January, 2006 : Login server has been completly restored.
April, 2005 : Photos & Files Access technology has been updated to keep in sync with Yahoo.
February, 2005 : The Repertory has now over 185,000 groups and has been completely updated.
August 27, 2004 : NEW! We have added a fantastic feature that lets you view messages with pictures only
August 25, 2004 : Major Messages Access speed increase
August 1, 2004 : Yahoo Groups selection interface (Receiver & Watcher) has been entirely revised.
February 21, 2004 : Photos & Files Access technology has been revised to keep in sync with Yahoo.
November 21, 2003 : Watcher Groups feature has now been activated.
November 20, 2003 : Yahoo Files Access feature
has now been activated.
October 18, 2003: An improved system and interface
has been activated.
October 11, 2003: The Repertory has now over 145,000
groups and has been completely updated.
August 6, 2003: New Membership Packages Announced.
August 2, 2003: We immediately start to redesign
and reinvent ourselves to adapt to the needs of our members
after the Yahoo changes.
August 1, 2003: Yahoo announces they will no longer
archive groups after August 20 (previously August 6),
but will keep external html links.
July 20, 2003: Optimizations to database requests
increases speed by reducing bottlenecks.
July 14, 2003: Readjustments of several features
based on customer feedback
July 7, 2003: MAJOR REDESIGN OF SEVERAL FEATURES
July 7, 2003: MAJOR FEATURE ADDED: Add Requests
(Deluxe Feature)
July 7, 2003: MAJOR FEATURE ADDED: Fast cache access
renovated!
July 7, 2003: The Repertory has now over 120,000
groups and has been completely updated.
June 25, 2003: The Repertory, now with over 100,000
groups, has been completely updated.
May 24, 2003: We begin work on a major renovation
of the fast access system and quotas management
May 14, 2003: The repertory jumped from 60,000
groups to over 100,000!
March 17, 2003: The repertory jumped from 20,000
groups to over 60,000!
March 17, 2003: The repertory now lists entries
in an order giving precedence to groups with lots of recent
activity. The search engine has also been improved overall.
March 13, 2003: MAJOR FEATURE
ADDED: It is now possible to access international groups!
March 8, 2003: Our in-process optimizations of
the main system should result in faster response times.
February 23, 2003: The repertory has been completely
updated. More than 4,000 new groups have been added.
February 6, 2002: The Photos Access feature has
been improved to return a full size version of the sources.
February 6, 2002: The Discard Request button has
been fixed.
February 3, 2002: We started work on optimizations
of the main system which will result in even faster response
times.
January 21, 2002: The repertory has been completely
updated. More than 3,000 new groups have been added.
January 7, 2003: A minor glitch in the tour has
been fixed.
December 27, 2002: Date and subject fields have
been added under the files.
November 19, 2002: One of our crucial servers has
been memory upgraded to improve the overall speed of the
service.
November 7, 2002: The repertory has been completely
updated. More than 1,500 new groups have been added.
October 20, 2002: Photos Access has now been activated
in its beta version. Please report any weird behavior
to us. If you get nothing from an album that has files,
a second or third access should work. This is because
Yahoo temporarily disables groups for a few seconds for
god knows what.
October 16, 2002: Additional advanced features,
including Album Access, will be activated this weekend.
We welcome comments on the currently activated new features.
Is the interface clear? Is there an obvious functionality
missing?
October 12, 2002: New features activated under
Advanced Access button. You get the active range of messages
for the selected group. Our updated controller for access
is much more flexible and easier to use.
October 10, 2002: We'll be introducing part of
our new features this weekend in their beta version. They
will be available under the button Advanced Access. We'll
need your suggestions, comments, and your general help
for that debugging period.
October 2, 2002: NEW FEATURES
A FEW DAYS AWAY! Full group info and download
history, Photo and File sections download.
September 20, 2002: Well advanced on new Fall features!
Full group info and download history, Photo and File sections
download.
September 18, 2002: (5:30
PM EST) We've just made a miracle improvement to our system
in terms of speed. Now, accesses of 30 messages
take about the same time as a 5 messages!
September 17, 2002: Yahoo was a bit slow today
for certain groups. It seemed group-dependent.
September 13, 2002: Our group repertory has been
completely updated with new information. More than 3,000
new groups have been added.
September 7, 2002: Yahoo altered the behavior of
the login process, so we had to adapt our system. If all
your groups return messages 1-5 empty instead of the requested
range, we know how to fix it quickly. e-mail us at support@groupsaccess.com.
We are working on an automatic solution to this problem.
August 25, 2002: We finished implementing our way
to improve the general speed of the system. Now, when
Yahoo is on its best behavior, a 5 messages Access can
take as little as 6 seconds. Of course, if Yahoo is slower
or for a larger number of messages, this can increase
to 60 - 120 seconds, but most time-outs problems are eliminated.
August 19, 2002: We discovered a way to improve
general speed of the system in a major way.
August 4, 2002: We improved the system's tolerance
to passwords and messages 1-5.
August 1, 2002: Update your group list frequently,
especially if you start getting empty pages from groups,
or if we show only messages 1-5 instead of the highest
messages. There is a button just below your groups box
for that. This is caused by groups changing their names,
or disappearing. In rare cases, groups change the case
of some of the letters in their names, like Hotferrari
to HotFerrari. If you know of a group that displays empty
pages for messages that you know has attachment in them
on Yahoo, tell us the name of the group so that we can
update it.
July 31, 2002: Great News! We just updated our
network cards and the improvements are obvious: 1) You
should no longer be asked for your password right in the
middle of a session; 2) Major Speed Improvements!
July 30, 2002: It is now possible to delete those
pesky requests that just would not go away. Use the Delete
Request(s) button as usual but with better results.
July 27, 2002: Groups Access
is now 1 year old! Happy birthday!
July 21, 2002: We are currently setting up our
priorities for improvements to our system, and we'd like
you to send us your suggestions. Is there some little
annoying thing you'd like us to improve, or some major
feature you'd like us to add? This is the time to tell
us, as we are preparing for big changes for the fall.
July 15, 2002: Fortunately, the recent Yahoo changes
turned out to have no effect on our system. We fixed some
minor glitches here and there, and have a few more to
fix, but nothing major was discovered.
July 12, 2002: Yahoo made some changes to their
system recently, and we are working to update our system
accordingly.
February 16, 2002: You can now make multiple selections
in the requests list to see, delete or reset several requests
at once. Use shift-click, or whatever your browser requires.
February 14, 2002: Some members may have experienced
difficulties loging in today, as we were often down for
program new features, and Yahoo was also down some of
the time.
February 7, 2002: We are rebuilding the repertory
from scratch because of many changes in groups. If you
do not get any results from your searches, this is why.
It will be back in a few days.
February 2, 2002: We have now fixed the advertisement
messages again. Because some of you may have missed attachment
in your past accesses, we added a "Messages With Ads Only"
checkbox to get only those messages in the range you choose.
You can thus quickly reaccess your recent ranges to check
if you missed anything. They will be dealt with in a few
days, although new ones will be ok unless already accessed
by another member.
January 29, 2002: We have optimized the system
to download more requests at one time. In a few days,
the backlog of requests should have been fulfilled.
January 28, 2002: This afternoon and early evening,
the system was down due to a database corruption, which
was fully fixed.
January 21, 2002: When some pics show up as red
X's in ready requests, it means that the group reached
a quota limit as the request is being fulfilled. Sometimes
this happens if you go beyond the last messages in the
group.
January 18, 2002: Two more improvements: users
can now request more than 30 messages; also, no more lost
pics in messages with advertisements. Yahoo is still playing
around with those ads, so the last situation may recur.
If any of you suspect that we are skipping pics again
because of advertisements, please contact us.
January 17, 2002: We started work on a new set
of features which should prove immensely useful for all
of you. In a few weeks, you won't believe how much we've
expanded!
January 17, 2002: Although the system works properly
in almost all cases, some minor bugs proved more stubborn
than others, including those awful advertisements. Our
expert on such matters is coming back tonight and will
work to settle these once and for all.
January 14, 2002: Because a major feature was long
delayed, we are adding one week membership to all members
who joined before or on January 7. Please be aware that
this is not because we had to alter features to adapt
to Yahoo: we are not responsible for what Yahoo makes
or does not make available. But we're taking responsibility
for major features we promised at a certain date and did
not deliver at that time.
January 14, 2002: We are attacking pervasive bugs
today: one that does not download certain requests properly
(attachment show up as red X's) and the other that has
trouble with pages with advertisements on Yahoo (1 in
5, about). If you are experiencing these bugs, they'll
be fixed soon.
January 10, 2002: We have to ask our members to
please bear with us as we continue all day today the activation
of the most complex features we've offered to date.
January 9, 2002: Since we are activating new features,
you may find some strange behavior. Please wait at least
12 hours before reporting it, as we may well be working
on it, unless it is completely preventing you from using
our service.
January 9, 2002: We've activated a very fast login
and get groups. All logins after the next login will not
require you to enter your Yahoo info, and your groups
will appear very quickly. Try logging in twice to see!
January 6, 2002: The new features require huge
disk space to temporarily hold attachment. A hardware
problem at our host has delayed the expected new features
launch to Wednesday. You'll see that it will be well worth
the wait.
January 4, 2002: Last tests for new features. We're
trying to go public over the weekend.
January 3, 2002: We start updating members profiles.
December 16, 2001: We put emphasis on our development
of a new member profile which remembers groups and accesses.
December 13, 2001: Between December 1 and December
13, we got more new members and/or renewals than in any
prior period of the same length.
December 12, 2001: We are working hard on the infrastructure
for groups tracking and groups fastload. It will be a
major improvement.
December 10, 2001: Groups Access was down from
17:30 to 21:30 EST because of a problem at our service
provider. Although we are usually pretty reliable, even
1-2% downtime can seem like an eternity for members. We
are looking for ways to minimize those rare but still
annoying interruptions.
December 10, 2001: Our service provider warned
us of a possible 30 minutes downtime this week for maintenance.
December 9, 2001: We found that since Yahoo made
some changes last week, downloading the groups list is
slower, especially when you have thousands of groups.
We are currently implementing a fast groups list download,
which should be ready by Saturday. In the meantime, if
you know the exact group name you are accessing from,
you can use the link on the members password page for
a quick access.
December 7, 2001: New server added, with three
times the capacity of the previous one.
December 5-6, 2001: Occasionally bizarre behavior
appeared that day as Yahoo made changes to their interface
(to prepare to transfer Yahoo Clubs to Yahoo Groups).
December 1, 2001: Repertory of over 10,000 groups
added to Groups Access.
November 22, 2001: New server purchased in anticipation
of new features. Server to be activated December 7.
November 3, 2001: Repertory basic structure completed.
October 28, 2001: Tour which demonstrates our capabilities
is merged with simulation.
October 22, 2001: New look goes online, including
a much bigger support section.
October 14, 2001: Yahoo down from 1 AM to 9 AM
EST.
October 14, 2001: Stats indicate that only 12%
of members requests result in a quota exceeded message.
October 11, 2001: We move to a new server with
twice the speed and three times the memory of the previous
one.
September 30, 2001: Enormous load on our server
makes us disable the trial temporarily and decide to move
to a new one. We get past the 1,000 members mark.
September 15, 2001: We start working on a full
set of new features.
September 9, 2001: We get past the 500 members
mark.
September 8, 2001: We introduce features to start
at the latest messages and go backwards.
August 21, 2001: 1 million messages successfully
accessed by members since the beginning.
August 21, 2001: We activate a new dedicated server.
August 17, 2001: Several new features to help members
deal with smaller systems, like NEXT 20 and NEXT 5 buttons.
August 14, 2001: We purchase a new dedicated server.
August 12, 2001: Several problems with our host
prompt us to locate a new one.
August 11, 2001: We switch to our regular pricing.
August 10, 2001: We get encouragement from a moderator
with many large lists.
August 9, 2001: We get past the 100 members
mark.
August 8, 2001: Server was down 5 hours due to
our host.
August 7, 2001: 10 000 messages successfully
accessed by members since the beginning.
August 5, 2001: Server was down due to our host.
August 3, 2001: We introduce a feature which lists
all the groups of the member instead of asking them to
enter the names correctly. It saves a lot a problems.
August 2, 2001: Fixed a problem with users accessing
groups from different e-mail addresses.
July 28, 2001: 03:31:36 AM: First member accesses
his first page successfully.
July 27, 2001: First member registers.
July 27, 2001: We go online.
July 18, 2001: First web pages written.
April 12, 2001: Yahoo changes inline attachements
to an annoying download button. |
