PinPics - New Format / Big Site Changes!
stratasfan
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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.
Whether on DPF or PinPics or PTDB or P&P . . . my intentions are always to improve the pin trading online community and keep it as positive as I can. The world today wallows in too much negativity and it didn't used to be like this. The pin trading community can be positive again. It will take work, but each and every one of us involved has to contribute to that effort. Constructive criticism is always good. But personal attacking without facts from both sides is never good. I've had my ups and downs with PinPics, and you know . . . the best thing to do is ask. One-on-one . . . and if anyone ever wants to ask something about PinPics, I wish you would just send me a personal message and ask. If I don't have answers, I can find out, but I am always willing and open to provide info or even discuss things. Many times, what seems petty or annoying to people often has a good reason behind it.
Good luck. I repeatedly asked them to remove all of my content that they've been monetizing, and they refused. So they're profiting on my content that I provided to previous site owners WITH THE AGREEMENT THAT THE CONTENT WAS FOR FREE PUBLIC/NON-PROFIT/NON-EXCLUSIVE USE without my permission either. Honorable people genuinely out to help the community would not behave this way. They would either remove all my content that they DO NOT HAVE MY PERMISSION TO USE or stop monetizing the site and allow all content to be freely shared as originally created.
The User-generated content in the pin listings has been free and is remaining free. Regardless of charges that may come in the future, the classic features of the database site are remaining free. Monetizing is not being done with the user-generated content of the pin listings features that have always been free. These will remain free and available to the public. So you don't have to worry - your contributed content on any pin listings that you've added or provided information about are still and will continue to be free and available to the public in the same manner as when you were contributing.
I'm so sorry that they're not honoring your wishes. Honestly, I don't expect them to. But I think it's time we stop pretending that they're acting with the best interests of the public and that they're innocent of wrongdoing here. It's been so disappointing watching this downward spiral. The fact that they've threatened legal action against members of their own community over community contributed content is appalling to me.
I'm just glad I realized it before I started adding content to their site. I'll continue to contribute to sites that do not have a clause in their terms that transfers ownership of images and descriptions to themselves.
The legal action threatened was not over user-generated content, but over the violation of copyright with the scraping and linking of the PinPics number associated with a particular pin. This part of the pin listing is not user-contributed and belongs to the owner of the site. Scraping the database or linking numbers on another database is against the Terms of Service. Mass linking is also very bad for a site because the SEO sees that as spam phishing. This has to be addressed, as another database linking to every pin page is detrimental to the online life and health of any website, regardless of copyright or ToS. But those PP numbers are copyrighted and proprietary. PinPics is not in the wrong on this one. It's always good to make sure to understand the full story before posting accusations.
I'm just glad I realized it before I started adding content to their site. I'll continue to contribute to sites that do not have a clause in their terms that transfers ownership of images and descriptions to themselves.
You have never added any information to PinPics???
The last owners were rotten. The new owners I can't say anything good about the site. They've apparently even modified everything. I can't even tell if there's any hope for the site.
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The internet and online world has changed drastically since 1999. Drastically! All those mobile devices everyone loves to use means things have to change and security has to be boosted. Especially since 2020 and the online hacking increase that has led to massive security upgrades being developed. Modifications happen and will continue to happen. Anyone here use a mobile? If you do, then welcome to the change. It's because of that that so much security and change happens. Of course there's hope for the site. Think back to when you were using Windows95 or Windows 98 . . . imagine just jumping into Windows 11. You'd be pretty miserable, but that's basically what had to happen. Well, sites have to attune to the times. That means change, like it or not. Personally, I don't like change. I don't like it at all. When the new site came on, I really didn't want to handle the change. Features weren't where they used to be, things looked different . . . I wasn't willing to let go of the hobby because I refused to adapt to the change. This wasn't a fast thing for me. It happened on another website with another hobby (I know, hard to think of doing something not Disney pin related, right?). I almost walked away from a hobby because a site underwent a major upgrade. But the only way to keep a website functioning to change and update. Everyone who has been a member on DPF since before the hack knows how not updating can cause disastrous results with a site. And once things like that happen, you can't go back to the way things were. This place is living proof.
Is that what's going to happen?
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No . . .the basic user-contributed database isn't going to charged for. It has been and will remain free to the public. Expanded features and parts of the site may fall under a subscription, but the classic features and database will remain free. Searching, cataloguing, trading, printing your pin lists . . . all those have been and will continue to be free.
I believe it's in reference to them adding ads that pop up very frequently. They make money off of having ads on their site (which is fueled by community added content).
The pop-up ads have been removed. Google ads were added to the site, but the constant pop-ups were something Google chose to implement as part of a "test". They have finally been removed, as they were annoying. A small amount of money is made by Google ads. However, the income generated from those ads wasn't even paying for the base server costs, let alone the software, maintenance, tech time, domain name, hosting costs, etc. So, yes . . .the site has a lot of community added content . . . however, without money, no content can be online. From your comment I assume you have no knowledge of, and never have been involved with, the actual building, maintaining, and hosting a website. It is time-intensive and expensive. (Speaking from personal experience, Sis and I are actually going to have to close down our personal website this year, as the rising server costs have gotten too much for us to handle.) Running Google ads on a site wouldn't pay for the base server and hosting costs, let alone everything else that has to be spent just to get a site online. The previous PinPics owners asked for money to help defray costs . . . Google ads was a way not to have to ask for donations.
Running any web site takes money to run, manage, and protect. From my understanding the basic PinPics will remain free and open. Yes there are adds just like another streaming, web hosting, and other forums unless you pay to avoid the ads. The previous owners asked for donations to help keep up with the required software updates, software licensing costs, and security monitoring costs. The new owners are doing what they can to keep the website afloat while keeping the site in compliance with regulations, which costs money.
Couldn't have said it better myself . . . sites take money. I bet most of you would be surprised at the cost of just hosting this tiny forum with no database. Imagine something the size of PinPics. Then you'll still be shocked at the bill.
I'm personally not super bothered by the ads, so much as I am the claiming of content and the hostility they're displaying over it. If they offered some sort of paid service it wouldn't bother me as much because I get that it's costly on the back end. There are people though who offered their resources like Jabberwocky under the assumption and agreement that they'd remain free to the public and wouldn't be exclusive to the site. That's the other definition of free that I think some people would take umbrage with. Harassing people over content that was given freely to you by the community and that you didn't even create is a bit hypocritical, which is something they've been doing.
My main issue still remains the attitude and entitlement they have over content they didn't create but continue to ask for people's time for. They're trying to gatekeep the efforts of hundreds of people for the past 20+ years who wanted to give information to the community. I think it's in poor spirit and poor form. Either you create all your own content yourself, or you don't try to keep exclusive rights to community-created content.
Glad the ads didn't bother you. There are paid tiers coming, but no classic database features will be included in the paid tiers. All those remain free, as they have always been. As new features are added and the site is expanded, the tiers will help pay for the continued growth and maintenance. Any user who contributed information in the past - that information is still available to the public for free. And you are correct . . . the new owners are trying to gatekeep the efforts of hundreds of people over the past two decades. If someone isn't keeping the database live online and keeping other sites from scraping and copying all that work, then those efforts of hundreds of people over two decades would be lost. Inflation hits everything and as prices rise, so do all the prices having to do with sites. That means that more money is needed to keep PinPics online. Without having to demand a subscription from every single user (and then making all that user-contributed information not free or available to the public), the new owners are actually finding ways to keep PinPics online and all those classic features you like and enjoy free and open to the public! If you don't want to see that information protected and want no sign of money on the site . . . how can the database remain online and accessible to the pin trading community? The only way I can think of is through large private donors/sponsors. I guess PinPics better start thinking of something else, though, because we all know how many of those are floating around out there. If you meet any, please send them along.
Continued in one more post due to posting limitations . . .