[LOCKED]SLS KILLED email? WTF!?

@2muchFun - You're exactly correct. I work in IT and I see it daily. Just think of ANY other social media site. Facebook, Twitter, IG... Hell even Myspace.... They are going to change to bring in new people, hip people, young people, technologically advanced people.. And it doesn't matter who the hell doesn't like it, because you're either already hooked, or you aren't on to realize what was changed. It was less than 3 years ago when everything on social media came in chronological order, you saw everyone's posts, and everyone saw yours. In a short time, with millions of complaints ignored.... It became they choose what you see, when you see it, from who and if they don't like your content, they'll scale you down without ever telling you.

Well welcome to SLS 2019!! We used to have A, B and C. Now we have what they tell us to like, we have to get video messages from who they want us to get them from, you will type exactly how much they tell you to type, and if you don't like it?? Well they already have your lifetime membership money. They'll ignore you or troll you from customer service, until you accept your fate or the new young blood, who never knew there was an old system, runs you out of here.

I can promise you that 99% of these changes, started off with "Age groups 18-49 are currently doing more of this, so we need to implement ____________________ to bring in some youth and money"

The new system sucks. No need to change just for the sake of change. Keep email then add messages.

It's been about two weeks. 80 hours of work. Assuming they hired 10 developers/programers, that's 800 hours. Just a couple of more weeks, everyone!!!!

Of course if all they hired was one person, we still got a 40 plus more weeks to go.

On the serious side, the IM feature kept crashing tonight. lol . I couldn't read messages, having to constantly refresh. This thing is just utterly amazing!

Perhaps SLS did the math and figured out all of us 50-somethings complaining about the email going away only have a few good swinging years left.
A business needs a plan to attract new customers.

@ACatchy

The software industry rarely does fixed bids. Using your construction knowledge and basis . . .

A lot of clients will say I want XYZ. In your lingo, that is like a client coming up and saying, "Build me a house. How much?" That is all they told you. They didn't tell you anything else. You have no idea where, what, fit, finish, etc. The software industry is full of land mines of 'oh, we didn't tell you this moments, aka change orders.' It is full of 'we didn't know there was a gas station on this land before hand and you are going to have to remediate.' It is full of lots of moving parts and was never intended to be a permanent structure. I have yet to see a house evolve through iterations every two weeks, following an Agile sprint plan.

The system they put in place is terrible. I don't think they scoped the project out to be palatable for all interfaces. There are solutions out there that support mobile/tablet/desktop. Why they chose this, that is the question.

The "upgrade" is a transitory species to prepare the infrastructure for the generational shift away from PC web-browser to smart-phone app as the primary support platform. Web browser was good at supporting silly things like sentences, paragraphs and the like, while smart-phone, the goal is to have as little actual contact as possible. Swipe will replace ideas.

"Thousands of developer hours".

That's why every sub of mine is paid by the job, not by the hour. Pay by the hour, get shit work. Pay by the job when the job is done AND the client is happy and you'd be amazed at the quality results you get!

" So. What exactly was the upgrade?"

it was more like a downgrade

Sigh. If only there were another site that has a good Middle Tennessee community. Kasidie is up for renewal, and it's been pretty much a bust across the board (1 message every week or two versus 2-3 a day here).

The messages here have gone WAY downhill. The majority are "Hello" which never get a response, but even the most articulate contacts aren't more than a bubble or two long.

They have to be pretty confident they don't have any competition to make such an arrogant move.

I thought it was just us. But, seriously do not like the option of video chat. We do not know how to turn that feature off and the now infamous replacement for email is like reading/writing a Western Union communication. So. What exactly was the upgrade? Glad we also belong to another site that has no issues.

as SLS is now, it is far from what it used to be, and not what we paid for

I don't mind change or at least I know enough about resistance to change that I make sure that's not operating before I start complaining. I'm going to continue to complain about this one, because what they've rolled out, apparently with hundreds if not thousands of developer hours (according to Wayne), is complete shit.

It didn't have to be shit. A few user tests would have made the problems clear (since apparently SLS employs no one with common sense or an understanding of how the system is used by the majority of its members), but nope. Instead, it's shit. When it didn't have to be.

So, I'm going to complain about the crap system and I'm going to complain about the breathtaking incompetence that delivered it.

I also do not like random video calls pouring in. Wth

VAB: I think it's because the people working on it aren't people who use the product, at least in the way you, me and apparently the vast majority of the people on the fora use it. They thought it was ready, and it's working fine, once us dolts who pay for it figure it out we'll just be tweeting our lustful little asses off.

Some have pointed out that SLS needed to change - that change is good and people are naturally resistant to change.

While all of that is usually true, change is only good if it's a change to something better. A change to a barely functional Twitter feed is ridiculous.

Some have also said "give them time". They had and could still have all the time in the world to develop something properly and THEN roll it out. Instead they took away a beater car, which at least still got us to work and back, and replaced it with a skateboard, asking us to just wait until our new car is ready.

Why they couldn't let us keep driving the beater until they had a better car to drive is beyond me.

Well,

Just gave the IM a try in communicating with an interesting local couple. It's official: It sucks serious ass! Broken up messages with dangling partial clauses. No way to write and coherently preview or edit without having multiple bits. Had to send three messages to initiate a simple conversation and these were broken into five pieces.

Sucks!

Yeah, that was the other fear, that I may get blocked. But the hope is that they will go to the IMs, as Mayhem said, that's how they clear it.

Worst that happens is that they are unaware of the change (since SLS did such a bang-up job of communicating it) and they block or tell you to F-off.

Our "dont email us" setting for single guys apparently does not apply to IM, since they are sending us messages somehow anyway.

Eventually they may get curious and check. The only way to clear the messages that I know of it to look at them. Considering they will never get another email (unless SLS changes its mind...not likely), they may eventually check to at least see who was reaching out to them. If they don't, they might as well be waiting for a resurrection of the dodo bird ;-)

Thank you for the suggestions. I reached out to them and added an apology. My only fear is that, they won't check the IMs at all and have been waiting for the bird, which has sadly gone the way of the dodo bird.

I have seen a couple profiles in our area where they said, "Don't use IM". I let them know email was no longer an option so they may be waiting quite a while for that "bird" ;-)

I would assume the "no im" was added to profile pre email removal, and just im them anyway. Maybe apologize, but sls f'd up.

Visiting Orlando for a few days and am trying to send someone a message. Profile says, they don't read IMs. Another profile says, don't send IMs.

What am I to do? Missed opportunities it seems. If only sls sent out warnings before the change, so as to allow members to update their profiles. Better yet, don't change it at all!!!

Interesting...Just noticed my post from this morning mentioning a competing website I just joined as my experience here was destroyed by the new "upgrades" was deleted. So much for an Open Forum.

I found one part of the email system that is intact and still working. My membership renewal is due. I got an email reminder of that rather than a message.