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Pbase or Smugmug ??

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I suffered through 2+ months and spent more than 2 hours cleaning up my galleries because of these "changes" at PBase. Maybe YOU didn't see the problems, or maybe YOU didn't experience the same problems a large number of people did. But please don't assume your "data" is the same as anyone elses.

For the record (and you can look at my posting history) this thread is the FIRST time I've posted a word on PBase. I cut them slack for 2 months and thought everything was "fixed". When I went back to add a picture to one of my galleries, I discovered numerous (more than 50) image problems! These were problems I ALREADY FIXED a month ago.
Armand Hirt said:
DigitalWolf said:
..To me it is about Customer SERVICE...and PBase does not have
that at all! Some people who are using PBase are diehards and will
not leave PBase ever even if the service tanks. There are far too
many complaints about PBase that really keeps me from signing up. I
will never get how people allow themselves to put up with VERY POOR
service or lack of communication from a company. PBase has a
terrible record as far as communication and for that reason alone I
advise everyone to Run!
Click to expand...
Well, some people, like myself, care more for the quality of the
hosting interface and the ability for linking directly. I think
PBase is excellent in these respects. As far as service is
concerned, I had one day of access problems, and PBase gave me a
month of free hosting. I think it is better than fair.
Armand Hirt said:
Any other web site is far better.
Click to expand...
Does that sound like a reasonable, educated opinion? ANY of them,
really? People really made a mountain out of a molehill from the
period when PBase has switched servers.
  • Armand
Click to expand...
--
(See profile for equipment I own -- questions welcome.)
 
RobE said:
I suffered through 2+ months and spent more than 2 hours cleaning
up my galleries because of these "changes" at PBase. Maybe YOU
didn't see the problems, or maybe YOU didn't experience the same
problems a large number of people did. But please don't assume
your "data" is the same as anyone elses.
Click to expand...
If you look closer, you will see no assumption in my post. I am just happy with the service, and wanted to voice my opinion. I was impacted by the problems and cleaning my galleries involved regenerating two thumbnails (maybe 1 minute work) and got one month of free hosting.
RobE said:
For the record (and you can look at my posting history) this thread
is the FIRST time I've posted a word on PBase. I cut them slack
for 2 months and thought everything was "fixed". When I went back
to add a picture to one of my galleries, I discovered numerous
(more than 50) image problems! These were problems I ALREADY FIXED
a month ago.
Click to expand...
Same for me: this is the first time I post on the issue.
  • Armand
 
You wrote:

"People really made a mountain out of a molehill from the period when PBase has switched servers."

And how is that not generalizing and minimizing others' experiences?
 
RobE said:
You wrote:

"People really made a mountain out of a molehill from the period
when PBase has switched servers."

And how is that not generalizing and minimizing others' experiences?
Click to expand...
You are right, I should have written "Some people really made a mountain out of a molehill during the period when PBase was switching servers." The sentence as is was too vague and I understand that one may have misconstrued it to mean "All people..." or something equivalent.

On the other hands, can you imagine that some PBase users vent as far as to use ALL CAPS to shout at complete strangers on photography forums(even in post titles!) venting out considerable anger just because they had reportedly spent a couple of hours fixing links during PBase server migration? People struck by such rage they do not see the ridicule of their crusade? Some of the emotive users even went as far as speaking about their "suffering", forgetting that they were speaking about a partial dysfunction in a service that sells for USD 23/year? We are speaking about, what, a USD 2 loss in value? One wonder if those thin skinned people really suffered through anything significant in their life to use such emphasis, I am sure you will agree :-)
  • Armand
 
Maybe this is a stupid question, but does smugmug offer image hosting so you can link to an image in this forum?
hockeynut said:
You can try Pbase for free for a month. Try it. And Smugmug, I
think you can get the basic membership for almost nothing. You
need to decide for yourself.

Oh... with Smugmug, you pick a username, and that becomes your site.

username.smugmug.com

Or if you own a domain, they'll host it for you. If you were to
own photography.com, you can assign your domain to your site on
Smugmug, and customize it to your liking, and no one will be the
wiser.
DigitalNinja said:
Which one would you go for if you have to and why?
Click to expand...
--
' We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the
night to visit violence on those who would do us harm. '
  • George Orwell
Click to expand...
 
Yes lots of people, including myself post images here that are hosted at smugmug. That's one of the first reasons I signed up, but now I use smugmug for many other things as well.

--John

If you are signing up for smugmug, use this coupon code "Bhl3oSIF5zVho" to save $5. Just enter it in the signup dialog when it asks you for a discount coupon. Or alternately, just follow this link when signing up and the coupon code will be automatically included: http://www.smugmug.com/?referrer=Bhl3oSIF5zVho .
CaptainCaveman said:
hockeynut said:
You can try Pbase for free for a month. Try it. And Smugmug, I
think you can get the basic membership for almost nothing. You
need to decide for yourself.

Oh... with Smugmug, you pick a username, and that becomes your site.

username.smugmug.com

Or if you own a domain, they'll host it for you. If you were to
own photography.com, you can assign your domain to your site on
Smugmug, and customize it to your liking, and no one will be the
wiser.
DigitalNinja said:
Which one would you go for if you have to and why?
Click to expand...
--
' We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the
night to visit violence on those who would do us harm. '
  • George Orwell
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I've used them for a year now... service is incredible, lots of individual attention. The owners really care about what you have to say...

Fantastic service. A+. Check out my website for a sample pro-gallery (any layout/interface probs are probably my own, since I know little about how to customize my webpage)
  • Chui
--
http://www.chewyphoto.com
 
Some people spend a lot more than $23/a year. Some of these people are professionals a rely on this service to represent the quality of their work -- the interface should be mostly transparent, and when it isn't, it can reflect poorly on them and their business.

No one using PBase should have had to spend any time fixing problems they didn't create. PBase should have fixed it for them. So maybe time is no big deal to you -- it might be a lot more important to them.

My point is simply this: don't assume you can empathize until you understand all the facts.
Armand Hirt said:
RobE said:
You wrote:

"People really made a mountain out of a molehill from the period
when PBase has switched servers."

And how is that not generalizing and minimizing others' experiences?
Click to expand...
You are right, I should have written "Some people really made a
mountain out of a molehill during the period when PBase was
switching servers." The sentence as is was too vague and I
understand that one may have misconstrued it to mean "All
people..." or something equivalent.

On the other hands, can you imagine that some PBase users vent as
far as to use ALL CAPS to shout at complete strangers on
photography forums(even in post titles!) venting out considerable
anger just because they had reportedly spent a couple of hours
fixing links during PBase server migration? People struck by such
rage they do not see the ridicule of their crusade? Some of the
emotive users even went as far as speaking about their "suffering",
forgetting that they were speaking about a partial dysfunction in a
service that sells for USD 23/year? We are speaking about, what, a
USD 2 loss in value? One wonder if those thin skinned people really
suffered through anything significant in their life to use such
emphasis, I am sure you will agree :-)
  • Armand
Click to expand...
--
(See profile for equipment I own -- questions welcome.)
 
Also, Chris did not mention, but different camera brands use different raw formats. Canon's is proprietary. Raw images are just that "raw" and require considerable tweaking in order to adjust exposure/sharpening, etc. It isn't feasible to send images that need adjustment to a host site and expect them to meet our own preferences/needs. Just my 2 cents worth....
Chris MacAskill said:
harbin88 said:
Any plan to support RAW format?
Click to expand...
The thing is the only formats browsers can display is jpeg or gif,
and the only formats the web-connected printers can use (without
converting) is jpeg.

So.... we do our best to convert other formats such as tiff and bmp
to jpeg when we receive them. We aren't always successful and
have to generate error messages now and then because there is so
much variation in the way you can create them.

The honest answer is we don't currently support RAW and have no
near-term plans to do so. It would be quite an undertaking to
manage the conversion of so many different file types. We think
programs that run on your desktop can do the conversion much better
because you can interact with them, etc.

Sorry I don't have a better answer for you.

Thanks,
Chris
Click to expand...
 
I appreciate you did not shout this time. It makes me feel like I am among civilized people :-)

I think you are reading a lot more in my contribution than what I intended to put in it. I stand by my point, which is that some people made a mountain out of a molehill during the period when PBase was switching servers - and still do. I gave a mere example, some other examples can be found looking around. I am not claiming that everybody using PBase pays USD 23 per month, or that only amateurs use PBase, or anything along those lines and as such won't rebut your post step by step since it was based on a misunderstanding.

Since you bring up your personal example, and that is a different point, if you were not financially impacted and spent a couple of hours fixing links that were used for showing the world your photographic skill, I am surprised by the amount of anger you managed to throw back from such an unsignificant incident. Do you go mad and yell at complete strangers when you buy a rotten tomato, or do you just inform the grocer? There are other hosting solution that ultimately may or may not prove more reliable in the long run, but at least provide an alternative to venting. The use of the words "suffering for months" is difficult to take seriously in this context, unless the "victim" suffers quite easily. What do you think?

On the other hand, if you are indeed making a living out of your photography and you lost business because of the glitches at PBase following the ISP switch (did you? i would be really interested to know), then you are among the complainers who have indeed suffered material worries. I would then ask, why do you still link to PBase - ironically, a broken link - from your photography home page? Aren't you afraid to loose more business? Considering how much you invested in your photo gear, why not spend more on a hosting solution that contractually guarantees availability, unlike PBase or most of other consumer sites? What are you going to do?

Cheers! Life is too short to get mad at a couple of lost hours. I am sure you will find a hosting solution that you can live with by looking around. Myself, I will keep using PBase since I am among the people who got more from the ISP switch than I lost (in my case, one minute of my leisure time) and I appreciate the infrastructure.
  • Armand
 
I didn't notice that link was broken too! I'm definitely through with PBase now ( :) )

I get torqued when people make blanket statements or over-generalize, especially when they're in the perceived minority.
Armand Hirt said:
I appreciate you did not shout this time. It makes me feel like I
am among civilized people :-)

I think you are reading a lot more in my contribution than what I
intended to put in it. I stand by my point, which is that some
people made a mountain out of a molehill during the period when
PBase was switching servers - and still do. I gave a mere example,
some other examples can be found looking around. I am not claiming
that everybody using PBase pays USD 23 per month, or that only
amateurs use PBase, or anything along those lines and as such won't
rebut your post step by step since it was based on a
misunderstanding.

Since you bring up your personal example, and that is a different
point, if you were not financially impacted and spent a couple of
hours fixing links that were used for showing the world your
photographic skill, I am surprised by the amount of anger you
managed to throw back from such an unsignificant incident. Do you
go mad and yell at complete strangers when you buy a rotten tomato,
or do you just inform the grocer? There are other hosting solution
that ultimately may or may not prove more reliable in the long run,
but at least provide an alternative to venting. The use of the
words "suffering for months" is difficult to take seriously in this
context, unless the "victim" suffers quite easily. What do you
think?

On the other hand, if you are indeed making a living out of your
photography and you lost business because of the glitches at PBase
following the ISP switch (did you? i would be really interested to
know), then you are among the complainers who have indeed suffered
material worries. I would then ask, why do you still link to PBase
  • ironically, a broken link - from your photography home page?
Aren't you afraid to loose more business? Considering how much you
invested in your photo gear, why not spend more on a hosting
solution that contractually guarantees availability, unlike PBase
or most of other consumer sites? What are you going to do?

Cheers! Life is too short to get mad at a couple of lost hours. I
am sure you will find a hosting solution that you can live with by
looking around. Myself, I will keep using PBase since I am among
the people who got more from the ISP switch than I lost (in my
case, one minute of my leisure time) and I appreciate the
infrastructure.
  • Armand
Click to expand...
--
(See profile for equipment I own -- questions welcome.)
 
I used your referral code.
jfriend00 said:
--John
If you are signing up for smugmug, use this coupon code
"Bhl3oSIF5zVho" to save $5. Just enter it in the signup dialog
when it asks you for a discount coupon. Or alternately, just
follow this link when signing up and the coupon code will be
automatically included:
http://www.smugmug.com/?referrer=Bhl3oSIF5zVho .
CaptainCaveman said:
hockeynut said:
You can try Pbase for free for a month. Try it. And Smugmug, I
think you can get the basic membership for almost nothing. You
need to decide for yourself.

Oh... with Smugmug, you pick a username, and that becomes your site.

username.smugmug.com

Or if you own a domain, they'll host it for you. If you were to
own photography.com, you can assign your domain to your site on
Smugmug, and customize it to your liking, and no one will be the
wiser.
DigitalNinja said:
Which one would you go for if you have to and why?
Click to expand...
--
' We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the
night to visit violence on those who would do us harm. '
  • George Orwell
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Mole hill? 2.5+ months of missing photos, links and inaccessibility! And no communications except a simple we are upgrading message after weeks of poor service. I like PBase, but their customer service SUCKS! I am looking elsewhere to host any serious work and will retain PBase for my hobby shots.
RobE said:
You wrote:

"People really made a mountain out of a molehill from the period
when PBase has switched servers."

And how is that not generalizing and minimizing others' experiences?
Click to expand...
--
http://www.pbase.com/kluken
 
I have to agree - ImageEvent is great.

It is fast - everything is fast on it. Loading pictures, editing albums - it flies. Smugmug was just so slow for me. Could be my location - but I have broadband and it was just really slow. Pbase was ok in terms of speed.

It is always up. They never lose your pictures, or thumbnails, or anything.

Customer Service is actually there. They answer your emails - not in days - but in hours - and it is obvious that they have actually read your email. Have a problem - they fix it for you. Can't figure out how to do something - they will do it for you - including loading your pictures. They are very responsive.

The products that can be orderered from your pictures is so varied. Just about any print size on any type of paper, photo tshirts, photo mugs, slideshow dvds, greeting cards, calendars, you name it. And you can control what can be ordered from what albums - enable it on some, disable it on others. My friends really like the products they can get.

I just really like it. It does not have a good search tool though. You cannot search pictures by camera or lens like you can on Pbase - and that is a really great feature on Pbase. This is much more of a friends & family share type site. You certainly get your $25 worth on that site though.

jshetley
John Davis said:
Its upload facilities are also more comprehensive, including FTP.

John
DigitalNinja said:
Which one would you go for if you have to and why?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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