7 ms·

Interestingly, it looks like they used their AMA on Reddit specifically to announce this [1]. Kind of a neat idea. 1) Implement a long-requested feature.

Interestingly, it looks like they used their AMA on Reddit specifically to announce this [1]. Kind of a neat idea. 1) Implement a long-requested feature. 2) Do AMA on Reddit and wait for inevitable "when are we getting {feature}?" 3) Answer with "right now!" [1] http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1m926j/we_are_the_outlookcom_team_ask_us_anything/cc6xk7e http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1m926j/we_are_the_outl...

coob 13y ago
All of their service partners (unroll.me/context.io etc) replying with comments announcing their new support for Outlook looks like quite the bit of pre-planned marketing work.
vowelless 13y ago
As others on that page have noted, it is a little suspicious that /u/falconer didn't post anything for 2 years before posting the question about IMAP. Does indeed look at like a marketing ploy. Nothing wrong with that.
- rcb 13y ago
  Nearly a year ago I posted a positive comment on HN about Windows 8, and was then accused (by TWO individuals) of astroturfing. The anti-M$ hate & paranoia that HN seems to have inherited from /. seems so beyond antiquated in this day and age. On topic: This is great news. Congratulations to MS.
  - criley2 13y ago
    I get the same thing from geeks on Reddit regarding Windows 8. Usually a fair bit of nasty language clears up any /r/HailCorporate connotations. It's so sad to see people who, on one hand will wax poetic on the subject of rationality and open mindedness,will turn around and join a tech bandwagon with no real reason and certainly no real knowledge. Win8 is better than 7, even if you hate Metro. Objectively, statistically, the OS is more performant than 7. Of course, openminded geeks never let data and stats get in the way of the anti-ms bandwagon. I'm sure they'll come around for the next windows, "because Windows is good every other release, donchaknow"!
    - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
      Sorry, but after trying Windows 8 for three weeks, I had to go back to Windows 7. The experience was just too frustrating. I'll try again when Windows 8.1 comes out.
      - criley2 13y ago
        Without the use of software like Start8, I admit that the UX experience would be inferior to Win7, even including the greatly improved SSD and overall performance. With the use of something like Start8 (or 8.1), the experience is largely identical and the extra performance and improved ui (task manager, etc) become highlights.
    - danieldk 13y ago
      I get the same thing from geeks on Reddit regarding Windows 8. Yeah, some people seem to be so blinded by hate towards Microsoft (yes, they behaved notoriously bad), that they can only judge whatever comes out of Microsoft based on that. I like what they are doing with Windows Phone, Skydrive, Outlook.com, and web-based Office (and I am a UNIX user). But any such comment is usually with by vile reactions. Yes, you may not like Microsoft and object to using their product because of their moral behavior (ironically, they seem to be one of the least walled-garden-ish company these days). But can we at least judge their products by their technical merit?
      - sesqu 13y ago
        > I like what they are doing with Windows Phone, Skydrive, Outlook.com, and web-based Office I don't. It's entirely possible that you confound the company-directed hate with the product-directed hate, simply because you have neither.
        300bps 13y ago
        Which model of Windows Phone did you own? How long did you use it? How big of a SkyDrive did you own? Did you use Outlook.com or Hosted Exchange/Office 365? For me, I'm very happy with my Lumia 928, 125 GB SkyDrive and the 400+ users I set up on Office 365 love the email system and web based Office.
  - corresation 13y ago
    The anti-M$ hate & paranoia that HN seems to have inherited from /. Are we all to feel embarrassed? Maybe next you'll start flicking the lights? How is someone pointing out what seems to be a really obvious setup indicative of "anti-M$ hate and paranoia"? It sounds like you're the only one who is paranoid. Such setups are common, and in this case it does look like an employee on the group remembered an old account they had (the "it's the only thing you're missing" then a gratiutious link to marketing material). No harm in that, really, it's just a bit funny to see. Is it hateful to point out what is obvious?
    - jmcintyre 13y ago
      I think the announcement was a setup, but not the person who asked the question. It was pretty obvious that someone was going to ask that question, you could bet on it. The person writes this: >Skepticism be damned, I'm actually an actual person who asked an actual question. I saw on Twitter that Outlook.com would be doing an AMA, and nobody asked the IMAP question yet, so I did. I've been a lurker on Reddit for several years. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1m926j/we_are_the_outlookcom_team_ask_us_anything/cc71xz3 http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1m926j/we_are_the_outl... Now, it's possible it's an employee, but I wouldn't rate it as "most certainly" like you did, it was obvious that someone was going to ask this question.
      - skafka 13y ago
        Hey everyone, I'm the person who made the announcement on Reddit this morning. I can assure you that we did not go ask anyone to give us that question. But, did we know someone would? Of course. Every single blog post we've done for the last year has asked about it. If you look at our twitter account, it only took one minute yesterday after we announced the AMA session for someone to ask. We thought it would be a fun thing to do for the Reddit community.
        Samuel_Michon 13y ago
        This is one of the things I love about HN. People we talk about here actually read the articles and comments. Feature request: like they do on Reddit with iAMAs, give posters the opportunity to verify with staff that they are who they say they are.
  - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
    > posted a positive comment about Windows 8 [...] was then accused of astroturfing > great news! Congratulations to MS. You’re not helping your case ;) Anyways, I've been a member of many tech fora over the years. So far, I find HN to have the best balance between defenders of Microsoft, Apple, Android, *nix, and BSD. If you know of a better forum, I’d love to hear about it.
- johnchristopher 13y ago
  I have a user account on the ubuntu forums that I haven't used in 6 or 7 years. Some weeks ago I posted a question about a specific software upgrade problem in the forums and realized I had never posted there. So there goes my one post for a ~9 years-old account. Of course, as usual and as expected, I found out the answer 2 minutes after posting my question. edit: it's 9 years-old account.
  - bfish510 13y ago
    And you wrote the answer you were looking for as another post in the thread right!
    - johnchristopher 13y ago
      I think I did ! edit: Since no one had answered I simply edited the post with the "solution" :) (seems like this got me 3 beans).
    - dfrey 13y ago
      Very few things annoy me more than Googling a problem I'm having, finding a post where someone has the exact same problem and then them following up with "Nevermind, figured it out!" and not explaining the solution.
      - johnchristopher 13y ago
        Or worse: once you get them to spill the beans, they admit it wasn't the good question and the problem wasn't related.
- arbitrage 13y ago
  ooooh, is it time to play internet detective? 'cause reddit has such a stellar history guessing the real motives of people. with the absence of any other information at all, this user must certainly be a shill. the logic checks out.
- eli 13y ago
  It's not hard for me to imagine a person normally not interested in Reddit, but who feels very strongly about non-proprietary email systems.
- notatoad 13y ago
  Of course it's a marketing ploy, that's what r/iama is. it doesn't have to be a conspiracy as well. as the microsoft guy says, "it wouldn't be an ama without an IMAP question." if falconer hadn't asked it, somebody else would have.
- ryanburk 13y ago
  if you look at this ama as well as past ama's the hotmail / outlook team have done, you'll see you don't need to plant someone to ask "hey M$, why u no ship IMAP??!?!". it was the #1 question / request the team had from this audience.
- rsynnott 13y ago
  > Does indeed look at like a marketing ploy. Nothing wrong with that. Marketing via astroturfing (fake public engagement) is at best unethical, and often illegal.
  - IanDrake 13y ago
    >and often illegal Really? Our government does it.
    - rsynnott 13y ago
      Which country is that? I know a few do. However, that falls under propaganda, rather than a dishonest commercial practice, so the law will generally be different. Most developed countries have some laws regulating astroturfing, though implementation is often iffy, and at worst penalties are rarely that severe. Samsung was fined a few hundred thousand for it in Taiwan recently, and is under investigation in other countries, for example.
sepbot 13y ago
That is very interesting. For anyone who might care they have done AMAs in the past. There might more, but it is hard to tell with the poor search implementation on reddit.com. Seems that their original stance on IMAP was and I quote "we’ve made the decision and we’re sticking to it" [1], while a year later this was changed to "... we’ll support IMAP for Outlook sometime down the line" [2]. [1] http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/xgjrw/we_are_the_team_behind_the_new_outlookcom_service/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/xgjrw/we_are_the_team_... [2] http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ej32l/we_are_the_hotmail_development_team_lets_talk/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ej32l/we_are_the_hotma...

coob 13y ago

All of their service partners (unroll.me/context.io etc) replying with comments announcing their new support for Outlook looks like quite the bit of pre-planned marketing work.

vowelless 13y ago

As others on that page have noted, it is a little suspicious that /u/falconer didn't post anything for 2 years before posting the question about IMAP. Does indeed look at like a marketing ploy. Nothing wrong with that.

rcb 13y ago
Nearly a year ago I posted a positive comment on HN about Windows 8, and was then accused (by TWO individuals) of astroturfing. The anti-M$ hate & paranoia that HN seems to have inherited from /. seems so beyond antiquated in this day and age. On topic: This is great news. Congratulations to MS.
- criley2 13y ago
  I get the same thing from geeks on Reddit regarding Windows 8. Usually a fair bit of nasty language clears up any /r/HailCorporate connotations. It's so sad to see people who, on one hand will wax poetic on the subject of rationality and open mindedness,will turn around and join a tech bandwagon with no real reason and certainly no real knowledge. Win8 is better than 7, even if you hate Metro. Objectively, statistically, the OS is more performant than 7. Of course, openminded geeks never let data and stats get in the way of the anti-ms bandwagon. I'm sure they'll come around for the next windows, "because Windows is good every other release, donchaknow"!
  - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
    Sorry, but after trying Windows 8 for three weeks, I had to go back to Windows 7. The experience was just too frustrating. I'll try again when Windows 8.1 comes out.
    - criley2 13y ago
      Without the use of software like Start8, I admit that the UX experience would be inferior to Win7, even including the greatly improved SSD and overall performance. With the use of something like Start8 (or 8.1), the experience is largely identical and the extra performance and improved ui (task manager, etc) become highlights.
  - danieldk 13y ago
    I get the same thing from geeks on Reddit regarding Windows 8. Yeah, some people seem to be so blinded by hate towards Microsoft (yes, they behaved notoriously bad), that they can only judge whatever comes out of Microsoft based on that. I like what they are doing with Windows Phone, Skydrive, Outlook.com, and web-based Office (and I am a UNIX user). But any such comment is usually with by vile reactions. Yes, you may not like Microsoft and object to using their product because of their moral behavior (ironically, they seem to be one of the least walled-garden-ish company these days). But can we at least judge their products by their technical merit?
    - sesqu 13y ago
      > I like what they are doing with Windows Phone, Skydrive, Outlook.com, and web-based Office I don't. It's entirely possible that you confound the company-directed hate with the product-directed hate, simply because you have neither.
      - 300bps 13y ago
        Which model of Windows Phone did you own? How long did you use it? How big of a SkyDrive did you own? Did you use Outlook.com or Hosted Exchange/Office 365? For me, I'm very happy with my Lumia 928, 125 GB SkyDrive and the 400+ users I set up on Office 365 love the email system and web based Office.
- corresation 13y ago
  The anti-M$ hate & paranoia that HN seems to have inherited from /. Are we all to feel embarrassed? Maybe next you'll start flicking the lights? How is someone pointing out what seems to be a really obvious setup indicative of "anti-M$ hate and paranoia"? It sounds like you're the only one who is paranoid. Such setups are common, and in this case it does look like an employee on the group remembered an old account they had (the "it's the only thing you're missing" then a gratiutious link to marketing material). No harm in that, really, it's just a bit funny to see. Is it hateful to point out what is obvious?
  - jmcintyre 13y ago
    I think the announcement was a setup, but not the person who asked the question. It was pretty obvious that someone was going to ask that question, you could bet on it. The person writes this: >Skepticism be damned, I'm actually an actual person who asked an actual question. I saw on Twitter that Outlook.com would be doing an AMA, and nobody asked the IMAP question yet, so I did. I've been a lurker on Reddit for several years. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1m926j/we_are_the_outlookcom_team_ask_us_anything/cc71xz3 http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1m926j/we_are_the_outl... Now, it's possible it's an employee, but I wouldn't rate it as "most certainly" like you did, it was obvious that someone was going to ask this question.
    - skafka 13y ago
      Hey everyone, I'm the person who made the announcement on Reddit this morning. I can assure you that we did not go ask anyone to give us that question. But, did we know someone would? Of course. Every single blog post we've done for the last year has asked about it. If you look at our twitter account, it only took one minute yesterday after we announced the AMA session for someone to ask. We thought it would be a fun thing to do for the Reddit community.
      - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
        This is one of the things I love about HN. People we talk about here actually read the articles and comments. Feature request: like they do on Reddit with iAMAs, give posters the opportunity to verify with staff that they are who they say they are.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  > posted a positive comment about Windows 8 [...] was then accused of astroturfing > great news! Congratulations to MS. You’re not helping your case ;) Anyways, I've been a member of many tech fora over the years. So far, I find HN to have the best balance between defenders of Microsoft, Apple, Android, *nix, and BSD. If you know of a better forum, I’d love to hear about it.
johnchristopher 13y ago
I have a user account on the ubuntu forums that I haven't used in 6 or 7 years. Some weeks ago I posted a question about a specific software upgrade problem in the forums and realized I had never posted there. So there goes my one post for a ~9 years-old account. Of course, as usual and as expected, I found out the answer 2 minutes after posting my question. edit: it's 9 years-old account.
- bfish510 13y ago
  And you wrote the answer you were looking for as another post in the thread right!
  - johnchristopher 13y ago
    I think I did ! edit: Since no one had answered I simply edited the post with the "solution" :) (seems like this got me 3 beans).
  - dfrey 13y ago
    Very few things annoy me more than Googling a problem I'm having, finding a post where someone has the exact same problem and then them following up with "Nevermind, figured it out!" and not explaining the solution.
    - johnchristopher 13y ago
      Or worse: once you get them to spill the beans, they admit it wasn't the good question and the problem wasn't related.
arbitrage 13y ago
ooooh, is it time to play internet detective? 'cause reddit has such a stellar history guessing the real motives of people. with the absence of any other information at all, this user must certainly be a shill. the logic checks out.
eli 13y ago
It's not hard for me to imagine a person normally not interested in Reddit, but who feels very strongly about non-proprietary email systems.
notatoad 13y ago
Of course it's a marketing ploy, that's what r/iama is. it doesn't have to be a conspiracy as well. as the microsoft guy says, "it wouldn't be an ama without an IMAP question." if falconer hadn't asked it, somebody else would have.
ryanburk 13y ago
if you look at this ama as well as past ama's the hotmail / outlook team have done, you'll see you don't need to plant someone to ask "hey M$, why u no ship IMAP??!?!". it was the #1 question / request the team had from this audience.
rsynnott 13y ago
> Does indeed look at like a marketing ploy. Nothing wrong with that. Marketing via astroturfing (fake public engagement) is at best unethical, and often illegal.
- IanDrake 13y ago
  >and often illegal Really? Our government does it.
  - rsynnott 13y ago
    Which country is that? I know a few do. However, that falls under propaganda, rather than a dishonest commercial practice, so the law will generally be different. Most developed countries have some laws regulating astroturfing, though implementation is often iffy, and at worst penalties are rarely that severe. Samsung was fined a few hundred thousand for it in Taiwan recently, and is under investigation in other countries, for example.

sepbot 13y ago

That is very interesting. For anyone who might care they have done AMAs in the past. There might more, but it is hard to tell with the poor search implementation on reddit.com. Seems that their original stance on IMAP was and I quote "we’ve made the decision and we’re sticking to it" [1], while a year later this was changed to "... we’ll support IMAP for Outlook sometime down the line" [2]. [1] http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/xgjrw/we_are_the_team_behind_the_new_outlookcom_service/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/xgjrw/we_are_the_team_... [2] http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ej32l/we_are_the_hotmail_development_team_lets_talk/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ej32l/we_are_the_hotma...