in a lawsuit.

Re: InfluxDB Cloud shuts down in Belgium; some weren't notified before data deletion

#85

Post by Axsuul »

js2 wrote: post #34
pauldix wrote: post #29

Hi, cofounder and CTO here. We notified everyone via email on February 23, April 6 and May 15th. We also offered to help migrate all users. I realize that it's not ideal that we've shut down this system, but we made our best efforts to notify affected users and give them options to move over to other regions. If you've been impacted by this, please email me personally and I will do my best to help out: paul at influx…

Paul: I'm surprised you didn't do a scream test. Not everyone is going to see those emails and even those that do may not understand what they are reading. Internally at my company we always do scream tests as part of our EOL process because we know we can't reach everyone, even our own employees. https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/microsoft-uses-a-... Fun story: my mortgage got sold last year. Not the first…

Sounds like the most cost effective way, however.

Re: InfluxDB Cloud shuts down in Belgium; some weren't notified before data deletion

#86

Post by js2 »

irjustin wrote: post #81
js2 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paul: I'm surprised you didn't do a scream test. Not everyone is going to see those emails and even those that do may not understand what they are reading. Internally at my company we always do scream tests as part of our EOL process because we know we can't reach everyone, even our own employees. https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/microsoft-uses-a-... Fun story: my mortgage got sold last year. Not the first…

> I was like: you guys should've FedEx'd me this in the first place. For all they knew, I wasn't getting their emails or letters in the first place because nothing had been sent signature required. I love the scream test, but the analogy you bring up actually - this seems unfair. The cost of Fedex'ing everyone is astounding (for many businesses). But I like the concept. Definitely a sort of "shut off the server for l…

The point of the story was that if you have something critical to communicate, you can't do it using the same methods that are also used for low-priority mostly junk and expect it to be acted upon. Surely a mortgage servicing company can afford to FedEx an envelope. I wouldn't expect Influx to do so.

Re: InfluxDB Cloud shuts down in Belgium; some weren't notified before data deletion

#87

Post by elzbardico »

pauldix wrote: post #33
chillfox wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Email only is not even close to best effort. I know it’s standard to only do email for tech companies, but all other types of companies usually do physical mail and phone calls on top of emails for important notifications. I am not a customer, but it’s really annoying me how tech companies repeatedly think sending emails is somehow anything but the absolute minimum, most lazy option.

We get an email address because we need to contact our customers. After that we make best efforts but if people can’t respond to vendors they pay money to, we’re really at a loss. I realize that shutting down a region isn’t good. It’s not what we would have preferred, but we had to do it for the business. And we made an honest effort to contact all customers to help move them.

Should get a phone number too. Shit like that happens. Next time lay down the law to the marketing drones from UX that want to "reduce friction".

Explain carefully so their thick minds will understand that NOBODY is lazy enough to quit subscribing to your service just because you added an additional field to your onboarding.

Re: InfluxDB Cloud shuts down in Belgium; some weren't notified before data deletion

#88

Post by js2 »

pmarreck wrote: post #84
js2 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paul: I'm surprised you didn't do a scream test. Not everyone is going to see those emails and even those that do may not understand what they are reading. Internally at my company we always do scream tests as part of our EOL process because we know we can't reach everyone, even our own employees. https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/microsoft-uses-a-... Fun story: my mortgage got sold last year. Not the first…

Something similar happened to me when I lived at a condo in Boston and the management company changed and I somehow missed the memo. I kept sending checks to the old management company for a few months before the problem was discovered. Unfortunately, someone at the old management company apparently had a bit of a gambling habit and petty-thefted that money away, and I never saw it again even though she lost in a law…

Semi-related HOA horror story:

https://abc11.com/nc-hoa-foreclose-sell-house-woman-didnt-kn...

Re: InfluxDB Cloud shuts down in Belgium; some weren't notified before data deletion

#89

Post by Kinrany »

pmarreck wrote: post #84
js2 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paul: I'm surprised you didn't do a scream test. Not everyone is going to see those emails and even those that do may not understand what they are reading. Internally at my company we always do scream tests as part of our EOL process because we know we can't reach everyone, even our own employees. https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/microsoft-uses-a-... Fun story: my mortgage got sold last year. Not the first…

Something similar happened to me when I lived at a condo in Boston and the management company changed and I somehow missed the memo. I kept sending checks to the old management company for a few months before the problem was discovered. Unfortunately, someone at the old management company apparently had a bit of a gambling habit and petty-thefted that money away, and I never saw it again even though she lost in a law…

Was the employee the defendant, not the company?

Re: InfluxDB Cloud shuts down in Belgium; some weren't notified before data deletion

#90

Post by fbdab103 »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #55
fbdab103 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3 emails over six months is pretty lousy notification rate. At minimum, something sent the month of the shutdown would be appropriate. More ideally, would be an aggressive notification push of increasing frequency the closer to the shutdown period. Was there any notification of the shutdown in the admin panels? The person with the ability to migrate data may not be the person receiving the messages. EDIT: Also, does…

I would be expecting hourly notifications for the last 7 days if traffic is still detected. I literally get more notification for DNS expirations (and those are scheduled and predictable).

It is pretty amazing. Business of storing other people's data, and evidently notice of deletion is treated as a non-event. Instead of a Huge Big Deal that should be the top line communication to impacted customers until a migration plan has been enacted.
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