FUCK YOU MICROSOFT

[edenfalling]

Hotmail has just "upgraded" so that its layout and functions mimic Outlook. There is no way to opt out of this change.

I didn't want this. I have not wanted any of their so-called "upgrades" over the years (...okay, the increased memory was not horrible, mostly because it had no effect on the presentation or actual use of the site) and so far as I can tell there is never any public beta-testing or even so much as a general inquiry into whether anyone wants the fucking "upgrades."

I like things simple and plain and boring, I do not use your stupid useless bells and whistles, and I DO NOT LIKE CHANGE, GODDAMMIT. Especially not when the change was completely unneeded, and ugly, and messes up the ways I have gotten comfortable with using a particular site or service!

Why does the internet never seem to accept that this is a perfectly valid preference???

(No, I am not going to switch to Gmail. So far as I can tell, Google is equally annoying and top-down "oh, but just try it, you'll like it!" about such things. Also, see above re: disliking change.

...Although if you know a simple and basic web-based email service that doesn't fuck with its users this way, I might be willing to pay actual cash to not get jerked around with bullshit "upgrades" every year or so.)

Comments

[justicevoles.livejournal.com]

Basically, as far as I can tell, the people who do web-design for any major site have to justify their jobs by remaking the entire site every six to eight months. Does it matter if the new design is as functional and aesthetically-pleasing as fresh roadkill? Of course not, the only important thing is that it is NEW, which keeps the whole service from seeming like, OMG, so totally five minutes ago.

With the possible exception of LJ, which I believe is just designed and maintained by a very small collection of bitter antisocial drunks and run by a bunch of wounded philosophy majors who feel cheapened and deeply conflicted by the fact that they have to let us post Harry Potter smut on the English side of the service to pay the bills that keep their incredibly important Russian social dissent blogs going.

On Soviet LJ, userbase loves changes!

[edenfalling]

Actually so far as I know, it's the Russian part of LJ that supports the English-language part at this point -- LJ is huge in Russia, basically THE dominant blogging platform for any purpose -- which may explain why the people in charge of the site redesign a year and a bit ago were so blatant about not giving a shit what the English-speaking half of LJ thought about their changes.

Then again, no corporate web designers really seem to give a shit what their users think of major changes, so I guess it's a universal phenomenon. :-/