I don't forward my MUSS to gmail. Gmail checks muss for me as though it was Outlook. It's a simple setting under the Accounts part of the settings. I have a feelng that hotmail doesn't have that option.

When I send an email I select my MUSS account from the drop down just like you would in outlook and it sends the email through the muss servers and the recipient sees it as an @mcmaster address

Yeah, I was going to point that out. There's a difference between forwarding your emails and using a separate email client. Hotmail doesn't have that option, Outlook is the only client that is offered by Microsoft, but Gmail and Thunderbird are other options.

That's still not an excuse for using an outdated system when the upgrade process is so cheap and convenient.

Quick question for the 4 people so far who cited "I would like an alternative". Can you please mention what kind of "alternative" you have in mind if any? I would be more then happy to explore that option for you

Forwarding is a decent option but yeah I find it is more of a band-aid solution. This system is outdated, ancient and really limits us. Communication is kind of a silly concept but imagine how things could change within this school if we had a system that addressed our needs and allowed us to communicate with each other. Within the msu/sra people chalk a lot of problems up to student apathy but I think its just that the university/msu doesn't communicate with us in the ways we respond to.

Anyways for those that are satisfied with our current e-mail what kind of projects would you like to see?

-MD-L

Originally Posted by Ender

When sending a message in hotmail just click on the button "From" and a drop down menu will pop up. You can select [email protected] as the email.


imo MUSS system is perfect. It gets the job done. If you want something more fancy and sophisticated link your account to gmail/hotmail or something that you prefer.

I really thought people would be smarter. I suck at computers yet even I know this!

MUSS HAS AN OPERATING COST.

GOOGLE DOES NOT.

We are paying for a shittier service.

Honestly, with the University projecting operating deficits, and with a screwed up systems MUGSI/SOLAR and ELM, the MUSS email system is horrible. The system is antiquated, and and uses a large amount of server space, that could be reallocated to support the MUGSI/SOLAR and ELM servers.

Also, since MUSS is written and supported by UTS, the support costs students a lot -- time that could be used for MUGSI/SOLAR, & ELM.

Guys, please look outside the box instead of making comments about forwarding email. It makes no sense to me for the University to spend thousands of dollars for an email system that we don't use. At the very least, an alternative, web-based service at no operating cost will save money on a day-to-day basis.

Your use of large font has convinced me.

i'm a freelance graphic designer. i know what motivates people.

You'd think the people who already forward their email would be the most in favour of this. They pay money for McMaster to run a system they don't even use. :p

Well that's just it, we're essentially giving the university money to pay for a system that is broken so that we can forward it to a free e-mail service.....wtf?

Wouldn't it be nice to have a system for every student that is easy to access, and has options on it such as document sharing, chat, a calender increased storage?

Something like Google could provide us with a system that every student has access to right away and would ensure that our money is spent on things that benefit us.

- MD-L

I don't have a problem with it at all. If they are going to change anything it should be Solar, that thing creates stress for every student Im sure.

Do you really think that we'd get money back if we went to a third party system? Not trying to be mean here, just realistic. When's the last time you saw fees go down.

Oh, I have no illusions about us getting any money back. However, that's no excuse to throwing it down the hole that is MUSS. At the very least it will help push our operating budget out of deficit. Freeing up those servers for more useful pursuits (MUGSI/SOLAR) would also be nice.

Plus it might mean that I won't have to explain what Google Docs is to people every time I suggest we use it to plan something. That would be a win in my books.

I agree with you about solar...I have hated it since the day I got here. From what I have understood, that requires a long term solution and is quite expensive. Also Danny I dont expect my student fees to go down, but I do expect the money that I have to spend to be used more efficiently and on a functioning system rather than a broken one.

Originally Posted by jo87

I don't have a problem with it at all. If they are going to change anything it should be Solar, that thing creates stress for every student Im sure.

Hey Jo,

As I have explained on numerous threads(Including earlier on in this thread) they cannot "change" SOLAR and Mugsi according to the direct conversations I have had with the Chief Information Officer and the head of the registrars office separately.

Since it is a sensitive system that directly deals with student records and other interdepartmental issues the ONLY way the university can do anything about it is by investing $20-25 million dollars into the overall IT infrastructure of McMaster. Which is definitely not happening in the next few years given our predicted $40 Million dollar university budget deficit.

MUSS & MUGSI both come under that IT system overhaul, however the distinction is that MUSS is replaceable by an innovative solution that has proven to be very successful all over more prestigious USA universities & Two universities in Canada.

I am currently investigating solutions like Cloud Computing for MUGSI/SOLAR and in the official Letter the CIO wrote for the MSU he said is open to the idea of investigating it but in reality that is another fight for another day.

And Danny no the student fees won't go down but that is just a pessimistic way of looking at things, the other way to look at it is that it will free up money for UTS that has been a victim of budget cuts like all university departments on campus. They can re appropriate it to other areas and possibly even use the server bandwidth to aid student records, accounting, financial office or even Mugsi.

Quite often in the past SRA has been heavily criticized for doing nothing that is directly relevant to students and that criticism probably was warranted, but myself and Mr Leitch here are new SRA reps trying to change that by directly attacking something that we can push for in the short term. There are issues the SRA cannot touch, we cannot get the $20 Million for MUGSI Solar but this is instead a solution that sounds feasible. I sincerely hope everyone reading can think of the potential it has rather then the current bandaid solution you guys prefer(Forwarding) while your tuition is still being used for MUSS; while at the same time not forgetting the majority of students who don't have email forwarding or any collaborative tools or access to a centralized calendar.