A few days ago I wrote about Skydrive and was critical of the fact that existing links no longer worked post-upgrade.
I registered this bug at connect.microsoft.com where I said:
The new interface looks great but I'm pretty angry that old links no longer work. If you want it proved to you then hit the links on this page:
http://blogs.conchango.com/jamiethomson/archive/2007/06/19/SSIS_3A00_--Consuming-web-services-in-SSIS-2008.aspx
I accept that this is a beta service but surely you have to maintain links.
Is it going to change again?
I received this reply:
Unfortunately, this is by design because of our name change.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Now, I can just about accept that given Skydrive is still a beta service (that word "beta" seems to be a handy "Get out of jail free" card) but I don't accept the poor communication that surrounds it. Why were we not warned at the outset that links we create might not work in the future? Why were we not told about the problem here after the upgrade? Why has the question that I posed been ignored?
I have been generous with my praise of Windows Live initiatives over the past few months but when the teams need calling to task over their actions then I will criticise as well. Here is such a case.
I hope this improves in the future but given the apathetic approach that the Windows Live teams take towards their customers (more of that in another post) I fear it won't.
-Jamie