key4unc

If you currently use webshots to store photos, you need to read about the changes they're making. First off, any photos or videos currently on webshots will be deleted by November 15. If you don't want to move them to "Smile", the replacement for webshots which will not be free, you need to download them to your computer or to another service before they disappear.

http://smile.webshots.com/landing

QuiltnNan

thanks for the warning.,.. i think my sister uses this site

Jingle

I don't use it. Seems everyone is trying to find ways to make money.

bearisgray

Or another way of looking at it -

Everyone wants something for free.

bearisgray

duplicate post

MTS

Yeah, that was an unpleasant surprise.

The way I found out was totally by chance.
While linking to a picture, I noticed a typo in my notes and went in to edit it.....but no changes are allowed.
Instead of the box with all the editing options, there was a big SMILE logo instead.

It's not so much that the site is going away, it's that the new version, SMILE, has a totally different business plan than Webshots did (even though it's the same founders), which excludes a ton of current users in the hopes, I guess, of acquiring new users for the new service.

So it's not just a case of now charging for the basic service - which I would have been fine with - I think most rational people can understand it costs money to store all those photographs and maintain the site.
And I was NEVER bothered, or quite frankly, even noticed, any advertising as an unpaid member.

To be honest, I just used it for my quilt album - at the time, it was the easiest-to-use site out there, and had enough features for my limited needs.
I'm glad I did because after the Great Hard Crash of 2010, those were the only photos I had left.

Apparently, even if you opted for the new service, the automatic transfer over was/is a hot mess - instead of nicely organize and annotated albums, they just got dumped.
Including those of paid webshots users.

The level of anger and ire on the boards/blogs associated with users was the highest I've seen in a long time - especially about the almost total lack of communication about the change-over.

You have until Dec 1 to download your photos off of the old webshots site before they go POOF for good!!

bearisgray

I think most people are more or less okay with being charged with a service 'up front'

I know I get upset when a service was 'free' or 'included' before - and THEN I start to get charged for it.

alwayslearning

I have some photos on webshots that I don't have anywhere is because of partial crash and/or lazy repair guy and cannot, at this point retrieve them. Thanks for the warning. I will have to work on this.

charity-crafter

I have my photos organized the way I want them. Now, I need to figure out what I want to do. I think I would have been ok with them saying they can't be free anymore, I just don't like they are changing it completely.

What other photo sharing sites do you use? I have some on fliker, but it limits the free ones to 200.

MTS

I've used photobucket but that was mostly for eBay auctions - linking additional pictures so I didn't have to pay more in fees.
I never bothered to organize it nicely since it was just my "workspace."

And I noticed on their blog that they're in the process of testing a beta revamp - so who knows how that will end up.

Flickr is only $25/year (to view more than of the most 200 recent pics) -which is fine - but I've never been crazy about the interface.

I'm guessing all those sites are all moving in the same direction - assuming that users are trying to/want to consolidate their photos, currently located on multiple sites and devices - and want to share them with the world.

Not me.
I'll deal with the next week.