It's no longer free. The email address I have had for over 8 years is no longer free. Bah! This is so annoying! It has all my email addresses in it. All my various accounts with other sites go into it. All my online purchase receipts get sent to it. And I can't even log in. Not unless I want to pay.

Which, fair enough, isn't a huge amount. I can afford it. BUT do I want to pay it when I'm not actually that happy with the site? For example, a year or so ago, it had a layout redesign and after years of being able to use it on safari (my main and preferred browser) it no longer works on that. The site's ONLY solution? Download and use firefox instead. It just seemed like an arrogant attitude to have when it worked fine before.

As safari is the browser the iphone uses (and I would like to get myself one once my current plan runs out) I'm not even certain if it'll be compatible on that. I don't want to buy a year's subscription if it's not even going to work on my phone in a couple of months.

I know it's their right to charge or not charge for their service. I'm not saying they owe me anything (although a warning email in advance would have been nice). But there's so many other mail services out there that ARE free. I would have thought they'd been trying to keep their users, not drive them away.

Other than the inconvenience and disruption to my usual routine, if I give it up I'll loose my email name. I'm quite proud of it too. Just kirstie@... EASY! And probably impossible to get at any other sites. Bah... I like having a simple username without any dashes or numbers or underscores. *stamps foot*

Ok, officially whinging. Like a two-year-old. But it still annoys me.
What do you guys think? Pay up and keep it going? Or find someplace new and start again?



EDIT: Hmmm... the site's put up a notice on their log-in page. The word 'outage' should really read 'outrage' though.

"The Lycos Mail Team is aware of an issue causing an outage for our free users. The problem is being worked on and we hope to have service back soon."