Once upon a time, there lived a happy little ISP called Xtra.
Xtra wanted to be really, really special so it decided to join forces with the Kingdom of Yahoo! Then, even though many of the villagers were still unsure about the whole rebranded Yahoo!Xtra site, the little ISP decided to make another change.
That change was Yahoo!Xtra Bubble, an exciting big upgrade at the weekend that ended up being something of a disaster for many of the poor villagers.
They had been promised something really good, their own special place on the net with all their favourite things. This magical place would have lots of exciting, enhanced online services and what’s more, they would be free.
There would be a personalised homepage, online photo storage, loads of mailbox storage, spam management tools and more. Oh joy.
Of course, the villagers were told registration would be essential when the new service launched.
Sadly, the problems started even before registering was an option. On message boards, in chat rooms and around the village, the townsfolk were complaining about a sudden influx of spam. Ah, it seems the upgrade meant a downgrade first.
Double joy.
When the villagers were finally allowed to register they did so, knowing that the shiny new land of Yahoo!Xtra Bubble would offer all that they could dream of: spam protection, spiffy new features and maybe even a spot of dragon slaying.
But all was not well in Yahoo!Xtra Bubble land. Many of the villagers couldn’t access their e-mails.
How could they keep in touch with their favourite serving wenches without e-mail? The Knights of the Bubble said they tried to contact all the villagers to warn them of a 24-hour webmail outage. Alas and alack, many customers said they hadn’t been warned and were unable to get through to the help desk when they phoned.
Other villagers lost e-mails they had stored online. But still, the Knights of the Bubble were adamant this was an improvement.
Even now, days after the mighty battle of the upgrade, some villagers are still awaiting their chance to enter the land of Yahoo!Xtra Bubble.
And some villagers (like me) found that the changed mail settings stopped e-mail tracking and receipt system MSGTAG from working. So they went back in time to the land of Xtra, without all the flashy bits.
And they all lived happily ever after. Well, we think they did _ we’re still waiting for the e-mail to confirm that.
The moral of the story? No more improvements, please. Another upgrade like that one and the villagers might dust off their pitchforks and revolt.