Photo-suck-it, part 5
Sep. 23rd, 2023 07:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsIn light of the possible end of free-dom on a certain long-running social media website, it wouldn't be the first time, even this year, that a long-time free website decided to stop being free... It's time for another chapter of Photo-suck-it :-\
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
As recently as 2017, one could get a Photobucket account to store 500MB worth of images, at no charge, no questions asked :-) But that June, things started taking a turn for the worse for non-paying users, which I've been chronicling at the above links...
Well, this past April 6th saw the latest chapter in the encr@ppification of Photobucket (toned down from Cory Doctorow stronger-languaged original), as after 18 years or so, non-paying users are now no longer welcome :-\ I (as well as others) got myself an email announcing that my account has been deactivated (though not deleted per se, as the photos are still there; and as mentioned before, I do also have backups for my whole bucket) because they now no longer support free accounts (!)
Their support site specifically said in February:
"Photobucket is in the process of ending its Free account service. You may continue to use your free account if you start a Free Trial for your account or upgrade your account to one of our subscription plans. If you start a Free Trial and do not purchase a subscription after your trial ends, your account will be deactivated."
And also on that same page:
"Will my photos and videos be lost or deleted?
No, your photos and videos will not be deleted unless they violate our Terms of Use."
Incidentally, Photobucket has done some renovation this year, starting up a new blog, and changing its logo from its long-time stylized camera icon to the new swirly circle thing in February just before their latest attempt to monetize their userbase further... Last September, Photobucket put up their version of the clown make-up meme trying to mock people for not using PB for unlimited photo storage:
Well, here's my version about their encr@ppification, even though it's now been outdated by the latest development:
Under a Facebook post that bragged about safeguarding 17 billion photos, someone commented that "You raised prices, lowered storage, broke our agreement so now I can’t see my pix." Their response: "Years ago we switched from a free, ad-supported service to a paid subscription platform because customers didn’t like all the popup ads. Today, we don’t believe it’s fair to our paying customers to offer accounts from the past with the same services for free."
On the one hand, yes, PB are a business, but on the other hand, it feels like they're just not trying hard enough to find a balance between using ads and charging users (or worse, their business depends on them not bothering to try :-\) Mike Masnick of Techdirt wrote about rules to avoid encr@ppification... Well, it turns out that Masnick was somewhat prescient about this, as about 10 days later, Twitter would add its rate limits and disable visitors from reading tweets altogether; they've rolled it back a bit, but even now you can only read individual tweets and not the replies that were made in response nor tweets on a profile (and now this whole "fee for all users" news), but I digress :-\ Two of those rules are: "Find ways to make money that don’t undermine the community or the experience" and, more pertinently, "Never charge for what was once free", which I leave you with how he expanded upon it:
"If you’re charging for something that was once free, you’re taking away value from your community. You’re changing the nature of the bargain, and ripping away the trust that your community put in you. Instead, always look for something new that is worth paying for above and beyond what you already offered. Make it so that it’s worthwhile for people to pay, rather than acting like they need to pay you for the things they got for free until now. Give them a reason to pay gladly, don’t try to pressure them into coughing up money grudgingly."
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
As recently as 2017, one could get a Photobucket account to store 500MB worth of images, at no charge, no questions asked :-) But that June, things started taking a turn for the worse for non-paying users, which I've been chronicling at the above links...
Well, this past April 6th saw the latest chapter in the encr@ppification of Photobucket (toned down from Cory Doctorow stronger-languaged original), as after 18 years or so, non-paying users are now no longer welcome :-\ I (as well as others) got myself an email announcing that my account has been deactivated (though not deleted per se, as the photos are still there; and as mentioned before, I do also have backups for my whole bucket) because they now no longer support free accounts (!)
Their support site specifically said in February:
"Photobucket is in the process of ending its Free account service. You may continue to use your free account if you start a Free Trial for your account or upgrade your account to one of our subscription plans. If you start a Free Trial and do not purchase a subscription after your trial ends, your account will be deactivated."
And also on that same page:
"Will my photos and videos be lost or deleted?
No, your photos and videos will not be deleted unless they violate our Terms of Use."
Incidentally, Photobucket has done some renovation this year, starting up a new blog, and changing its logo from its long-time stylized camera icon to the new swirly circle thing in February just before their latest attempt to monetize their userbase further... Last September, Photobucket put up their version of the clown make-up meme trying to mock people for not using PB for unlimited photo storage:
Well, here's my version about their encr@ppification, even though it's now been outdated by the latest development:
Under a Facebook post that bragged about safeguarding 17 billion photos, someone commented that "You raised prices, lowered storage, broke our agreement so now I can’t see my pix." Their response: "Years ago we switched from a free, ad-supported service to a paid subscription platform because customers didn’t like all the popup ads. Today, we don’t believe it’s fair to our paying customers to offer accounts from the past with the same services for free."
On the one hand, yes, PB are a business, but on the other hand, it feels like they're just not trying hard enough to find a balance between using ads and charging users (or worse, their business depends on them not bothering to try :-\) Mike Masnick of Techdirt wrote about rules to avoid encr@ppification... Well, it turns out that Masnick was somewhat prescient about this, as about 10 days later, Twitter would add its rate limits and disable visitors from reading tweets altogether; they've rolled it back a bit, but even now you can only read individual tweets and not the replies that were made in response nor tweets on a profile (and now this whole "fee for all users" news), but I digress :-\ Two of those rules are: "Find ways to make money that don’t undermine the community or the experience" and, more pertinently, "Never charge for what was once free", which I leave you with how he expanded upon it:
"If you’re charging for something that was once free, you’re taking away value from your community. You’re changing the nature of the bargain, and ripping away the trust that your community put in you. Instead, always look for something new that is worth paying for above and beyond what you already offered. Make it so that it’s worthwhile for people to pay, rather than acting like they need to pay you for the things they got for free until now. Give them a reason to pay gladly, don’t try to pressure them into coughing up money grudgingly."
