I have been a Webshots member since November 27, 2000
I have over 6,300 photos hosted with them
And during all this time I have amassed over half a million total views
Now I understand that this was a free service but I always thought that if they went to a pay system then I would have the option of coughing up the funds to continue to host them on Webshots. My first inkling of a HUGE problem was an email I received from DOUG . It took me a while to navigate the Webshots site, but essentially they have been sold.
Their business model will not include direct linking of photos, so basically when Webshots shuts down their server effective December 1st, 2012 all the links to all of my photos will disappear and all my blog entries will be reduced to just words.
There is no way I could reconstruct all the links to all my posts even if I were to upload my 6,300 photos to another hosting site. This situation is devastating for me as I have put a lot of effort and sweat into this blog and soon it will all be gone. The thought of all my work disappearing is making me sick
I started this blog on February 4th, 2008 and I have only received ONE comment on my first post. I actually tried to start a year earlier but I couldn't figure it out.
So if you are inclined now is the time for you to read my past posts and see how my style has changed over the years. (After December 1st there will be no photos as they will all be deleted)
Please be patient while I explore my photo hosting options
EDIT: -----------------------------------------------
You may wish to read some of the comments
http://blog.webshots.com/2012/10/3874/ LINK
http://www.flickr.com/groups/wscommunity/discuss/72157631739216316/ LINK
and this most positive explanation of what happened
http://www.flickr.com/groups/wscommunity/discuss/72157631725916517/ LINK
That is unfortunate as the webshots.com community was pretty large. But it is curious what the new owner was looking for as the user community is the only real value of the company. And you are right that the age of free Internet services are disappearing as many of these companies are having to come up with real business plans instead of just relying on VC funding...
ReplyDeleteRichard:
DeleteThe new owners are the original founders who started Webshots and they are changing their focus to be a social site, rather than a hosted photo site. Lots of negative comments all over the net about their plan to do this and the Webshots site is to shut down at the end of November There was never a problem to pay for hosted services but this will not be possible under their new mandate
Bob, Looks like I'll be disappearing too if you keep on with your soft porn.
ReplyDeleteMartha:
DeleteI didn't think it would be offensive to anyone as that's the way I am, but I have conceded to your request
hahahaha.......oh my. haha
DeleteIf you were to switch over to Squarespace (Paid Service!) for your blog, you could export your blog from blogspot, import into Squarespace and they can import and convert all your photos into their system.
ReplyDeleteYou might want to give them a shout, whether they have an offer that suits you. I have an account (paid) there, though I haven't moved my blog over. It misses quite a few features from blogger or blogspot, but if you can live with that, it might work out.
Guido:
DeleteI know you are the computer Guru but I am just so disappointed that I won't be able to look back at my travels and parts of my life, as I intended this to be a sort of diary . . . sort of like a photo album that I could pick up and look back
Of course money makes the world go round but I always thought that they would morph into a "paid hosting service", not that they would be sold and their server shut down. I think this is a big mistake they are making as I notice many negative comments from lots of their members, even their paid ones.
thank you for your suggestion but I can't dwell on the past and reconstruction would be too tedious as I have new horizons to conquer
oh wow, Bob.
ReplyDeleteThat stinks and I am sorry that all of that hard work is going to dissappear....:-(. Is there a way to salvage any of it??
Pat:
DeleteIt is mind boggling to even attempt to link 6,300+ photos back to their original posts and all of my posts are individually HTML coded in (Manually)
I have to move forward and not dwell on what I have no control over but it just makes me SAD :(
:( sorry bob. i can relate to some of the hassle factor. ive been changing computers, drives, software...and im still trying to get my new electronics the way i want it, a few weeks later. hang in there, and don't stress over it. think of the good side, this will free up some space so that your blog doesn't run out of room any time soon. :) xoxo
ReplyDeleteMs M:
DeleteAfter all my links are broken and the photos are gone, there are still some memories I would like to keep alive, so perhaps during the non-riding season I would re-post some of these so I can look back and remember the good times
Like a certain lunch at the Brewery at Moss Beach last June, 2011, or maybe a new adventure with both our bikes somewhere on the CA coast, if you could get the "time off", or Crescent City, CA. See, lots of future memories to be experienced. I am still dreaming of your kitchen floor . . .
Ohhhhh Nooooo - I hate it when they just change things like this without asking us! I can't imagine having to think about loosing everything. Many of my bog photos are uploaded directly from my computer, but many others are uploaded with picasa - I'm sure my time is coming. I feel your pain. There must be a way to salvage something.
ReplyDeleteKaren:
DeleteNever would I have imagined that Webshots would cease to be, nor would I have imagined that the new owners would change direction and not allow "linking", but they are migrating to another server anyway so everything would have had to be "re-linked" and I wouldn't spend the time doing that anyway.
98% of my photos are hosted on Webshots, so 2% of my photos will remain. There is not a lot I can do right now except to CRY. It still makes me sick thinking about this
PS - Bob - love the new photo on your blog (you old salt!)
ReplyDeleteKaren:
DeleteThank you. Yes, you noticed the "Old Salt" . I wanted to take more photos but my friend came for breakfast that day so I had to cut my photo snapping time short as he wanted to go for a short ride. It was hard to get a good angle with that thick Aluminum Railing.
Perhaps there's an "Old Salt" on the East Coast somewhere. Maybe we have to search for it . . .
Sorry to hear about your photo host. I've always worried about how fleeting our digital world is. Software/websites come and go.
ReplyDeleteI just closed one of my photo hosting accounts and those photos will no longer show on my blog, though it's only a handful of photos. Most of my photos were loaded directly into blogger (Picasa, I think) until I maxed out the account. I'm using flickr now, but it could easily go the same way as webshots I imagine.
I hope you come up with a solution.
Kari:
DeleteI started a Flickr account but most of the Pros use SmugMug. I have to do more exploring. For now I have gone back to Photobucket and they have just changed to their new interface and I really like it. You can edit, resize and do lots of stuff "on-line" just like a real photo editor. I also like the way they generate HTML codes, easy-peezy to insert into posts.
There is no solution. If I tried to upload 6,300+ photos to another site and try to manually HTML code each photo in, I would have no life, so I have to let it slide and just move forward
That is indeed an unbelievable "bummer".
ReplyDeleteCpa3485/Jimbo:
DeleteI have many links to various forums but they can still read the words, just no photos will be displayed. I still get statistics so I will know which ones are most active, like my Madstat bracket and my kappa cases, and my NEP throttle lock. These get regular hits and I could re-insert these photos, as long as I can find them
I am greatly disappointed too . . .
sorry to hear of your photo linking troubles Bob....
ReplyDeleteI've got no ready answer as links are highly dependant on the html coding involved, in order to shift to another photo hosting site, you'd have to replicate the directory structures involved then somehow do a search and replace on each html link and repoint to new site. aaarrrggghh.
Bob, here's a thought....not a solution, more of a bandaid.
ReplyDeleteFor each posting, print it out as a PDF, at least you'll have a visual reference record for the eventual reconstruction?
I am assuming, you're downloading all the pictures from the present hosting site? It's still a lot of work.
Dom:
DeleteOne thing I always intended to do, but didn't, was to backup my blog. May be too late now as many functions of Webshots don't work anymore. Will try later at home.
I don't need to download my photos as I have all of them on various hard drives. It's all part of my posting procedure; all of my photos are resized then uploaded using a bulk resizer program, then these are saved to my HD so everything uploaded I have a copy of. It's just that they are scattered on various Hard Drives all over the place.
I am not even going to attempt to restore my photos, it's just too much work and time I could spend doing something else. All of my photos are individually HTML coded to its position
Yikes Bob. I am surprised it is all going to go away.
ReplyDeleteI have never set up a photobucket or other web hosting photo page. I've been reluctant. I just upload all my photos from iPhoto right to Blogger. I am hoping they stick around at least or until Blogger goes pear shaped if that ever happens. Time will tell.
Hope you get everything backed up or transferred without too much trouble.
Trobairitz:
DeleteI just checked Blogger limits
They only allow 1G which includes Picassa, which means I only get around 2,500 photos and I had over 6,300+ photos hosted on Webshots. Eventually you will hit their limit and have a problem. I was just trying to solve a future problem, but now I am paying the price for a bad decision. I should have investigated having my own dot.com but I don't know how to program, but then I would be in full control of my destiny
for now I will use a mixture of Blogger and Photobucket. I really like the new Photobucket interface which is being tested right now.
But you could always buy more storage. I think its $5/month on Picassa for 100GB of space. Even if you uploaded RAW format, that's still a lot of pictures.
DeleteI also have a PhotoBucket account and use it if I want to post higher resolution pictures (per your recommendation, thank you!). So far no issues and I like their interface and the integration with iPhoto and Aperature on the Mac. I can just choose Export and PhotoBucket is one of the options. Couldn't be easier for me...
Richard:
DeletePhotobucket is great if you post a lot of Panos because you can size to whatever you want. Webshots used to limit their size to only 600 pixels width, and you have no other choice. The new PH interface is very nice, try it out. Now I don't have to edit in Photoshop as you can also do levels & curves adjustments.
I also have Snapbucket for the iPhone. You should check it out. Your photos go directly to the Photobucket/Snapbucket folder. I've never considered Picassa, will have to look into it
Oh Bob, that is dreadful news. I guess we will all suffer the same fate one day, as none of these systems will last forever. Its sad that it is going to happen to you though, with all of your memorable posts.
ReplyDeleteTalking of memorable things, I did think of you the other day when entering a computer shop in Chiang Mai in Thailand. There was a sign on the door saying 'No Dog, No Photography, No Durians'. I roared with laughter at the last bit and remembered experiencing one with you, for the first time in my life. Happy memories!
Gary:
DeleteI would never have believed that Webshots would shut down. For the past week I have gone back to Photobucket which have just recently upgraded their software/interface and it is very good.
I just exported my blog so I have all the text and HTML links to the photos from which I can extract the photo info by file name and I still have backups of all the uploaded photos by date order in various external HardDrives so I could reconstruct the popular ones which are linked to various forums but I am not sure I want to devote time to do all this tedious work when I could be enjoying life and moving forward.
I often thought that I could also do a "retro" post once in a while to bring back memories of memorable times.
I am not sure I told you the story about the Durian, but they also have Durian Ice Cream and Durian Candy here.
It is starting to sink in now that my "diary" is going to be gone soon and there's nothing I can do about it. The photos will be gone but the words will remain
I seem to remember that you may be visiting Snohomish soon. Everytime I pass by that exit, I think of you too
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteCan you save you posts as PDF? It would at least give you a visual record to reference.
Kari:
DeleteI can't see where it gives me that option. I just tried from work and it sent pages to our printer but stopped at page 41 and I don't wish to print here at work nor to waste more paper.
I have nearly 600 posts so that means I would have to go to each blog entry and print to PDF. Sounds like a lot of work to do it this way. If it took 5 minutes per entry I would be looking at 49 continuous hours. Is there a simpler way ?
I just went and checked my back ups. I did them a couple of different ways.
DeleteCreating a pdf directly from the webpage is simplest, but the text was no longer editable.
I also copied and pasted my posts into a ms word document This keeps the text editable and includes the photos. I don't know if the photo are linked or embedded into the word doc -- In other words, I don't know if they will disappear when your hosting site closes. I'm not that knowledgeable about MS Word, but perhaps someone else has an answer to this. Otherwise this was pretty straight forward.
I didn't do it one post at a time but rather copied all the posts from the top of the page down. Bump up the number of posts that show on one page, and copy a bunch in one fell swoop.
It is kind of tedious. I didn't do all of my blog, but about 1.5 years worth in one sitting. I'm sure there is probably an easier way, but I'm not the savvy on all this internet/webpage stuff.
Kari:
DeleteUnfortunately I am incapable of doing what you find so simple. My work computer is RAM challenged and I do not have a PDF writer software on my home/main computer. I am unable to do this simple task. I do not know how you can copy into a Word Doc in Bulk, plus I only have Word 2003 as I do not have need of this software.
I would imagine that the HTML coding will show in the Word Doc, but they will not link
Kari:
DeletePS: it's like I am standing in the middle of the railway tracks, and the train is getting closer, and I don't have the means to move away from the impending danger. I am so frustrated that you can do this and I can't figure it out
Bob, Sorry that I had to be the bearer of bad news about Webshots. I had 2600 photos there and over half a million views.
ReplyDeleteThere will be some dead links in my blog but I don't think that many as early on with the blog I hosted my photos on my own .com. Later I switched to Blogger/Picasa hosting which of course could go the way of Webshots if the Great Father Google decrees it.
What I have done for a long time now is using my web browser (Firefox) on each individual blog entry page to do a File / Save Page As and saved each page to a local folder on my hard drive. It saves the html and the photos so I can look at any page locally just as if it were on-line, pictures and all. I've always thought one day I'd sort through the pages and print them out as some sort of single copy book for my son and any future grandkids.
If you devote some hours you can save your whole blog to your hard disk and still have it all. After the dust settles you might be able in your spare time to fix the broken links and get your photos back into the on-line blog via Blogger. Do a few entries a week and soon enough it will all be good again.
In the mean time, I've got a paid account with Flickr who provides a much higher level of service and image quality than Webshots ever did. I've got my non-blog related photos there and it's working well. Great stats on each image view. SmugMug.com is worth a look too and they don't smash the quality out of the photos the way Webshots did.
Final thing: Webshots will let you download all 6k of your photos using zip files they prepare. Poke around on the site for that request link. You'll get all your photos back although they will have numeric file names and all the EXIF info stripped out of them, a final insult from the incompetents at Webshits, I mean Webshots.
Doug:
DeleteI already used the Blogger interface to export as .XML file but you are unable to read it.
Everything I tried didn't really work, but I did as you suggested (saved as HTML) and saved "by month", not "by post" as I have too many posts and it would have taken me too much time. I am a touch typist anyway so re-typing it all back in is not much concern for me. I also have all the reduced photos as I bulk reduce them before I upload to anywhere and they are all on various Hard Drives which I have, so I don't need to download them from WS. The .XML file shows the image file name so it's just a matter of finding it, but I am not sure I want to spend time reconstructing THE PAST as most people are only reading current posts. It's just those that are linked on forums, you know, the "how-to's"
Doug, I know you were just the messenger so you don't get shot this time. I knew nothing about this until you mentioned it and thank you for giving me a bit of breathing time to save most of those posts. I expect to be knocking on your door within 2 years