Webmail Beta Going Live, Squirrel Mail Stays

[kgc]

On Tuesday, July 30th our current webmail-beta system will be deployed as our primary and fully supported webmail client and https://webmail-beta.sonic.net will become https://webmail.sonic.net.

Due to popular demand Squirrel Mail will continue to be available at a new url, https://legacy-webmail.sonic.net. Squirrel Mail users can switch to this new URL immediately and should go ahead and update their bookmarks to prevent any interruption in service.

While we are aware that it will disappoint some users, Nutsmail and Atmail will no longer be available. It isn't practical for us to continue to support all of the different clients. We would have enjoyed the clarity and focus that providing a single client would have brought but it is clear that many users prefer Squirrel Mail and that it in some situations it simply is better suited than the new Roundcube based client.

[aman]

Thank you and Dane and Scott for your decency and common sense to keep our belovèd SquirrelMail.

~~~ Reinhold {Rey} Aman ~~~

[Michael Eisen]

Why was the decision made to retain Squirrel Mail as the legacy system, when Nutsmail is so much more advanced and attractive to use?

[lr]

Due to popular demand Squirrel Mail will continue to be available ...

Thank you.

While we are aware that it will disappoint some users, Nutsmail and Atmail will no longer be available. It isn't practical for us to continue to support all of the different clients.

Completely understand.

We would have enjoyed the clarity and focus that providing a single client would have brought but it is clear that many users prefer Squirrel Mail and that it in some situations it simply is better suited than the new Roundcube based client.

Engineering is the art of the compromise. You have conflicting requirements: you want the best possible web-based e-mail client, you want Sonic's support effort to be used most efficiently, and you want to serve the largest possible set of customers (not all of whom have blazingly fast connections, and not all are willing to learn a new interface). You managed to find a reasonable compromise. I bet nobody is completely happy, and nobody is very unhappy.

[kgc]

Why was the decision made to retain Squirrel Mail as the legacy system, when Nutsmail is so much more advanced and attractive to use?

Michael, It was simply a numbers thing. Our users took at stand and demanded that we keep Squirrel Mail, not Nutsmail. (Despite NutsMail just being a improved version of SquirrelMail.)

[Guest]

Why was the decision made to retain Squirrel Mail as the legacy system, when Nutsmail is so much more advanced and attractive to use?

Michael, It was simply a numbers thing. Our users took at stand and demanded that we keep Squirrel Mail, not Nutsmail. (Despite NutsMail just being a improved version of SquirrelMail.)

I am truly surprised that the members of Sonic.net would make a mediocre, rather than an excellent decision.

[airshow]

Agreed. For me too, Nutsmail was better. Bummer that it's gone.

[arnold2]

I will have to find a new internet providere. I have never seen a less intuitive harder to navigate email system than the email system Sonic net has forced on us. I accidentally put all my inbox in trash because there is no way to sort or maneuver in the inbox. The address book is hopeless as it is not arranged alphabetically as was nutsmail or Squirell mail. I have no idea how I can find Squirrel Mail. Why it was kept instead of Nustmail which was a good system is beyond me. Now I will have to go to something like hotmai or go to AT&T for internet and go through the process of rebuilding my email and notifying sites that are autopay etc. of a new email address.

I alsways though Sonic.net was worth paying more as it resell ATT&T DSL. No longer do I think this

[jleake]

I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you had!

If you give Support a call, they should be able to walk you through restoring the mail that was accidentally deleted.

You can find Squirrel Mail here: https://legacy-webmail.sonic.net/

[eisenm]

Is it just me, or is the new webmail slower, more cumbersome, and less inviting, since it went live, 15 hours ago?

Having spent one f...... miserable morning trying to use it, I can't understand what Sonic saw in this albatross, besides its fancy message labelling, in the first place.

On the other hand, Squirrel Mail is so old and featureless, it is still beyond me that anyone would have voted to retain it, unless they had just tanked up on their green cards.

Nutsmail is so fast, full featured and attractive that the comparisons are not even close.

The only other conclusion I can draw is that Sonic made a boardroom decision to get out of the email hosting business, and settled upon these two despicable clients in order to drive business away.


Michael Eisen