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Yahoo! brings out some honesty about their SMTP problems

23 February, 2008 06:56

The Yahoo! Mail Blog explains croaking SMTP service handling.  Thank you for your honesty and understandable explanation:

[link to blog post] 

" February 22, 2008 on 4:22 pm | In All-New Mail, Classic Mail, General |

Over the past few weeks some of our POP users have experienced varying delays when sending Yahoo! Mail messages via email clients (such as Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Apple Mail, etc.). We understand that this has been frustrating, and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

Recently we began experiencing an unexpected increase in traffic through the servers we have dedicated for POP/SMTP messages. When we first became aware that some users were having their messages delayed because of this we examined the issue, and the initial solution appeared to have the problem under control. However we soon learned that more needed to be done to ensure the levels of service we strive to provide.

As a result we spent the last several days not only upgrading hardware resources for our SMTP servers, but also restructuring the way the bandwidth of these servers is allocated. We are confident that this solution will not only resolve the immediate problems, but also ensure that the systems are even more reliable in the future."...

This was posted about 11 hours after my message to the Yahoo! Mail mailing list.  Here is the post:

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:58:34 -0600

On Thu, 2008-02-21 at 15:12 -0500, Sasafrass wrote:
> Ryan said they're working on it, so we just have to be patient.
>

"I know many of you are very dedicated Yahoo! Mail users and do take
advantage of their services.

However, I would like to make a few notes on the progression of their
new mail platform.

First I will start by pointing out the numerous problems with the new
client which was released out of BETA, a surprise to me, and out of the
blue, before it had any functionality that the developers probably
pictured as an accomplished project.

This decision reasoning is still unclear to me.

For my main point: would you install a 10,000 watt bulb in an efficiency
apartment, when a 50 watt light bulb would do?

So Yahoo! now gives us unlimited storage.  Even before this, their
network backbone was not efficient enough to use their mail for urgent
communication.

Now mailbox limitations are gone, unused accounts are being flooded, and
users are in the position to send and receive mail carelessly with large
attachments, and 2,000 messages a day mailing lists.

For several years, on the SMTP side of inbound mail, they have been
"just barely keeping up".  In the last couple years it has become worse,
and I find that my outbound mail is being deferred or given notice that
their mail servers are temporarily unavailable or too busy.

Can you just imagine a company of this size receiving all this mail?!
It's an amazing feat that delivery is mostly delayed from an hour too
four hours.  Some go through right away, which may be a mechanism of
external mail servers adapting to it's success with SENT mail.

In any case, I feel Yahoo! Mail is a toy for certain communities in the
company whom are not interested in making an end product that could
possibly keep up to their status in the web based e-mail game.  Visions
of chocolate water fountains (I want one).

So this is not related to patients.  It's a project with too great of
expectations, assumptions of its usefulness, and the IT/IS and hardware
to support it.

I am now asking.  Can we get a clear explanation - honest, with what may
have gone wrong with Yahoo! Mail, and the results you were expecting?

I know their is no such user agreement.  However, hosting companies tell
you when something goes wrong, HD arrays went down, databases are
unavailable, you accidental received the wrong e-mail destined for their
users, and EXPLAIN, COMMUNICATE, AND RESPOND to concerns, questions, and
provide a support system; a blog is a good way of communicating such
information.

This computer world isn't perfect, so why is Yahoo! so self indulged?

I wrote this, because your word "patients" angered me.  A 6 year mail
user, and 4 year Mail Plus customer. 

I have left long ago for primary use, but follow this list out of the
craziness of their conception of what humans want to have their brains
filled with.  Look at the Yahoo! Mail BLOG, in relation.

I will stop ranting now.

Andy"

I hope to see more Blog posts such as this so I can become more personal with the companies situations and practices. 

A year ago I was writing:

Master Lock Master Key Shim from a 12oz Can of Cold Beer

[Technology] [Software]
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Main Entry: spew
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English spIwan; akin to Old High German spIwan to spit, Latin spuere, Greek ptyein intransitive verb
1 : VOMIT
2 : to come forth in a flood or gush
3 : to ooze out as if under pressure : EXUDE transitive verb
1 : VOMIT
2 : to send or cast forth with vigor or violence or in great quantity -- often used with out - spew-er noun
-- Merriam-Webster

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