Webmail Address Books AWOL

So while the spammers have the addresses from PlusNet users webmail address books, it appears users do not. Will these be migrated to the new platform? Will there be any way for users to retrieve their address books? Or are they lost for good now?

Surely not even PlusNet could be incompetent enough to lose people's address books. I know there have been some disasters in the past... but that would take the biscuit.

I'd assume they're still sitting around on the old webmail platform, or in a backup somewhere so they're not technically lost.

I'm just concerned as to whether transferring them to whatever format they're needed in for the new platform or simply making them available to customers, has been thought of at all or is a priority. I dunno, it just seems like the sort of detail I'd take into account during planning and implementation, not leave as an afterthought.

Edit: I've just seen an interesting post on the official forums too, whereby someone wants access to the address book purely to delete contacts. I guess they don't trust PlusNet with them any more. Which brings an interesting point, some people want these contacts, other's don't. But either way PlusNet has - for now - removed that choice.

Edited by h0tblack (Mon 21-May-07 11:51:09)

The question has been asked internally to find out the plan of migrating these to the new webmail platform. We'll let you know when we have more info.

Thanks Chris.
I can see from another post on the official forums that the subject has been brought up. But can you try to get as many of the questions answered as possible, not just one of them

Will people be able to have their address books moved to the new platform?
Will they be able to retrieve a copy of their address books (if so what format will it be)?
Will people be able to ensure addresses have been removed by PlusNet from all internal systems and backups.
Why this seemingly wasn't thought of before moving to the new platform?
I suppose it may be a good time to put in a suggestion to have full import/export features available for address books.

I believe there are already freely available scripts for some forms of migration between @mail and SquirrelMail so it shouldn't be difficult The formats are pretty straightforward so even if a suitable one can't be found it shouldn't be too difficult to knock one up.

One more from me.

If you migrate data over from the old platform, now would be the time to delete any old email accounts not used or accessed for over 90 days. To delete all entries in the email address database (sent and received addresses).
To destroy the old database in line with best practices in its entirety once the migration is successful.

I've asked for clarification on all of the above questions for you. I'll reply when I have the answers.

Thanks Chris, much appreciated.

Will people be able to have their address books moved to the new platform?
Yes this will be possible, we aim to have more information over the next day or so

Will they be able to retrieve a copy of their address books (if so what format will it be)?
This may be in the format of squirrel mail contacts, again more info as we have it.

Will people be able to ensure addresses have been removed by PlusNet from all internal systems and backups.
We have a data retention and disposal policy that ensures data is destroyed before disposing of media and that we do not hold data for longer than is necessary.

Why this seemingly wasn't thought of before moving to the new platform?
It was thought of, however the priority was to get a webmail solution back up for customers.

I suppose it may be a good time to put in a suggestion to have full import/export features available for address books.
This may be looked at in the future but there are other things required first.

In reply to:

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We have a data retention and disposal policy that ensures data is destroyed before disposing of media and that we do not hold data for longer than is necessary.

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As I and I