And herein lies the PROBLEM...C'mon Folks!!!

[trrsranch]

Here is the problem many of us have spoken about...

3,114,940 photos as of July 2003
- 168,916 users
- 7,212 of them registered

Only 7,212 PAID Users! Out of 168,916 Total Users!

I am again having problems loading photos as I get nothing but, the white box that says 'CREATING THUMBNAILS'!

I sent in money about 3 days before this past weekend's major shutdown. I also sent even more in the day after Slug fixed the server problems. BUT, if Slug is NOT going to enforce things on PBase, then why in the world should any of us pay a dime? In other words it is just flat out NOT fair that a few of us pay so that the multitudes get to use PBase for FREE!!! I will continue to pay my fair share as long as Slug starts ENFORCING things...but, if he does NOT enforce things, then why in the world should those of us who have been paying, continue to pay? We might as well use PBase for free, ALSO!!!

Slug, ol' buddy....PBase is no longer a small service for you and your college friends to use to post a few photos. PBase has moved to the Big League, but, as many of us businessmen know, you canNOT stay in business very long without Revenues! Investors Hub http://www.investorshub.com is a good example of a startup web site owned and run by a young college age man, Matt, who started off offering the site for Free and now charges. It has grown and keeps growing because he has a good thing going. You do too, Slug, but, like any business PBase has to keep up with the times (which you have done a GREAT job of so far) and canNOT possibly survive without revenues. Unless you are a close relative to Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Larry Ellison, Warren Buffett, or the Ruling Family of Saudia Arabia, and have UNlimited funds, you have to ENFORCE Payment Rules on EVERYONE!!!

Slug, let me and a few of the other Paying Customers be the Heavy ... and ... you be the nice guy under pressure (LOL) and Enforce the Payment Rule ... you will find that the vast majority of users will Finally Pay Up and the few that don't were only using you and PBase and are NOT worth worrying about!

Thanks...

TRR

[mikelly]

I've been working on my Pbase site for several hours yesterday and today. Most of that time was spent working on my stylesheet, but I have uploaded successfully. Everything has been working as advertised.

Not a single problem.

Mike Kelly
Houston, Texas

http://www.pbase.com/mikelly

[trrsranch]

There has been about a 10-15 minute delay between loading and the photo actually showing. Now they are all loading immediately, which tells me that at times the servers are still getting overloaded.

[rsilfverberg]

trrsranch, how about changing the record? it's starting to get old - and boring real fast...think you've made your point.

[trrsranch]

Have you paid your fair share? Do you have an answer that works? If someone wants to use a free service, one can go to Yahoo or MSN and download a ton of photos all for free. Why should the rest of us support you who don't pay? There's always people who will try to bum a ride, a meal, a beer, a tank of gas, or whatever, just to keep from paying their way. I have no use for freeloaders. Tell me the logic of me going in and paying $100 for a meal and you getting to eat for free? Just how many dishes need to be washed to equal a $100 meal for 4 of us, and that is cheap to begin with?

If an issue is not made then PBase will go down the tubes unless Slug has an unlimited supply of money and maybe he does. If so then why should any of us pay????

As to me already making my point, it looks to me like approximately 159,000 users have NOT gotten the point! Point made! People inclined to freeload will always live off of others unless someone holds their feet to the fire. All I am doing is trying to make users aware. Only 20+ users here have even read this particular subject.

TRR

[srijith]

trrsranch, Slug was giving away the service for free for a long time, but have started to make it exclusively pay based recently. Right now, new uploads are disabled 30 days after the account creation if you haven't paid. Soon he will start to delete these account too.

Hopefully his plans will speed up and he will be in a position to send an email to all free loaders to pay up or pack up.

[trrsranch]

So this is good...the freeloaders can gripe at me instead of Slug, thus freeing him up for the more important task of keeping PBase the great site it is. I'll back off for now. LOL I've seen too many of the inet'ers go belly up and I want slug to succeed.

Thanks for letting me know. BTW, I like your Tag Line.

TRR

[rsilfverberg]

Yes I'm a paying member and I use the staggering memory space of 2MB after having been here for a few months.

Trr, you must not be very clued in to how marketing and sales work.
What this site is doing it perfectly understandable and makes full sense.

They WANT you to get free space, to build a home page. After 30 days you simply can't upload any more - the button is GONE until you pay.
At that time you feel you have invested so much time and effort that you decide to pay.

So - get it into your head that if you are non-paying member you can't upload after 30 days. (If you ARE a paying member you seem to be able to 'break' your upper limit a bit though - so go after them will ya.)

The people who NEVER paid is not doing a damn thing wrong. They used a free service for 30 days and then decided that they maybe didnt like it.

It is up to PBASE to decide if they want to keep those accounts up for a while (maybe to send out automatic reminders on a monthly basis for 3-4 months to rope in some additional subscriptions, etc).

But understand that these people are not 'free-loaders' or did ANYTHING wrong. It's PBASE that keeps their accounts on-line. If you have a problem with that then I suggest you email Slug about that. Your repeated comments here - and statistics for how many paying vs non-paying members have no point and adds absolutely no value.

[trrsranch]

Sorry rsilversberg, but once again you are wrong. Using your logic or lack thereof, PBase has garnered about 159,000 NEW users in the past couple of months. Sorry, rsilversberg, but, I've been a PBase user for a long time and probably 70% of the 159,000 non payers have been here almost as long. Today we are ALL having problems uploading photos and all we get is the Red 'X'. It is obvious to me that you know NOTHING about running a business. What is happening is the FREELOADERS are making things bad for those of us willing to pay. And if all these glitches keep happening because of Server OVERLoad, Slug will lose many of the paying users. That is only simple common sense. You might want to take some courses in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Management, etc. Because so far all I see you doing is supporting the Freeloaders which kind of tells me you are not too happy about paying. If you would learn how to manage things like money, then paying wouldn't be a problem for you.

TRR

[rsilfverberg]

Trr, you are so clueless it's almost scary.
Anyway, no reason to continue discussing with you as I'd have more chance getting through to a brick.

(Oh and by the way Baby-Mike - I know all there is about running a business and I'd compare CV's with you - but no reason to make you feel bad).

And...carry on..keep making the same old - and incorrect - statements. One day you'll see the light (or maybe your mom will show you - as based on your arguments and sense of logic there is no way you could be more than 16 years old ) - I won't waste any more time on you.

Here's a suggestion...actually *read* the inane rambing you're posting before hitting save....

Bye

[srijith]

They WANT you to get free space, to build a home page. After 30 days you simply can't upload any more - the button is GONE until you pay.
At that time you feel you have invested so much time and effort that you decide to pay.

I totally agree to this strategy. It makes real sense. I personally would not have paid for Pbase, had it not allowed me to test the quality of the service for free. If slug and team had insisted that I pay right at the beginning, even with a money back guarantee, I would not have taken it up.

[trrsranch]

Brilliant post, rsilfverberg. LOL. Yes, we should end it here. I have a very difficult time stooping to your level of name calling and childish posts. It is painfully obvious that you know nothing about running a business. So let's just agree to disagree before this goes any lower.

TRR

[trrsranch]

I have no problem with any of us getting a FREE 30 day trial period or some other time frame that Slug deems fair.The problem lies in the fact that less than 8,000 of us have paid (some several times) while 159,000 have Contributed NOTHING!!! AND, they are slowing down Slug's Servers. Slug never insisted that any of us pay the first year or so but, after he went through several upgrades it was apparent that it would definitely help out if we all paid a fair share. Slug's rates are very fair. There are several Free album sites (that are NO good, I might add) as well as Yahoo and MSN to store photos for those who do not want to pay. I don't have enough time in the day to keep having problems when I plan on uploading photos. rsilvers just doesn't understand or get it. Sunday morning was another Prime Example...several of us were uploading photos, only to get the little 'RED X' in the box. A site like this should run smoothly and not be broken when we go to use it. Especially if we've paid for this service. I doubt that anyone would be too happy if they had to keep taking their vehicle back to the mechanic because it would only get a few miles from the garage and break down again and again. An engine that is designed to Redline @ 6,000 RPM's ain't going to work very well if the driver keeps trying to attain 7,000 RPM's. It will actually run smoother at around 5,200-5,600 RPM's or less. Ditto for an internet site that is overloaded. rsilvers can't grasp this. Actually it is quite simple and doesn't take a whole lot of common sense.

The 30 day free time is great. If someone can't make a decision in that time frame then storing photos on the internet is not the place for them to be. A regular album would be better for them. Slug has done a lot for all of us and I just can't understand why so many are not willing to pay a fair share. OK, enough on this subject.

TRR

[mickspics]

So you don't have any problem with the 30 day free trial period? You just have a problem with the people who dare to take advantage of it?

Like someone else has said, I wouldn't have signed up and paid money if I couldn't try it out first, how many people would. Offering limited trial memberships is a pretty obvious and well used strategy for enticing people to pay for your services.

It seems to me that your major gripe is with server outages and slowdown, and if you're paying for the service then that's fair enough, you should be able to demand value for your money. But it isn't up to you to decide the course of action that Slug or anyone will take to fulfil your demands.

[mrvco]

So what happens after the 30 day trial?

Don't those who do not pay get deactivated?