Saw this this afternoon and have been working on getting my thoughts typed out here. Sis and I have talked this over and over, and we are in total agreement with everything I'm posting. There's just no sense in two of us typing out the same thing.
Just to start with - while Sis and I are involved with PinPics and have done a lot of work BTS, we are not paid by PinPics. We are two members of the pin trading community who have been trying to build up the dying online pin community, just like so many others. Also, we have been active on PinPics since joining in 2017. We have submitted pins, replaced images and made comments with info ever since. This is longer than the new owners, and regardless of any of the owners. Not living near the parks, online pin trading is our chief outlet for pin fun and PinPics has been the main place that we've had success trading online.
Now, I'd like to address certain points that were brought up -
I've been holding my tongue for a while, but given the new "acknowledgement" that popped up upon logging in, I think that it's time to say something. I'm sure my account will get removed from the site for public criticism, but honestly, it's hardly even worth it anymore given all the ads and the difficulties with using the new search system.
No account would be removed for public criticism alone. That one time of having to reaffirm a portion of the Terms of Service makes you want to leave a site, I'm sorry. Some of us weathered a lot more when this site was hacked and had way worse problems and a much more disappointing and permanent outcome. Each person has to draw the line at what they think is "annoying". On that note, I'll address the ads later on. Difficulties with the search system? The previous search on PinPics was horrendous when the previous owner had it, so I don't think it could get worse. At least there are better filters now and titles are being fixed to make searching actually possible. The users who submit pins often didn't write good titles that included even the most basic of search words, and try and find an Elsa snowflake pin that has a title that doesn't include "Elsa" or "Frozen" in it! Fault of the search engine? No. It's the fault of the people writing the titles. Most of the old pin listings have horrible titles for searching. So, there are a bunch of us working constantly to re-write titles and descriptions so that the searching is better.
Also, this offer stands for anyone - If you are wanting help with how to search the pin database, please contact Sis or me and we would be happy to help give anyone an overview and tips and show you how to do something on the site. I know there are a lot of How To guides written on PinPics and Guide Videos that are on the PinPics YouTube channel that show how to use the basic and more complex functions of the site.
If the recent pop-up to accept part of the Terms annoyed anyone, there was good reason. An entity has just released a site with full detailed instructions showing members how to go inside the html files on your computer and download the PinPics pin listings via your dashboard and upload them to another site. This is in direct contravention of the PP Terms of Service and in no way protects those of us who have helped build the database up over the years. I do a lot of work submitting pins on PinPics for years now. I choose what sites I want to add information to, just like we all do. Having it scraped, lifted or stolen without permission is not what I have in mind when I sit and do the listing.
I'm pretty disappointed in PinPics' new ownership and the way they're behaving lately. It's not becoming of the site or the pin community at all.
You're a user-donated database. You expect people to contribute their pin pictures, descriptions, and information, but then have the audacity to sit there on a high horse and claim that you own that information and that it's your property that you "have to protect". It's not your property. It's information and pictures added by the pin community out of their own time and generosity that you think you have a right to. You're becoming increasingly hostile to everyone in the community, particularly other pins databases that also use user contribution, and it's a very bad look on you. If you're going to become this aggressive about protecting "your property" you should be removing all user contributed data. All of it. Anything that was not added by a member of the management team should be removed. I don't care what your clause is that "gives you ownership" of anything put on the site. It's tacky.
Does that mean you were not disappointed with the previous ownership? The ownership that ran the site into the ground, didn't update software, had very horribly rude staff and submissions didn't even get put on the site! The ownership that didn't even care that the entire site was so compromised that everyone's personal information was mixed up and shared to other members? Couldn't have gotten much worse, actually, and we stuck through it for years, so I am totally speaking from 100% personal experience.
The database is user-built. Nobody is claiming that the minute you put up a pin listing on PinPics you are not allowed to enter that pin on another database. If you took the picture, you can post it somewhere else. I actually posted some pins a couple of weeks ago, and turned right around and added them to Pin & Pop. My pics, my descriptions, my gathered info. I could post it wherever I wanted to. What I can't do, however, is take information that I did not personally take/write and post that on another database. Copying listings from PinPics to put on another site is not allowed. A lot of you might not know this, but there have been several instances where people building up other pin sites have been scraping (copying) the information from the PinPics database. Also, other sites linking the PinPics number on their own site for each pin. The PinPics number is not user-contributed or user-generated. The PinPics number is copyrighted and proprietary. Mass copying information or taking the PP number is against the terms of service that every PinPics user was asked to agree to (and not forced). That is stealing. This is when legal action is taken. When another site tries to take the information from pin listings for their own site, that is where PinPics is actually
protecting each and every user who has contributed to PinPics. What if I listed 100 pins on PinPics over the years. Then someone comes along and scrapes the information to their own site. What if I did not want to be involved with that site? That's taking my user-contributed information and using it without my permission. Happily, PinPics is keeping that from happening. Of course, if I want to add a pin to online databases . . . I can sit on my computer and list it on PinPics, PTDB, P&P, DisneyPinventory, etc . . . and that's my right! And what's more, PinPics isn't going to say I can't or even say I shouldn't!
But, once you've submitted the information to PinPics, and their PinPics number is assigned and the watermark is on the picture . . . someone is not allowed to come and take the info to make their own database listing, sales listing, etc. In the past, there was a robot created to go through the PinPics database and gather all the information for another site. If that action hadn't been stopped, it would have meant all that "user-contributed" content had been taken and put on another site without asking those users . . . and then charged for it, possibly? Can't imagine any of us would be happy with that, either. So, online security is something that has to happen.
Why should any of us care about a site that treats the community like enemies but expects us to help? Everyone involved in pin databases just wants to provide the widest amount for information to the pin community that they can, and multiple databases is not a bad thing. The way you've treated people you consider rivals has not gone unnoticed. When did this become some sort of competition that you have to win at all costs? It feels very Disney villain of the site.
What community has been treated as an enemy? In my experience, your claim of "Everyone involved in pin databases just wants to provide the widest amount for information to the pin community" is not true. I've certainly not experienced that. I've known too many that just want to be bigger than PinPics and to achieve that they have to lift the information from PP rather than build it up like PinPics has since it started. The competition you are seeing is when other sites try, and do, take advantage of the PinPics database by scraping or deep linking or building a database using the PinPics information. That is very Disney Villain-ish, on the part of the scrapers. Not on the part of the PinPics owners who are trying to protect the user-contributed database!
I'm not going to use "your" content anywhere else, but I also would never recommend this site to a pin community member anymore as a database. You're proving that you only see us as free labour that's untrustworthy and needs to be kept in line to be allowed to use your site. And the quality of listings has gone down significantly.
Your domain name is not enough to carry the site anymore, because a lot of trust was lost in the site when it fell into disrepair. It's something you have to earn back, and aside from a few UI updates, you haven't put effort into that and have actively been going after other community members. I don't believe that sort of behaviour to be acceptable, and expected better of the management.
I do want to be clear that I don't believe this to be the fault of any of the PinPics moderators, particularly two of our own DPF members (I'm not sure if we have any other PinPics moderators here). You two are always lovely and do a great job, and have the best intentions in helping the community. You're great at communication and always kind. Just like the recent failings of the Disney company, I believe this to rest squarely on the shoulders of ownership, and not those who simply work for the site. I just no longer want to be afraid of criticizing a site just because of former prestige behind their name. I think they're doing a poor job of being good members of the community and I feel like that should be said.
If you wish to add information to PinPics, you are welcome to add that information to any pin website you want. As I said . . . many times I sit and add pins to PP and then turn right around and add to another database. Whether you recommend a site or not, personally attacking or making very accusing statements is not the way to build a good community. This is negativity and brings us all down to the mud. I'm surprised that some of the comments on this thread have not brought more serious replies, as I was truthfully shocked that a lot of what was said today would ever have been posted publicly by someone. Very sad. Especially sad to see this on DPF, which was always a wonderful place full of positivity. Sis and I are both very disappointed.
I can speak from personal experience here, as I have had a lot to do with pin listings lately. No person submitting a pin listing, image or comment is seen simply as free labour or untrustworthy. Since you said below that you have never actually added information to PinPics, I will leave off any further comments and assume that maybe you said this in the heat of the moment. Obviously, you are referring to something you have never experienced.
You said the quality of listings has gone down? Seriously? Really? If you'd ever like a tour of some older listings from before the new owners took over versus some new listings . . . I would be more than happy to spend some time and do some serious comparisons! This is simply untrue and I would say completely unfounded. Of course, there will be better listings than others any time, but with the previous owners . . . listings were horrible and the search terms in the titles are terrible! No continuity, no filters, the titles are so bad you can't even find a lot of pins!
Continued in next reply due to posting limitations . . . 
