A Note to My Readers
Hello Junior Gorillas, today’s post is an odd one, and I won’t blame you if you decide to skip it entirely. But I am probably going to be making a drastic change to GDB soon, and I wanted to explain the situation.
Way back in 2006, when I decided to try my hand at blogging, a friend of mine recommended Photobucket as a photo host. She’d used it, it was free, and there seemed to be no downside. And for years, it was a great service.
Then, in late 2016, new management decided that this whole “free hosting” thing was for chumps. Yes, I realize that this was probably Photobucket’s plan all along (“If a product is free, YOU are the product”), but I was naive. I wanted to keep the previous ten years of photos and the accompanying links so that GDB continued to work normally, so I had to start paying a monthly fee. I wasn’t thrilled about it, but decided that I would just bite the bullet and do it. Meanwhile, I started using Google to upload my photos.
Here we are in mid-2024, and Photobucket has announced that there will be more changes in store. Including giving them the right to the extent permitted by the laws of your region, to license or sell your Public User Uploaded Content to third parties for the scanning and processing of your Public User Uploaded Content. There’s a lot more, and it’s all awful, but you get the idea.
If I want to opt out? Photobucket will close my account, and all of the photos from articles before 2017 (roughly) will be gone. Forever. Yes, I can download the jpegs, but it would be a full-time job to re-upload them to a new server - something I am not willing to do. I can’t see any reason to save the text portion of each blog, since it will be meaningless without the accompanying photos, so my plan is to just delete everything. It will be like removing the memory modules from HAL’s mainframe!
For you guys, it will be a bummer, but for me, it means the loss of over TEN YEARS of effort. Once in a while I’ll go back and look at older posts and feel some sense of pride at this body of work that I’d amassed, little by little. But it’s time to “kill my darlings”, sadly. After the great purge, it will look like I started my blog in late 2016 (ish).
Anyway, that’s the gist of things, I welcome your thoughts, though I see no way around this drastic measure.
Thanks for your patience and understanding!
Here's a good picture (from July, 1959), since you were nice enough to get this far:
24 comments:
Major-
Ahhh... the 'internet of things'. I appreciate ALL your efforts Major, lo these many years and will support whatever decision you make going forward. I'll just have to go back to the beginning before it's too late and memorize everything. I better get started straight-away-! (But first I have to visit Disneyland, 1959-!)
Thanks, Major.
I just checked the "Dashboard" page for my blog, to refresh my memory of the settings. If you click on "Posts" on the far left column, and then use the drop down menu that is sort of to the left of center of your list of posts, to switch from "All" posts to "Published" posts. You can then scroll through all of your older posts, and use the symbols next to the title of each post. One of them is a "trash can" for deleting the post, but there is also a symbol that has what looks like an arrow pointing to the right, and another arrow hanging off of that one, which points down. That one is for "Reverting To Draft." By clicking on that, it turns an older post that was already published, to a draft that only you can see. And to view your list of "Draft" posts, you go up to that same drop down menu (just to the left of the center of the page), and switch from "All" or "Published" posts, to "Drafts" to see a list of just those "saved" posts.
Sorry, for the long explanation, especially if you know about all this already....which you probably do. But they did change that Dashboard page a few years ago, so maybe there are parts of it that you haven't had an occasion to use.
And I do hate to think of YOU having to lose all of your creative content forever. I would think that is much more important than whether or not we as the followers of your blog, can or can't view the older content anymore.
As Roseann Rosannadanna said, "It's always something."
[Sigh] Do whatcha gotta do, Major. You know that us Junior Gorillas will stick with GDB in whatever form it eventually takes.
I imagine that the Wayback Machine will have a lot of the older content, photos and commentary, archived? The photos might be thumbnail-only though. Maybe full-sized, too. As Rick said in Casablanca, "We'll always have Paris."
Today's photo is very nice, with the red roses, yellow train, and blue sky. Plus there's a Kodak Picture Spot sign... and oh yeah, the Main Street Station, too.
I hesitate to suggest it, but perhaps us 'regulars' could save the photos and comments from the early years; divide the task up between us. I hesitate, because I'm not sure I can comprehend the enormity of the task. Even divided up, it would take a lot of time and effort, and I wouldn't want any of us to feel obligated to do it. Plus, I would imagine that you, Major, would still have to ultimately upload the content that we saved. And that's where all the time and effort would be. Like you said, "a full-time job to re-upload them to a new server". So, I guess it wouldn't really solve anything. [Sigh, again] I'd be interested to hear the other Jr.Gs thoughts.
Thanks for the nice pic, Major. And thanks for the heads-up.
Major, first, let me say that NO ONE and NOTHING can erase all the fun memories and laughter you’ve brought to this little community of ours. Secondly, whatever you decide to do, or need to do, we’ll back you and continue following you.
We love you and GDB—you’re THE BEST!
—Lou and Sue
Major, thank you for the work you do for us every day. It’s a shame you have to dispose of such a large chunk of your life, and a shame that the world will no longer be able to see these great pictures and memories.
We support you in whatever actions you need to take, and only wish there was some way we could help.
Major, I'm sorry to hear this is happening. You've worked so very hard on this blog. Your blog. My only thoughts in regard to deleting pre-2017 content is to ask your readers and personal friends who have submitted content personal in nature if they wish to make sure their content is deleted pre-2017 so that it is not "owned" by Photobucket to do with as they please.
I think Sue said it best. Our memories are what count. And that we will always have.
Sad as it would or will be, I fully support whatever decision you make.
Thanks for all you do.
Thanks David for your transparency. Not a great way to begin a day, when visiting GDB is generally a happy morning diversion for so many people, and a positive start to any day: no matter what else is going on in our lives. The blog is more than "fun and games" and I can start a laundry list (and everyone knows I can certainly write Tolstoy length posts....) of reasons why, culturally, emotionally, and spiritually GDB is important. As a historical record, as a snapshot in time: both in the past, and the present as comments can reflect many issues of the day: whether implied or direct. Wouldn't it have been wonderful if in 1955 there was this thing called a "blog" and every day, the people of 1950's Disneyland: guests and employees alike, would wax poetic for future generations to read...and what a record to look back on of people who were actually there in the moment. There is a way, and certainly there are above average intelligence GDB readers/followers, with expertise in this area, that will rise to the moment and provide support so that historic GDB can live on in perpetuity. The rest of us will of course support in any way we can. Public domain is an interesting place, and certainly there is a "RETLAW" that can be formed to protect past, present and future images and written content. I am not a tech wizard or a copyright lawyer, but someone out there is and will step up. Don't be discouraged. I like everyone else will support the decisions: it's your blog, and we must respect that, but honestly I'm not one to throw in the towel quite so quickly.
Oh my. The internet strikes again. I think the advice given above is good; I too was able to save my blog text (only 8 years worth) to prevent loss, so I know it works.
And if nothing else, know that you have gathered and nurtured a family of devotees who will stay with you no matter what happens.
Hang in there! let us know if we can help in any other way.
Tom, thank you. In this case I don’t blame “the Internet”, but one greedy company that has no scruples. Pleasing the shareholder is all that matters, the actual customer can go to… well, you know.
Wait...are you saying Disney owns Photobucket? ;-)
Chuck, it wouldn't surprise me!
Major...this is your baby no matter what. We have all been on an incredible ride with you. Sadly, as we know...the 'cloud' is only for free if you and the Jr. Gorillas are the product. The powers that be also have bills to pay and food to put on the table. Unless it is a subscription service for which the subscribers fully pay for the service, we are subject to the Golden Rule. He who has the gold makes the rules. It's painful to learn of the choices that have to be made. We will support you in whatever action you decide to take. KS
Can you fund raise and hire a professional cyber company to download the images to a huge hard drive? I would contribute.
Sorry this is happening! I noticed this week that Matterhorn59 site is deleted and Gone and wondered what happened; probably a similar situation.
Love for GDB will not fade away. Personally, I’ve archived lots of photos along the way, less the sparkling repartee of-course, which like real conversations, have to linger in the heart and mind.
Cute Exit photo.
If there is anything I can do to help, I’d be glad to.
MS
KS, so far I have not given up 100% as far as those older blog posts go; maybe I really could re-up the photos using another host and it wouldn’t take as long as I fear. After all, the scanning (and dust removal, color adjustment, etc) and actual writing (believe it or not) is the part that takes the longest. Chuck has discovered that I can download a blog archive, it does not have the photos attached, but WILL give me the names of the image files that I used (something like “8-64-Mark Twain nice.jpg”), and that would make it easier to replace them. Theoretically at least! Thanks for such nice words.
Jimmy, no fund necessary! I have downloaded all of the jpegs from Photobucket, believe it or not it is only about 2.5 Gigabytes for around 10,500 images. But it’s like dumping them on a table, in no order. I’ll need to put them back where they belong using a new photo host - all of those photos and around 4,000-ish blog posts (I believe). It’s not impossible, but… thinking about it is daunting.
MS, oh man! I have no idea if Matterhorn1959 used Photobucket, but it does seem like an odd coincidence that his images are gone. I might email him and ask!
And to ALL of the readers who have texted me, emailed, called, or otherwise commented offering to help, I want to send out a HUGE thank you. It’s pretty incredible!
Major, wow. Service providers gotta service-provide, I guess, but this is a bummer.
I know nothing about Blogger, but can you temporarily make your entire blog "private" or "unpublished"? That would give you time to form the best plan.
I have some experience and skills in coding online file retrievals, but can't think of anything I could do. I will follow this discussion.
Nice pic today of Disneyland '59. Parking lot!
Wow, I've had issues with Photobucket myself, but this is horrible! I can't offer any technical help, as I have none, but hopefully everyone here can come up with a solution. We are all thankful for the little bit of fun you provide us every morning, and will do anything we can to help!
Waaaait! Please don't delete the posts (yet). If you've bulk downloaded the photos you've already won the crucial battle. As someone mentioned, put the old posts in Draft status (to give us all more time to think) and now you've SAVED all the essential, wonderful (others in the future will be able to enjoy it) content. There are so many possibilities for how those old, treasured posts might somehow be restored it's just too daunting trying to think of them in the difficulty of the moment. So the thing for now is *buy time* and let's see what options come along in the future. You've got the photos, the posts themselves can be "archived." All the content is there, on hold so to speak, waiting for the right solution to meander along for pairing them back together. There's still HOPE.
LTL, I don’t really know what the advantage would be of making the blog private, I assume that only “invited” people could look at it? And I would still lose the images on Photobucket. Maybe I’m misunderstanding. I have the picture files, I was thinking that if I just replaced the pictures in some of the better blog posts first, and then slowly tackled the others, maybe it would be doable. It will still take years.
Anonymous, you make a lot of good points, and I will probably not delete the text portion of the posts after reading your comment. I still have a lot to figure out, but as you said, there is still hope. Thank you!
Brad Abbott, oops, sorry, did not mean to skip you. I never imagined I would hate a company as much as I hate Photobucket, but... they've earned it. I think I might be able to save things, even if it takes a LONG time!
Major, I heard about this earlier. This is awful.
I fully support whatever decisions you make and I’m ready to help any way I can.
I am so everlastingly grateful for you and the GDB community you created. You should be very proud of your creation, whether done on purpose or not. You’ve brought joy to hundreds or maybe thousands, much like Walt himself.
Please let me know how I can help.
JG
Oh no! Sorry to hear about this, Major. I had a little personal website years ago with pics hosted by Photobucket, and when they started charging, I downloaded them (only a few hundred) and stopped using it. To this day, I still get emails from them about the danger of my "Inactive Account" being deleted. I abandoned it on purpose! As some other Jr. Gorillas have said, if there is a way I can help organize/sort things, let me know!
oops, Major, I misunderstood the whole deal. looks like only pre-2017 images will be affected. in that case, may I suggest, it's not so bad to have almost ten year old content with broken images (temporarily, or even not temporarily)... especially if the thumbnails are still there, it would still keep your body of work available online, and be of great use to many.
This is a horrible situation, Major. I've posted only a few comments here, and none lately, but I always look in because this is a truly great historical site, and not just for Disney fans. I've especially enjoyed your excursions into other "lands" beyond Walt's, the N.Y. 1964-65 World's Fair in particular.
Many thanks for many smiles— and, carry on!
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