PBase Updates

[halesr]

Yes, yes, Yes, Create a STATUS thread or blog. Make it a oneway street. Just tell us what is not working and when you think it will be fixed. This is surely not too much to ask.--Rene

[shawnkraus]

A one way Status thread is an excellent idea. I would love to see this idea implemented when pbase is working properly.
I think we all feel the pinch when it comes to the slowness of pbase once in awhile.
I also believe it will come to pass as it has in the past. I have been with pbase a couple of years and have seen down times as well.
Reflecting on the past it seems that Slug has always come through for the members of pbase and we should give him some much deserved credit.
I am not however taking the side of pbase, and feel there is much room for improvement.
Vent all you want if it makes you feel better, better yet get out and take some pictures to take your minds off pbase while things get smoothed out.
Step back and put things in perspective, pbase is a place to share images with others as well as a place to learn and a place to share the wonderful hobby we have all grown to love that has brought us all here and that is PHOTOGRAPHY.
My two cents,
--Shawn

[akmc_in_au]

yeah I wasn't exactly surprised either to see no explanation of 4.5 hours of downtime. Well the explanation is either a server or network crash. upload.base.com was actually active, but http://www.pbase.com was down completely.

But that's why I keep recommending Pbase to implement a status blog. It should be here in the forums anyway, only a few users read the forums - create a status blog and update it so we're kept informed, and have a link "Status" right in the top menu bar next to Galleries, Forum, Search etc.

I think it's a very good idea. The only problem is that the last couple of outages (the weekend's one and this morning's (my time)) took out the Forum server as well.

Still a good idea, though.

[dougj]

It is indeed a great idea. I don't want to be the one that spoils the party, but similar suggestions, with emails to Slug & company, have been done each time PBase hiccups. And the resulting sound of silence has been deafening. It's a good idea to post the suggestion, as it is truly needed. Maybe, just maybe, PBase will wake up one morning and realize it is one of the few companies that doesn't communicate with its customers, needs to do so and then makes it happen.

[flemmingbo]

Shouldn't be a forum thread, should be a separate blog with top menu links so it is very easy to see for all users. Pbase.com shouldn't host it (hehe!) should be hosted elsewhere so we can subscribe and get updates even during downtime. Or at least we could get an explanation when Pbase is up again.

Anyway - give me a fast and stable Pbase.com platform again, and I don't care if I never hear one official word out of Pbase Just give us a fast and stable host again and you never have to update any status blog except for a static "All systems are running fine" message

Best regards,

Flemming

[photopropaganda]

Lack if communication is indeed the problem for me too, not only about downtimes also about the so called future upgradings and changes
I do not care if there are sometimes minor problem with the database or that it can be sometimes very slow.
I do care that there is no explanation/no status what so ever.

pbase is a great community, the reason I joined...give us at least the feeling that pbase employees are part of it as well and do not behave like a third rank 'attic' webhosting provider with no contact to it's clients, communicate please!

[andrys]

A perfect example is blogger.com (or as it's known when you access one of its blogs, 'blogspot.com'), with its
http://status.blogger.com

Having PBase's on a site not dependent on its own servers makes sense.

Blogger is free to use. So PBase could have a support page there and just not allow comments there.
A one-way page we could read. Drop a sentence there when things are not going well.

[cits_4_pets]

Could pbase post an explanation as to what had cause it to be slow or down? There were a couple of nights I could not log on. Several folks on a Yahoo! group were asking what's with pbase & many were going to leave & join flickr or other image hosting site. Someone who was knowledgeable did a trace and found the problem was with Verison.

Why doesn't Pbase post that there was a problem was a routing problem that they have no control over, or they were working on their server...etc. Just post in on the pbase home page. I think as a paying member I am being ignored and not treated as a valued customer. It would be just good PR to have a log on "What is up with Pbase?"... It is getting a bad reputation...
Thank you. Flo

"Pbase is back up and functioning nicely at the moment. I did a trace route
while it was down and found the routing problem to be with a well know
carrier on the east coast of the United States.

The information about the company with the problem is shown below.

IP Address 207.19.96.18
Host ns1.sungardns.com
Location US, United States
City Philadelphia, PA 19108
Organization Sungard Network Solutions
ISP Verizon Business
AS Number AS7381 SunGard Availability Services UK
Latitude 40°06'30" North
Longitude 75°20'10" West
Distance 7708.57 km (4789.88 miles)""

[bigalfromcal]

I really love pbase - I really do. I have a flicker and picassa and all those and they simply don't compare. I think a lot of folks follow the crowd and that's why some sites grow so quickly. I like the flexibility of pbase and especially! the comments. For me, that's the main thing that keeps me here. That and the simplicity of navigation. For instance, I know of no way to view full size photos on flicker and go next or previous. It's built in to pbase and I like that functionality.

HOWEVER...

The speed has to be addressed somehow. If it were free, naturally I wouldn't complain. As it is, it's not terribly expensive. I would happily pay 50% more if I could get better performance. Pbase is a terrific place to host my shots, but trying to upload/update/edit large numbers of shots or do any real searching is just impossible. It really bugs me when I'm in a gallery, going from shot to shot and editing captions and names only to have a "return to gallery" screen come up with my changes lost.

I've never complained before, because really, except for one time when the whole shebang was down, there's little to complain about. Seriously, if you look at the competition, it becomes even harder to complain. I just opened an account at zenfolio, partly because I wanted to try it out and partly because I want to include their software in a site I'm building. The lack of 'community' there, however, will keep my main base of shots here. I'd just really like to see some performance increase.

I've no idea of what the company structure is like, how it's run, who hosts it and so on, so I'm not offering any suggestions. But like I said, I'd gladly pay more for better performance.

Thanks for listening (reading)!

[sbbish]

It really bugs me when I'm in a gallery, going from shot to shot and editing captions and names only to have a "return to gallery" screen come up with my changes lost

Just a tip, when you get that "Return To Gallery" problem, instead of clicking on that link, use your browser's Back button instead. It will take you back to the Edit Image/Gallery page you were on, without any loss of information. Then you can try Updating again (or whatever you were trying to do before you got the "Return To Gallery" message).

Usually this works right away. On rare occasions, I have received the "Return To Gallery" message 3 or 4 times in a row. But using the Back button each time, and then trying again, has eventually gotten it to go through. And I don't lose anything.

Scott