[alacode]

I was curious what the context of "grace period" is for Google Drive and found this:

https://support.google.com/drive/thread/13321050/what-will-h...

"If I cancel my additional storage, will all the files/documents that took up the additional space, be deleted? Or will I still have access to them?"

"You will still have access to all your files but, if you have used all storage you won't be able to add or create NEW files until you have space available."

Which sounds like you're right, unless the Product Expert was wrong.

[llbeansandrice]

The fact that this comment chain is about 7 deep trying to figure out whether the customer was given enough notice or not I think is also evidence that Google has a terrible UX for this anyway.

If your data is going to be deleted, it should be painfully obvious well in advance.

[godelski]

I don't think the depth of this comment chain has anything to do with the UX design. The words on that warning are unequivocally interpretable as "the data will not be deleted."

At the end of the day, it doesn't even matter if hidden in the terms of service or somewhere if it is made clear that the data will be deleted. It doesn't even matter if it is clear to @andrewmutz and @garblegarble that the data will be deleted[0]. What matters is if not thinking the data would be deleted is a reasonable interpretation. Full stop. It also matters that when explicit communication (unequivocally interpreted as slated for deletion) that the user was given 7 days, which was not even enough time, especially considering Google's egress rates.

There's a lot of this on HN lately and I'm not sure why. Communication is fuzzy people, I'm not sure why that's surprising. But when there's disagreement don't ask yourself which is right or wrong, but if a reasonable interpretation was made. Because communication is like an autoencoder: there's what's in your head (input), what you say (lossy compressed intermediate latent), and what is received (decompressed information with imputation). There's too many attempts to defend a believed objective reality which just is absurd (ironically making the view less objective).

And, importantly, RTFA

[0] Obviously these two are reading between the lines. It is not a bad interpretation and we often should practice this, especially to be on the safe side, but it's clear that there is inference, so what's wrong with the comments is their strong assertions that the communication was obvious. One may also make the argument that Techdirt isn't telling the full story or timeline, but that's also a different issue and inferential.

[shwouchk]

> What matters is if not thinking the data would be deleted is a reasonable interpretation. Full stop.

In what world would it be reasonable to expect Google to pay thousands of dollars per year indefinitely to store your data for free?

[godelski]

In the world where Google says they will.

This conversation cannot be had unless you will read the article and look at the screenshots.

> to store your data for free?

Where was it said that this was free? Per the article

> So I paid Google a lot of money for a long time for a plan that included unlimited storage

Please RTFA before responding. It really isn't that long. Maybe 1.5 TikTok videos for the attention impaired.

[compsciphd]

"google product experts" aren't generally google employees and aren't speaking for google.

i.e. that support site is mostly user to user help, which is perhaps an indictment on google in general, but sadly in this case can't be used for saying "where google says".

[godelski]

> sadly in this case can't be used for saying "where google says".

I think we're looking at very different things.... there's a screenshot of a literal official email from Google, under the Google Workspace Team. Not sure where you're getting "Google product experts". Did you mean to reply to a different comment?

[shwouchk]

I respectfully disagree. They were clearly given enough notice - from personal experience as I’ve commented already, as well as from sibling comments.

If you are still “figuring this out”, I daresay it is simply because you haven’t used the paid service and seen the frequent nagging emails about the transition.

[nar001]

They were given 7 days notice. How is this "enough notice" for 200+ TB?

[lolinder]

> unless the Product Expert was wrong.

Which is entirely likely, given that Google's "Product Experts" aren't employees with access to internal communication channels, they're just volunteers working for internet points.