Why pay for PBase anymore?

[arshutterbug]

After trying Flickr, Photobucket, and occasionally several other hosting sites, I finally gave up and starting dumping all of my files on PBase. Topping my list of complaints:

Slow user interfaces. I don't want drop-down menus, flashy animations, "Web 2.0" social-networking silliness, inline image alteration functions, drag-and-drop sorting with thumbnails that are so small that they are meaningless, or anything else that isn't essential. I just want the images to be uploaded, in the order that I had them on my hard drive, now.

Non-compliant HTML windowing. When I resize my browser window, I expect that the Web page will also be resized to fit. I don't have a 30-inch HDTV for a monitor. I don't want fixed-width pages that require horizontal scrolling.

Non-compliant text. When I ask for text to be enlarged, I expect that the text and any tables will be resized to fit that enlarged text. I don't want to be forced to view text at a size that is unreadable or that doesn't fit in the window.

Uploading complications. I want a simple FTP or HTTP upload method that accepts ZIP packages. These "Java-enabled" uploaders are totally unreliable. They keep stalling and crashing, and using too many system resources. I would often leave an upload running only to find out that the browser locked-up and that the upload was cancelled.

Upload size limits. If I want to upload a large image set, just accept it and display it. Don't tell me that uploads can only be a particular size, especially after I have waited hours for the upload to finish.

Inconsistent viewing options. I want to display images in multiple sizes for users with different requirements. I expect that if I ask for a Large size image, that all images will be displayed that size. What these other sites do is force the user to click through multiple steps of buttons and drop-down menus to view a different size of the images, for every image that is viewed.

Virtual window outputs. The displayed images should be sent from the image server and displayed in HTML. The images should not be in a virtual window frame that is laden with JavaScript, fading in and blocking the rest of the page, and then floating around the window and including drop-down and pop-up menus on it.

These are most of the reasons why I keep renewing at PBase. Please maintain this way of simplicity.

[goislands]

After trying Flickr, Photobucket, and occasionally several other hosting sites, I finally gave up and starting dumping all of my files on PBase. Topping my list of complaints:
[...snip]
These are most of the reasons why I keep renewing at PBase. Please maintain this way of simplicity.

As much I agree with your assessment, foremost I do not get the "flickr excitement," your message reads at first as a list of complaints... about PBase. While reading the list of complaints, I kept wondering where do we have these problems with Pbase, till finally I understood, you meant "complaints about the other hosting sites"!

In that case, I am with you. I am not excited by PBase`s customer service, but regardless, I was always an adamant admirer Slug's ingenuity. He created a site which combines simplicity with versatile extendability, and the number of long term users here at Pbase speaks for itself. A while ago I wanted go to Smugmug, but I really disliked the overcomplicated HTML of their site. Less is more, one might say. It is a secret of a good design and of good ergonomics.

[mccartney]

I agree, I love the simplicity of PBase, and oh, the images look good too. I was able to customize the look of my galleries fairly painlessly and it was actually entertaining.

I also looked at SmugMug and it is way more cumbersome and complex - and a lot more expensive. I also prefer the look of Pbase compared to SmugMug and Pbase is certainly better than that Flickr thing which is just plain ugly.

Sure most of the time Pbase has speed issues, and I know that it can be frustrating having to wait, but for me, I don't see that as a deal breaker.

After trying Flickr, Photobucket, and occasionally several other hosting sites, I finally gave up and starting dumping all of my files on PBase. Topping my list of complaints:
[...snip]
These are most of the reasons why I keep renewing at PBase. Please maintain this way of simplicity.

As much I agree with your assessment, foremost I do not get the "flickr excitement," your message reads at first as a list of complaints... about PBase. While reading the list of complaints, I kept wondering where do we have these problems with Pbase, till finally I understood, you meant "complaints about the other hosting sites"!

In that case, I am with you. I am not excited by PBase`s customer service, but regardless, I was always an adamant admirer Slug's ingenuity. He created a site which combines simplicity with versatile extendability, and the number of long term users here at Pbase speaks for itself. A while ago I wanted go to Smugmug, but I really disliked the overcomplicated HTML of their site. Less is more, one might say. It is a secret of a good design and of good ergonomics.

[amoxtli]

I have tried flickr, trekearth, zenfolio, smumug, Photobucket and others and no site comes close to PBase in customization, traffic and caliber of photographers. No complaints from me.

[jpmccormac]

A couple of pluses for Picasa: It reads my RAW files natively, allows non-destructive editing and a simpler upload process - compared to Pbase. If I could get my files off of Pbase, I'd probably do it. But I'm stuck, as there's no simple way to off load images/galleries that I'm aware of.

[dougj]

A couple of pluses for Picasa: It reads my RAW files natively, allows non-destructive editing and a simpler upload process - compared to Pbase. If I could get my files off of Pbase, I'd probably do it. But I'm stuck, as there's no simple way to off load images/galleries that I'm aware of.

If you don't have the photos that you copied to your galleries, you can download them directly from PBase. Go to the first sticky in Q&A forum and look at the PBaseWiki, there is a program written by Arjun in the Useful Tools section called PBgrab that will download all of your photos. I don't know if works with password protected or private galleries.

[jpmccormac]

Dougj: Thanks a lot. I will give that a try.