akmc_in_au wrote:In a couple of different threads I've mentioned how PBase's upload stats (the number of images uploaded each year, which can be assumed to run in parallel with its membership) have been tracking over the last few years.
In one word... "badly".
So how did 2017 do? Well, as I describe in my latest
screenshots... there is bad news and there is good news.
The bad news is that uploads still fell by 1/5th and that the decline in the Alexa ranking of the site over the past 12 months agrees with that.
The good news is that this is a much-reduced rate of decline compared to last year (which was 28.4%). Indeed, it's a rate which seemed to stabilize and even reverse in the second half of the year, so this ol' site may still have some life left in it.
If you're interested in seeing the actual analysis and screenshot you'll find it in my Salon des Refusés gallery
here.
I think that a major factor is how the subscriptions are running, measured on the cost of the backend storage and bandwidth. Pbase does not run with ad's thus Alexa ranking is irrelevant. Maybe even less traffic means less expenses.
But: When we look at most popular camera stats, I see there a dramatic decline in numbers, what would sadly suggest that many people pull their images and go away, thus the subscriptions might also be down. Social networking is only one aspect. Worse is Pbase's apathy and lack of support for mobile devices. Just look at any gallery on a cellphone, how badly the image pages look. Foremost the CSS styles for the standard components like next/prev must be repaired. If not to add the "swipe" function, at the least advance to the next/previous image when tapping on an image on the right or left side. Automatically turn landscape images to horizontal. These would be the few obvious functions, a must to enjoy the galleries on mobile devices.
For me, a veteran here, its sad to watch the decline and "decomposition." I have close to a thousand comments, and I do not want to lose these by moving my images someplace else. But I am afraid, this is exactly what will happen. I am looking into getting a tool to download my galleries, incl the comments. Why? Because I am losing faith.