Xingu Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 Why do I get the feeling that there is a "message" in the above reply? No message there, you are just looking to stir up trouble.
Modeltruckbuilder Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 No message there, you are just looking to stir up trouble.And you're just reading between the lines
Ace-Garageguy Posted November 7, 2017 Author Posted November 7, 2017 (edited) ... How angry will you be if this site starts charging for use?I would gladly pay to access this site...I have said this multiple times...and what I'd be willing to pay would probably be far more than the fractional-cent-per-ad-blocked that I'm "costing" Gregg.Anything worth having is worth paying for. And anything you get free is usually worth exactly what you paid.It's just that in the case of PB, these truths didn't manifest themselves until late in the game.In the end, the free accounts are worth absolutely nothing.Unfortunately, now the voluntarily-paid accounts (voluntarily paid on my part anyway...to offset the loss of revenue I knew I incurred by running an adblocker) are also worth nothing.And please...don't really expect me to believe there's anyone capable of using a computer and engaging in a hobby who couldn't have afforded the $2.99 / month lowest tier fee. Edited November 7, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy
Ace-Garageguy Posted November 7, 2017 Author Posted November 7, 2017 It is too bad they didn't scale charges by usage instead of making the big money grab I also agree with this 100%.
Jordan White Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 And please...don't really expect me to believe there's anyone capable of using a computer and engaging in a hobby who couldn't have afforded the $2.99 / month lowest tier fee.So even though they openly offered a free plan for people that was good enough for many, people are suddenly cheap because they didn't want to pay for a plan? Why would I have purchased a plan when the free account did everything I needed and nothing else?
Ace-Garageguy Posted November 7, 2017 Author Posted November 7, 2017 (edited) So even though they openly offered a free plan for people that was good enough for many, people are suddenly cheap because they didn't want to pay for a plan? Why would I have purchased a plan when the free account did everything I needed and nothing else?Because their poorly thought out business plan depended almost entirely on ad revenue.If you were using the "free" plan without running an ad-blocker, fine.I, however, chose to run an ad-blocker early on, to spare me from having to put up with retarded and intrusive hysterical marketing, and to speed up using the site considerably.When I began running an ad-blocker, I realized that PB would no longer be generating any income from me, but I would still be benefitting from them.This did not strike me as fair, equitable, or morally acceptable (and I'm well aware these concepts are alien to most people now).Therefore, I voluntarily signed up for a paid plan, to offset the loss of income from my ad-blocker, in the apparently delusional hope that being a PAYING customer would guarantee continued access to my content...which it did for a few months even after the hammer fell.If you still can't understand, I cant help you.NOTE: PB could easily have made a NO AD-BLOCKER condition for using the free version.They also could have easily charged according to usage.They could have easily made a special plan for people on fixed income, with a limited amount of usage.They could have easily set up a reasonably priced tiered structure before just pulling the plug on millions of images.They didn't. Edited November 7, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy
KWT Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 Hey! PB offered me a $10 discount... only $390 now.. SCORE!!Sorry... I was just trying to get a laugh...
Ace-Garageguy Posted November 7, 2017 Author Posted November 7, 2017 Hey! PB offered me a $10 discount... only $390 now.. SCORE!!What a DEAL !!! OMG !!! I'll take TWO !!!
niteowl7710 Posted November 8, 2017 Posted November 8, 2017 I kind of wonder (I never partook in PB since I was on Fotki and Flickr) if this hadn't been coming for awhile. I mean sites routinely change their ToS, but nobody actually READS those updates. So prove PB hadn't been warning that 3rd party hot linking was only permitted on the most expensive plan for months in advance and when people predictably did nothing (since they didn't read the ToS changes) they went "draconian" and suspended all of the offending accounts.Sure you can argue that PB was started as a sharing site, but that was forever ago when 16MP cell phone cameras weren't even dreamed of, let alone real digital cameras having that type of resolution. Bigger images mean more bandwidth hits every time that photo is fed off the PB servers and eventually that costs real money. Combine that with decreased ad revenue, to say nothing of the outright loss of revenue from ad-blocking and they put their foot down in a way that seems outlandish and all of that. But when the thread that was ongoing about finding PB alternatives look how many were suggested by people that had in their ToS that 3rd party hot linking wasn't permitted, but the people who were suggesting the sites didn't even know they were violating those even though they used the suggested site.
Ace-Garageguy Posted November 8, 2017 Author Posted November 8, 2017 (edited) I kind of wonder (I never partook in PB since I was on Fotki and Flickr) ... But when the thread that was ongoing about finding PB alternatives look how many were suggested by people that had in their ToS that 3rd party hot linking wasn't permitted, but the people who were suggesting the sites didn't even know they were violating those even though they used the suggested site.See...third party hotlinking WAS PERMITTED even to the free accounts until the crash.Storage of images was virtually unlimited, but usage of bandwidth over a certain monthly quota would get you temporarily suspended. Your images would disappear until the month "reset".Bandwidth usage was determined by how many people were actually looking at your images on whatever sites they appeared in. Nobody clicks on your thread, no bandwidth use.As I became more active on the web, I started getting occasional shutdowns for exceeding my permitted bandwidth usage.That was about the time I signed up for a paid account, and began running an ad-blocker.There was no shortage of communication from PB prior to the money grab if you were running over the limits your plan allowed.And because I particularly valued maintaining access to my images, I paid attention to emails from PB.But the big money grab came without warning for the most part.The Terms of Service were changed almost over night, and everything went dark. Edited November 8, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy
martinfan5 Posted November 8, 2017 Posted November 8, 2017 (edited) Honest question, does it really even matter at this point? this thread is literally crying over split milk, time to move on, use this time being wasted crying over it on something more useful. Edited November 8, 2017 by martinfan5
Ace-Garageguy Posted November 8, 2017 Author Posted November 8, 2017 (edited) Honest question, does it really even matter at this point? this thread is literally crying over split milk, time to move on, use time being wasted crying over it on something more useful. It matters to me. I had a grandfathered-in paid account. It's being shut down in 30 days. To hell with migrating to another sharing site, and to hell with reposting thousands of images all over the web that will shortly disappear. I've spent many hundreds of hours writing technical articles, answering questions, and posting complex projects in "how to" formats. All that time and effort was wasted.Damm right it matters.But I can see how it might not be that big a deal to somebody whose content was primarily "look at my pretty models". Edited November 8, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy
Xingu Posted November 8, 2017 Posted November 8, 2017 I will shut this down before folks starting really arguing.
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