5 ms·

Did Microsoft give fair warning of what was going to happen to the data in the cloud that was stored there under these licenses? (I don't have a Slate account s

by pdonis 2mo ago

Did Microsoft give fair warning of what was going to happen to the data in the cloud that was stored there under these licenses? (I don't have a Slate account so I can't read the full article to see if this is addressed.)

lynndotpy 2mo ago
> What happened to Khosla was just one instance of a crisis that has rocked small nonprofit owners across the globe, who allege that Microsoft failed to communicate with them in a substantive manner about the license cancellations and left them unable to prepare their organizations for the future. As they’ve related online, these already resource-strapped nonprofits have lost troves of data, are struggling to continue their operations, and have been left unable to make up the technology gaps with alternative services. People who run service orgs with low budgets and benefited for years from Microsoft’s programs no longer have much of the technology they need to keep things going—for either the short or long term. This quote contains linked sources but I can't see them since they're largely on Reddit and Facebook. The Microsoft ones suggest people were blindsided by this cancellation, and that the official support channels in Microsoft are broken. It seems like everyone who was blindsided also tried to submit an official support ticket and was unable to, which is in line with my experience interacting with Microsoft.
- rbanffy 2mo ago
  > the official support channels in Microsoft are broken I can say, from first hand experience, the very best cloud providers have support channels that are, at the very least, unpleasant to use.
  - _joel 2mo ago
    Yes, but its seems Microsoft is the most broken.
  - crooked-v 2mo ago
    Apple is decent. The internal processes are opaque, but you can always pretty easily talk to a real person who can and will escalate things to real internal support teams as soon as the CSR scripts no longer apply.
    - rbanffy 2mo ago
      Apple has always been brilliant, but they don’t offer a full spectrum of cloud services.
NordSteve 2mo ago
The second paragraph of the email: We strongly advise transitioning your users to a different Microsoft 365 offer for nonprofits, before the subscription is cancelled, to avoid disruption and data loss. Connect now with your current Microsoft partner – or find a partner – to get started. Learn more about what happens to your data and access when your subscription ends. That last sentence links to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/commerce/subscriptions/what-if-my-subscription-expires https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/commerce/sub...
- docjay 2mo ago
  I wish they’d just use clear and blunt language, rather than “strongly advise” and “to avoid.” I’m reminded of my bank sending “Important account information” mail that contains advertising OR actual important information, but at like a 20:1 ratio. “YOUR FILES WILL BE DELETED ON {DATE}” seems like it would have solved any ambiguity.
  - robomc 2mo ago
    Yeah the subject of the email should be "Action Required To Prevent Data Loss" or something
    - marcus_holmes 2mo ago
      I would almost certainly delete that as spam, since I receive approximately 34987349873964 emails per minute with that exact subject, all of which are intended to do me harm
  - Dylan16807 2mo ago
    More important than that is you have a date where you lock the data, and a date where you actually delete it, and those dates are months apart. Even if the emails are going into a black hole that shouldn't result in data loss. Don't have everything working as usual one day and gone forever the next.
  - xaksnTMu2 2mo ago
vtbassmatt 2mo ago
Yes. Disclosure: I work at Microsoft. But I also am the volunteer IT guy at a nonprofit, and am speaking entirely in that context. I was quite unhappy to get a mail back in (checks archives) January that our grant would be discontinued and we’d either have to make do with the web versions of things, migrate someplace, or start paying. They also reminded us several more times before the drop date. I don’t really understand why Microsoft chose to discontinue the nonprofit grants, and it put a little egg on my face after I had recommended it to our board — but they definitely notified us of the change and what it would mean. We’ve opted to pay for now; it’s $3/user/month for the SKU that gets full desktop versions of Office, Teams, etc. so not really breaking the bank compared to all the other things we have to pay for.
- rbanffy 2mo ago
  If 150,000+ organisations were caught by surprise, I would say it’s clear whatever communication they had was not adequate. Organisations that didn’t have an off-boarding option (do nothing, pay the minimum, I’ll deal with it) selected should receive monthly reminders, then every 2 weeks (to multiple people), and one per week until a VERY alarming one the week before. And, of course, have all systems shut down and the data archived for a grace period. I hope they sue Microsoft for what seems neglect.
  - deleted 2mo ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 2mo ago
    [deleted]
  - ahepp 2mo ago
    I think we should take the headline claim that "over 170k nonprofits lost all their data" with a huge grain of salt. As far as I can tell, the only source for that claim is: > And he later learned he wasn’t alone, when another company service representative called the very next day and told him that roughly 171,000 small nongovernmental organizations “lost everything” in their OneDrive accounts. So a second hand account of remarks said over the phone by a low level employee/contractor. That's an interesting data point to follow up on, but using a single indirectly relayed statement to make such a substantial claim doesn't seem consistent with journalistic standards.
danpalmer 2mo ago
The article cites two people who say they didn't receive fair warning, and one who acted on it to renew their subscription to avoid the data loss who lost everything anyway, so seemingly: no.

by pdonis 2mo ago

lynndotpy 2mo ago

> What happened to Khosla was just one instance of a crisis that has rocked small nonprofit owners across the globe, who allege that Microsoft failed to communicate with them in a substantive manner about the license cancellations and left them unable to prepare their organizations for the future. As they’ve related online, these already resource-strapped nonprofits have lost troves of data, are struggling to continue their operations, and have been left unable to make up the technology gaps with alternative services. People who run service orgs with low budgets and benefited for years from Microsoft’s programs no longer have much of the technology they need to keep things going—for either the short or long term. This quote contains linked sources but I can't see them since they're largely on Reddit and Facebook. The Microsoft ones suggest people were blindsided by this cancellation, and that the official support channels in Microsoft are broken. It seems like everyone who was blindsided also tried to submit an official support ticket and was unable to, which is in line with my experience interacting with Microsoft.

rbanffy 2mo ago
> the official support channels in Microsoft are broken I can say, from first hand experience, the very best cloud providers have support channels that are, at the very least, unpleasant to use.
- _joel 2mo ago
  Yes, but its seems Microsoft is the most broken.
- crooked-v 2mo ago
  Apple is decent. The internal processes are opaque, but you can always pretty easily talk to a real person who can and will escalate things to real internal support teams as soon as the CSR scripts no longer apply.
  - rbanffy 2mo ago
    Apple has always been brilliant, but they don’t offer a full spectrum of cloud services.

NordSteve 2mo ago

The second paragraph of the email: We strongly advise transitioning your users to a different Microsoft 365 offer for nonprofits, before the subscription is cancelled, to avoid disruption and data loss. Connect now with your current Microsoft partner – or find a partner – to get started. Learn more about what happens to your data and access when your subscription ends. That last sentence links to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/commerce/subscriptions/what-if-my-subscription-expires https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/commerce/sub...

docjay 2mo ago
I wish they’d just use clear and blunt language, rather than “strongly advise” and “to avoid.” I’m reminded of my bank sending “Important account information” mail that contains advertising OR actual important information, but at like a 20:1 ratio. “YOUR FILES WILL BE DELETED ON {DATE}” seems like it would have solved any ambiguity.
- robomc 2mo ago
  Yeah the subject of the email should be "Action Required To Prevent Data Loss" or something
  - marcus_holmes 2mo ago
    I would almost certainly delete that as spam, since I receive approximately 34987349873964 emails per minute with that exact subject, all of which are intended to do me harm
- Dylan16807 2mo ago
  More important than that is you have a date where you lock the data, and a date where you actually delete it, and those dates are months apart. Even if the emails are going into a black hole that shouldn't result in data loss. Don't have everything working as usual one day and gone forever the next.
- xaksnTMu2 2mo ago

vtbassmatt 2mo ago

Yes. Disclosure: I work at Microsoft. But I also am the volunteer IT guy at a nonprofit, and am speaking entirely in that context. I was quite unhappy to get a mail back in (checks archives) January that our grant would be discontinued and we’d either have to make do with the web versions of things, migrate someplace, or start paying. They also reminded us several more times before the drop date. I don’t really understand why Microsoft chose to discontinue the nonprofit grants, and it put a little egg on my face after I had recommended it to our board — but they definitely notified us of the change and what it would mean. We’ve opted to pay for now; it’s $3/user/month for the SKU that gets full desktop versions of Office, Teams, etc. so not really breaking the bank compared to all the other things we have to pay for.

rbanffy 2mo ago
If 150,000+ organisations were caught by surprise, I would say it’s clear whatever communication they had was not adequate. Organisations that didn’t have an off-boarding option (do nothing, pay the minimum, I’ll deal with it) selected should receive monthly reminders, then every 2 weeks (to multiple people), and one per week until a VERY alarming one the week before. And, of course, have all systems shut down and the data archived for a grace period. I hope they sue Microsoft for what seems neglect.
- deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
- ahepp 2mo ago
  I think we should take the headline claim that "over 170k nonprofits lost all their data" with a huge grain of salt. As far as I can tell, the only source for that claim is: > And he later learned he wasn’t alone, when another company service representative called the very next day and told him that roughly 171,000 small nongovernmental organizations “lost everything” in their OneDrive accounts. So a second hand account of remarks said over the phone by a low level employee/contractor. That's an interesting data point to follow up on, but using a single indirectly relayed statement to make such a substantial claim doesn't seem consistent with journalistic standards.

danpalmer 2mo ago

The article cites two people who say they didn't receive fair warning, and one who acted on it to renew their subscription to avoid the data loss who lost everything anyway, so seemingly: no.