Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Oxford's New Email System

Today, Oxford changed the e-mail system that it gives to all its students and staff, and which is more or less the sole means of communication used between many members of the university. What used to be a fairly efficient, if unspectacular system is now incredibly infuriating.

Firstly, everything runs incredibly slowly. Where the front page used to load up fairly quickly, it now takes forever. The same process is repeated if, God forbid, you actually need to look up any other pages (such as, say, your inbox, or any individual email).

Secondly, you have to go through about three pages before reaching your Inbox, where previously you only had one. This is because email is now part of a "single sign-on" service, where you can simultaneously access a number of services no-one ever uses at the same time as checking your email. So you have to give the system lots of useless information to allow it to process you through.

Slow, cumbersome, having to go through unnecessary procedures? Sounds like the perfect Oxford system. OUCS will be proud.