24-Sep Downtime

[digitalbcon]

We rarely hear from the admins in this forum, so it's good to see that there is still some life behind the scenes
The only thing your paying members need more is good and reliable communication. For example through the NEWS section of this forum, which is hardly used.
All things can go wrong, but the lack of communication is the worst. Hopefully we can look forward with some optimism for the future. Keep up the good work and thank you for this news !

I agree with this comment 100%. I have found the lack of communication most discouraging! Anyone who has had anything to do on the World Wide Web has suffered some kind of breakdown of some sort at some time but just a word somehow, some way needs to be communicated and I'm sure that people will be totally understanding! I'm so glad to hear that the problem is being sorted out! I was dismayed at the thought that I might have to look elsewhere! I love this site!

[clickaway]

A good number of my PBase friends decided to start uploading to zenfolio and more recently Smugmug a couple of weeks before PBase went down. They are currently uploading in parallel until their PBase subscription runs out as they just cannot cope with this site's poor performance and the distinct lack of communication that users usually have to contend with.

This is a real shame as in my view (and one that is also shared by some disgruntled 'refugees') PBase has the makings of a very good site.

Sites they have looked at seem to have much better customer service and a faster performance as well as features such as slide shows and purchasing facilties. They have them because they have made a business decision to develop their product and PBase seems to make scant investment in this direction. I can only assume that this poor investment is the reason why the servers seem to be so much slower than any site I know.

It was good to see some quite detailed communication from the team during the recent shutdown. This at a time when I assume you must be working flat out to restore everything, so why on earth does PBase seem incapable of responding at other times either when there is a temporary fault or for just general customer service?

For me, and no doubt others, the PBase format is attractive, but its poor performance is making people turn elsewhere.

Slug, please take heed of my comments - you designed a great product here, but you have let it go downhill. I'm not sure why this is, but remember customer service goes a long way to keeping folks happy and can cost relatively little. I very much hope you have the additional resources to take the site to a level where it should be.

I want to believe in PBase and look forward to a new dawn from your team...

Ray

[ralph]

"Our developers have been working hard over the past year on some exciting software updates, which we hope to put online soon."

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but haven't we been promised "exciting updates" for a lot longer than one year? There have been a few but they've been limited to offering only the gallery owner a few extra bells and whistles. Visitors to our galleries don't benefit from these minor changes.

I log into pbase on a daily basis. Each day I hope to see something really exciting and different which would make me say "Wow!" Yet day after day, month after month and year after year pbase seems to be essentially be the same place with the same offerings that I joined several years ago. To me at least you compress image data almost to the limit. It would be nice to see a lot less compression. Good images on Zenfolio seem to pop with a vibrancy and clarity I never see on pbase. A variety of pre-made style sheets that we could select from would be nice. Even the ability for those of us less computer savvy to at least easily customize existing style sheets would be welcomed. A little 'elegance' in presentation would be nice, too. It's just too difficult for many of us to figure out how to make our galleries look better than plain vanilla.

I still wish pbase good luck and plan on remaining a member for at least a little longer....but not much longer unless pbase finds a way to be king of the hill in image hosting or demonstrates regularly that being king is their goal.

[rtwo]

Emily ... thank you for posting more detailed information. And I'm glad the big crisis will lead to better equipment and speed.

I agree with earlier comments that the general lack of communication from you all is frustrating and coould be improved greatly on a regular basis.

I know many people are planning on leaving pbase or have already done so. Much of this is due to the lack of good communication in the past.

My wants in terms of service: FAST connection on comments and uploading.
STABILITY AND SECURITY IN THE DATA BASE.
REGULAR commuication and updates.

Thanks again, and I hope all is well with your little family.

[phsan]

I'm also not thrilled with the communication policy of PBase - I understand that individual responses to questions probably weren't possible, but an regular update on the recovery process would have been greatly appreciated.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one worried about the apparent increase in disc usage for my account, but I'm still greatly worried about one of my galleries that still seems to be in the recovery process - and this is taking an incredibly long time IMO. I still miss a lot of pictures and several subgalleries at my Venice gallery at http://www.pbase.com/phsan/venezia. The missing pictures and galleries seem to have vanished completely, including descriptions - no placeholders indicate that the galleries and pictures are in the process of recovery. Strange thing that once in a while a few of the vanished pictures show for a brief moment in (sub-)gallery thumbnails, but if I open those galleries, the pictures belonging to these thumbnails still can't be found.

I'm hoping that the missing galleries and pictures will surface in the end - three of the missing sub-galleries have re-appeared two days ago - but this uncertainty is really, really annoying. If at least someone could assure me that within -say - the next seven days rebuilding will be complete, I'd have a better sleep. So is there anybody from the PBase team out there who dares to set a date for recovery to be finished? Would be greatly appreciated!

[ronsc]

Here is the main problem: PBase is NOT run in a professional manner. It never has been and I don't think it ever will be. This most recent episode - being down completely for four days and then operating sporadically for several days after that - is inexcusable. I am merely stating what seems obvious and not trying run down Slug, Emily or anyone else. If they can get people to continue paying for this “service”, then more power to them. No one is forced to buy this product and there are many alternatives out there. But although PBase is more than a hobby for the owners, it is run very poorly as a business.

I have been dissatisfied for some time and this recent crash provided me with the initiative to finally go out and get an account with SmugMug. It is a lot of work uploading hundreds of photos and designing a new web site, but in the long run it will be worth it. I have a few months left here and when my time is up I will decide whether to renew for another year, mainly to provide for a smoother transition between PBase and SmugMug. The $23/year is a paltry sum, so it really won't be a factor in my decision. But you get what you pay for. If you're happy here with crappy customer service, then by all means hang around. But if you are dissatisfied, check out your options. There are plenty available.

Anyway, instead of you PBase fans flaming me, why not check out http://www.ronwrightphotography.com

[waltercarels]

Can anybody tell me when pbase will run again in full mode?
Being down for 4 days cost me already some money (working as photographer during European Championship Kitebuggy and Land Sailing), but now more than 10 days after the crash I can not edit my pictures (delete them), no statistics, ...

Please urgent an answer !

Walter Carels
(from Belgium)

[paninic]

Thanks for all your work, your communication and the free month.
I appreciate Pbase and I'll stay with you for a long time
Bests whishes
Pat

[perofsweden]

When are the Statistics coming back , I paid an ad on Facebook linking in here for 5 days but can not follow up on hits and visits ?
Per!

[rollosphotos]

I agree with others that some communication needs to come in the form of e-mail! I know there are many PBase members who do not participate or even browse the forums and are completely in the dark to any progress being made.

[aspectslink]

Hi, Emily,

I still can't see any new statistics data, it is all '0'
Is that means that no one can view my galleries,
or the viewers are not registered in as viewers?
thanks for your answer, I know you are busy..

Adam./ aspectslink

[smeredith]

While the no charge for September is appreciated, it really only works out to about $1.92 per 500 Megabytes of storage space. In other words, it really means nothing to me. I'd much rather see a serious commitment to maintain and improve PBase including:

1) Making the service more reliable. (And I'm not just talking about the recent downtime.)
2) Improving communication. (This should include regular reports about what it being worked on behind the scenes and some form of active representation in the forums. As it is, it appears that management simply doesn't give a damn.)
3) Regular improvements to features. (There are features that are lacking here. The competition has seriously surpassed PBase in some respects.)

Why not offer different tiers of service? Some people (myself included) would be willing to pay more for added features such as the ability to sell prints.

I'm hopeful that the hardware changes resulting from the latest problems will take care of item 1. Now what I need to see is some evidence of items 2 and 3. There is a lot to like about PBase (including things I'd miss with other providers) and I'd hate to go through the hassle of moving everything to a different site but I'm seriously considering it.

Regards,
Steve

[waltercarels]

I agree that one month free of charge is "nothing". I'm willing to pay even more money for a professional service, accurate information by email than rather receive a small amount to keep us silent.

I'm using pbase already many years, I've two accounts, I'm still believing in pbase, but ... show us some professional threatment for user like me that are using pbase form many years. I've more than 1.300.000 clicks, and believe me for a small country like Belgium is very much.

Please, let us stop leaving pbase, this will not help the pbase owners. But on the other hand, I want to see a significant approvement in communication, in service.

Walter

[bracciodiferro]

My profile page out of control :
"Your photos are using 3 Megabytes of storage space.
On average, your photos use 1 KB each."
OMG!!!
When everything will work???
Much time is passing...
I'm shocked !
But what is happening behind the scenes?

[patriciakay]

So i am not alone....regarding my usage....before the crash it was 496mb and on when back on line 531 mb.....I have written to accounts and had a reply which was to compress my files!!!!

I have written back as its not possible when nothing could be downloaded for the days off line...I really want an explanation for this.....

Apart from that its great to be back and joining in the social network again...

Best wishes Patricia........