Aw C'mon PBase [Archive] - Canon Digital Photography Forums

Jon Foster

24th of September 2009 (Thu), 23:26

I waited to use them for hosting for a long long time. Then they seemed to get things together. But I've also noticed several slow downs lately...

This afternoon I was checking my site counters and noticed zero hits for the day on my PBase account. I've never had zero hits! So I went to log on and nothing. Apparently they have been offline for over 24 hours now. But some of the shots I've got linked back to them are still being served up. Not very fast but most I've checked are still there. Regardless, I had planned to upload new shots today that people were waiting to proof. Now I have some pissed people to deal with.

Jon.

Veemac

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 03:41

...It seems like every time I follow a link to a pbase site, 90% of the time it will be slow and at least 30%+ the link will not load at all...
I had never paid much attention to it until a few days ago, but I've noticed that pbase seems to consistently be the slowest loading site for images attached to posts. The post will load, other images will be filled in, and the status bar will show 'waiting for pbase.com' as the images slloooooowwwwly load up.

ssim

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 05:41

I have always used pbase and quite honestly I have always liked it. One certainly can't complain about the pricing but Slug seems to act like this a something he is running out of his garage part time. The lack of response to customer concerns has always rubbed me the wrong way but as far as loading and displaying images I have not had issues. I never load any full size images there and perhaps those that do have loading issues is connected to larger sized shots than those that I load. They were one of the early entrants into this area and just didn't pay attention to their customers, never added much in the way of new functionality and I do think that they are continually losing its customer base.

I like the way you can customize you part of this to whatever you want. Compare that functionality to Flickr and it should be booming but it is not. This latest debacle is just another one in a long list of failures. It always seems to be server failures. Go figure.

Picture North Carolina

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 07:00

This latest blow up is feeling like a Pro Rate situation...

Not quite sure what this means, but assume it means pbase, once again, is suffering their chronic, ongoing, never-ending, always-present, it's-been-fixed-oops-there-it-goes-again problems. Get the picture?

I used them for a couple of years. You'll see my old pecker tracks all over their forum. I'm not proud to say some of the posts were rather undiplomatic, but their ongoing, never-ending cycle of problems just wore thin.

I've been getting email renewal notices lately for my account. This year they're being put into the deleted folder as fast as I can drop them there.

Good bye and good riddance.

jwkramer

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 07:31

I have been a PBase user for years. The one thing that I simply loved about PBase was search engine visiblity. In my experience other hosting sites just don't get the visibility that PBase does. That said, the slow downs, and outages now have me thinking of jumping ship. I agree with others on here - the site has never been ran competently, and more often than not it feels like it is a machine sitting on the garage floor at someones house.

This latest incident is a prime example. The site indicates that they had a power outage at the data center. I work in I.T. - and I can tell you this... true data centers don't have power outages. They have battery backup, and generators. They have redundant data lines, and fire supression. They have 24 hour monitoring. All I can think is that by data center, Slug is referring to his garage (again).

Oh well... it was a nice ride while it lasted. Now I have to rebuild my site from the ground up... JOY.

-Jim

OneMac

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 07:47

Oh bugger...... :cry:

Any suggestions for something similar??

Al

Jon Foster

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 10:11

Well, it's going on 36 hours of down time right now. I'm still upset and getting more upset as time continues to pass. Will I jump ship on them? Maybe. But not today. Hopefully they'll get everything sorted out. Sooner than later would be nice. Then I can take my time to find another service to make the switch. I think I have another two or three months before I owe the dues again.

Examples like this are also the foundation for my reasons to have my own websites. The blogging sites and free web hosting pages are nice because they are free but what happens to all your data and hard work if the service becomes a pay site, changes policies, gets sold, shuts down or the traffic drops off due to a new site becoming more popular?

Jon.

jwkramer

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 10:22

Oh bugger...... :cry:

Any suggestions for something similar??

Al

I am moving to SmugMug.

Todd Lambert

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 10:51

I am moving to SmugMug.

Just trading one for the other - tit for tat. ;)

Examples like this are also the foundation for my reasons to have my own websites. The blogging sites and free web hosting pages are nice because they are free but what happens to all your data and hard work if the service becomes a pay site, changes policies, gets sold, shuts down or the traffic drops off due to a new site becoming more popular?

This is the best advice in this thread... take your site and run. Be in complete control of your destiny. It's like email, why would anyone use something that is tied to an ISP. Get your own domain-based email, as long as you pay for the domain, you own it... forever. Same thing with your website.

Woolburr

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 11:06

So Pbase had a little hiccup. They hope to be online by 3:30 Eastern....I've used them for 7 years now...and this is really the only big problem that has occurred. Perhaps Slug doesn't run this as effectively as he should. For 23 bucks a year, I'm not going to complain. It beats Flickr and giving your images away. It is consistently the fastest loading photo site on the web...if you don't believe it, just take a tour of PhotoFriday and see what images load and what images you have to synchronize with your hourglass. Pbase also allows you the ability to customize your pages and offer a variety of different image sizes. No way you can customize Flickr to do that. I have a Zenfolio account for business....pbase is just for fun and family. I think I'll let them get back online before I get too irrational in my assessment of them.

Picture North Carolina

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 11:06

This is the best advice in this thread... take your site and run. Be in complete control of your destiny. It's like email, why would anyone use something that is tied to an ISP. Get your own domain-based email, as long as you pay for the domain, you own it... forever. Same thing with your website.

Exactly. Agree with and have written here many times about the advantages of self-hosting, self-fulfillment, etc. However, email is yet another thought. I own about 25 domains. However, one was purchased solely for the purpose of personal email. No website, just email. I haven't sent a single email thru the ISP mailserver. And I never will.

How many sales do you think have been lost over the last 36 hours by photographers who sent prospective customers to pbase for reviews, but found that they were down? From a customer's perspective, it's not the (third party) pbase that's down, it't the photographer's gallery that is down. It makes you look very unprofessional, folks.

Take control of your own destiny, your own business, your own professionalism.

yogestee

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 11:09

I've had a Pbase account for 5 years and I like Pbase.. In my opinion it's one of the best image hosting sites around..

I don't have any other accounts so all my best stuff goes on Pbase.. The last few weeks, a few times things have been slow..Other than that I've never had any problems with Pbase..

I find Flickr, Smugmug and others too pedestrian looking and sooooo slow..

Their design templates are a bit limiting unless you understand web design,, which I don't.. What I love about Pbase is they don't have image size limitations although they recommend to don't upload at zero compression and my edits in CS2 look identical when uploaded to Pbase..

timnosenzo

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 11:36

Just trading one for the other - tit for tat. ;)

Not true. While SmugMug may have the occasional hiccup, their support is top notch, and they're very engaged with their customers. Once upon a time, I was a PBase user, and it was the same way then as it is now. Moving to SmugMug was a huge step up.

Todd Lambert

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 12:12

Not true. While SmugMug may have the occasional hiccup, their support is top notch, and they're very engaged with their customers. Once upon a time, I was a PBase user, and it was the same way then as it is now. Moving to SmugMug was a huge step up.

Yes, but you're still at the mercy of some small startup company that may forget to pay their electric bill or decide that they can't afford a new server right now, so they'll just make do with the ones they have until next quarter, etc..

Your success is dependent on someone else's.

tonylong

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 12:29

Interestingly, PBase pictures that I've posted here prior to yesterday have shown up since the crash. I wonder if there is a server still running in the background there, or does POTN cache images that are linked from other hosts?

timnosenzo

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 13:08

Yes, but you're still at the mercy of some small startup company that may forget to pay their electric bill or decide that they can't afford a new server right now, so they'll just make do with the ones they have until next quarter, etc..

Your success is dependent on someone else's.

But that would be the case anywhere. Even if you hosted a server out of your own house, you're still relying on your electric company to supply power, or the cable company to provide the Internet, etc.

Put your own server in a co-lo data center, and you're relying on them for those services...

FWIW, I think SmugMug surpassed the "small start-up company" status a while ago. It's not like they work out of a garage or something. ;)

Woolburr

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 13:16

Yes, but you're still at the mercy of some small startup company that may forget to pay their electric bill or decide that they can't afford a new server right now, so they'll just make do with the ones they have until next quarter, etc..

Your success is dependent on someone else's.

Smugmug hardly falls in the "small start-up company" class. They are an established brand with a proven track record.

Interestingly, PBase pictures that I've posted here prior to yesterday have shown up since the crash. I wonder if there is a server still running in the background there, or does POTN cache images that are linked from other hosts?

I have stuff on other sites that is also showing. It appears that the crash didn't disturb the images, just the indexing server.

Todd Lambert

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 13:21

Yeah, well I think you're getting offended by the startup moniker... they are a startup. So is MediaTemple, so is del.icio.us, etc... nothing wrong with that.

But that would be the case anywhere. Even if you hosted a server out of your own house, you're still relying on your electric company to supply power, or the cable company to provide the Internet, etc.

Put your own server in a co-lo data center, and you're relying on them for those services...

However Tim, there is a major difference: With all of your stuff based on your own domain name... you can easily move your website, somewhere else in a matter of hours (enough time for the DNS changes to propagate). Boom, in a few hours, your business is up and running again. You have the control.

That's a big difference.

Jon Foster

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 14:38

This will sound like a practice what you preach comment but for the companies that pay me to build/maintain their websites I keep full up to date backups on hand at all times. If their ISP goes down I can have them up on a temporary server withing minutes of being notified. Worse case, I will temporarily host their sites on my own servers here at home or one of my offices. My house has it's own power source so I can operate without utility service. A hard line failure would be the only reason I can't keep a site up and running. But in that case I use a office server.

Having said that, I keep all my sites hosted with other ISP's. Right now I've been using Comcast for a bunch of personal stuff with great success. But that could chance at any minute. So being able to make a quick switch is critical to me. I can't do that with blogged or canned sites. Making DNS changes happens so fast these days it's only a matter of how fast you can get online to make the changes.

The down side to all this is, my own sites are the ones that get the least attention. My photography site has had a "Under Construction" page online for well over a year now!

Jon.

20droger

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 16:34

Just trading one for the other - tit for tat. ;)
Leave my, um, "tats" out of this!

We use pbase. We like it. It serves our needs. What more can we expect from a web site?

As for the current problem, feces occurs, and always at the least convenient time. This, too, shall pass.

FlyingPhotog

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 16:38

So much for being back up by 1930Z... :(

20droger

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 19:39

Unlike Jay, pbase seems to have trouble flying.

FlyingPhotog

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 19:41

I guess it done blow-ed up real good... :(

20droger

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 19:43

I'm sure the owner and the techs are less than thrilled at this point in time.

Been there. Done that. Working around the clock living on stale coffee is no fun.

FlyingPhotog

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 19:44

Investing in a few UPS would probably lessen the need for stale coffee...

Todd Lambert

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 20:20

Eneloops are the answer!

jgrussell

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 20:31

Not true. While SmugMug may have the occasional hiccup, their support is top notch, and they're very engaged with their customers. Once upon a time, I was a PBase user, and it was the same way then as it is now. Moving to SmugMug was a huge step up.I loved PBase. Note the past tense. I still support the place for older images, but have moved my primary site to SmugMug too.

PhotosGuy

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 20:48

Investing in a few UPS would probably lessen the need for stale coffee... You have that right! I haven't had a power related crash since I got mine & that's been 5 years.

Jon Foster

25th of September 2009 (Fri), 22:33

I think we've hit the 48 hour mark for down time...

Jon.

sapearl

26th of September 2009 (Sat), 07:20

Hmmmm.... 8:20 a.m. EDT; still down.

jwkramer

26th of September 2009 (Sat), 10:28

Not true. While SmugMug may have the occasional hiccup, their support is top notch, and they're very engaged with their customers. Once upon a time, I was a PBase user, and it was the same way then as it is now. Moving to SmugMug was a huge step up.

I agree.

As I get set up on SmugMug, I am becoming more and more impressed. I think I will be very happy there.

-Jim

jwkramer

26th of September 2009 (Sat), 10:33

I think we've hit the 48 hour mark for down time...

Jon.

I think they are LYING their asses off. I have been in I.T. for over 20 years, and I have ***NEVER***, ***EVER***, ***EVER*** had a server down for that long. I would have been fired so fast my head would spin.

I'm sorry - but that's Mickey Mouse BULLSH-T. (no offense, Walt)

My personel guess is that they lost the database, and they don't have a backup. VERY VERY BAD BUSINESS. Maybe we'll have to wait until the hard drives come back from ONTRACK.

Picture North Carolina

26th of September 2009 (Sat), 10:49

I'm beginning to think that Slug collected as many subscription checks as he could, stuffed them into a suitcase and is now on an airplane headed south of the border!

Jon Foster

26th of September 2009 (Sat), 12:43

jwkramer

26th of September 2009 (Sat), 15:19

60 hours...

Jim, I hear ya. I've never had one down that long either. I can have a new server on the doorstep from any of my vendors in less than a day or hand delivered depending on what I need within hours. Run a full restore in another 2-3 hours and be back in business instantly. Of course, that would only happen if my battery backups failed during the 10 second delay for our generators to come online. And we have terrible power in this area.

Edit: They don't have any update posted yet for the day. The last one is from last night at 6:55 PM. Are they taking the weekend off?

Jon.

Slug added an update to the status. They are apparently restoring the data to a new server. I just don't get it... are we to understand that PBase was being ran from a single non-redundant server? If so, that certainly explains the slow response I have been seeing for the past year or so. The more info I receive, the less thrilled I am with the site.

I mean seriously... a commercial site the size of PBase running from a single non-redundant server with no backup power... are you kidding? I wonder if it even had RAID arrays? I'm beginning to seriously doubt they are actually running on Oracle... with the rest of the setup, I would have more likely guessed Microsoft Access 97.

-Jim

Jon Foster

26th of September 2009 (Sat), 16:58

jwkramer

26th of September 2009 (Sat), 17:10

Using Oracle might be the reason they can't afford all the things they should have. I have a family friend at Oracle. I wonder if he could tell me if PBase is a customer? Hmm... I'll have to find his number.

Jon.

I'm not exactly sure how Oracle's licensing works for internet access, but I would wonder if the annual subscription fee PBase charges would even cover the licensing fees.

I'd be interested to know what you found out... just out of curiosity.

-Jim

Jon Foster

27th of September 2009 (Sun), 00:02

Man, 72+ hours.

Jon.

gb_eh

27th of September 2009 (Sun), 14:26

yonni

27th of September 2009 (Sun), 17:46

I'm beginning to think that Slug collected as many subscription checks as he could, stuffed them into a suitcase and is now on an airplane headed south of the border!

I use my brother's account there and he teaches/researches at the NPS in Monterey, and that was his first thought. While their business is shrinking they are pocketing the dough and not investing in the company.

Suchin

27th of September 2009 (Sun), 17:50

. I hate Flickr and not sold on SmugMug yet. Looking at Zenfolio any horror stories there from anyone???

I hate Flickr, too. Have just jumped to Zenfolio. Read last night on DPreview, and posts there had some good things to day about Zenfolio. I like their interface, much better than pbase, I think.

I'm not an IT pro and you guys are scary discussing the possibilities.

DDCSD

27th of September 2009 (Sun), 17:59

Using Oracle might be the reason they can't afford all the things they should have. I have a family friend at Oracle. I wonder if he could tell me if PBase is a customer? Hmm... I'll have to find his number.

Jon.

The Pbase site says they're with Oracle.

PBase is temporarily unavailable. There was a power failure at our datacenter on the morning of 24-Sep-2009. When power came back, the main database server did not come back online properly. We have been working with Oracle support to get things back up and running as quickly as possible. The steps we have been taking with Oracle's support technicians are progressing nicely. It takes a lot of time because we have to preserve data integrity by running new backups and copying them to another server before taking some of the recovery steps. The last big step we took did not work as well as we had hoped, but parts of the database are now functioning. The Oracle guys are working with us to get the rest of it working again. We will keep you posted as we know more.

http://pbase.com/

I feel sorry for you guys. I get ticked off when Smugmug is down for 15 minutes!

ed rader

27th of September 2009 (Sun), 18:08

I'm jumping ship.. Pbase has been slow lately and now it's been down for 3days? Sorry time to leave a sinking ship. I get the feeling these guy(s) Slug run the company as a hobby not as a business. They haven't kept in step with the other providers for features etc.... I hate Flickr and not sold on SmugMug yet. Looking at Zenfolio any horror stories there from anyone???

i've used zenfolio for more than a year. the only time service has been offline is for regularly scheduled maintenance which is advertised well in advance.

smugmug allows more customization but simpler is better for me and i am very happy with zenfolio, which is also a local company :D.

ed rader

fotoworx

27th of September 2009 (Sun), 20:44

Bye Bye Pbase

ssim

27th of September 2009 (Sun), 21:32

This is certainly going to make for some interesting commentary on their forum when they do get back online. The sad part is that they will probably repeat history and blame everyone except themselves. If history does repeat, Slug himself will say little if anything. I wish someone that actually cared about customers would buy that thing.

Jon Foster

27th of September 2009 (Sun), 23:34

96+ hours and still adding!

Jon.

OneMac

28th of September 2009 (Mon), 08:00

We are not amused :mad:

Al

sapearl

28th of September 2009 (Mon), 08:29

Now I'm starting to get really nervous.

I use PBase to "host" my wedding and event proofs, not to mention my personal exhibit galleries. Fortunately I'm between commercial shoots right now - but not for long.

gymell

28th of September 2009 (Mon), 09:11

Being down 4 days and still no resolution is beyond inexcusable. I liked pbase because of its simplicity, and technical focus, but I will definitely be leaving. I'm not worried about my images there because I have them all locally, but what I would really be upset about losing is all the commentary I've added to the photos. I really hope they get this fixed, so I can retrieve all that and take my business elsewhere. Ridiculous.

sapearl

28th of September 2009 (Mon), 09:22

I agree with you Liz - 4 days in an IT environment feels like 4 months in human time.

I can appreciate the work that goes into the commentary.... it's likely something that you put a lot of effort into over time. I don't have a lot of verbiage, the but the organizational structure did take a while to build.

Being down 4 days and still no resolution is beyond inexcusable. I liked pbase because of its simplicity, and technical focus, but I will definitely be leaving. I'm not worried about my images there because I have them all locally, but what I would really be upset about losing is all the commentary I've added to the photos. I really hope they get this fixed, so I can retrieve all that and take my business elsewhere. Ridiculous.

nicksan

28th of September 2009 (Mon), 09:31

PBase is just too slow IMO...

gymell

28th of September 2009 (Mon), 09:43

I predict there will be a mass exodus. This kind of outage is really unacceptable for a professional organization.

wardie

28th of September 2009 (Mon), 18:19

Seems to be up now in a limited form - some pages don't load and the forum definitely doesn't

I'm not a pBase user but it seems slow to me

tonylong

28th of September 2009 (Mon), 19:35

So did you all lose POTN today for a long time? What a nightmare having both sites out at once! But PBase and POTN both seem to be semi-functioning at least now.

gymell

28th of September 2009 (Mon), 20:33

Yeah, but POTN was a planned server migration and was only down for a few hours. Pbase was down for 4 days due to a power outage!

ssim

29th of September 2009 (Tue), 02:04

I predict there will be a mass exodus. This kind of outage is really unacceptable for a professional organization.

This is about as bad as it has ever been. I can recall a couple of other occurrences but not to this length of down time. Mind you one time they had to hunt Slug down at the Burning Man festival out in the desert and that took some time.

There will be alot of rhetoric about people leaving, there always is. In the end there will certainly be some that won't renew their account but I really don't think that there will be a mass exodus. People do like the UI for this site and how they can customize it to their personal needs.

One thing that everyone seems to agree on is that 4 days of downtime in this day age is unheard of. They obviously didn't have any sort of contingency in the event of this happening. Then I hear this comment, well its only 24.00 a year, what do you expect. I expect it run basically flawless. You sign on for a service and the price is somewhat irrelevant. If a customer signs on for you to do a wedding and they pay you a set amount, you certainly can't renege on the quality simply because you charged them on next to nothing.

When I started it today it loaded everything correctly except I had to rebuild one thumbnail which is not bad out of over 12,000 that I have on there. I certainly hope that Slug and company have some comforting words that will minimize the war of the words once they turn the forum back on.

I would expect to see some offers from the other service providers in the next few days to try an entice Pbase users over to them.

Jon Foster

29th of September 2009 (Tue), 12:18

I was on it last night/this morning. It's still pretty slow and it seems to flip back and forth between read-only mode and the regular mode... I tried to upload one picture and it didn't work the first time. Some of my thumbnails were gone too. I think most of it is back but I'll finish checking later.

I agree with Sheldon. If you pay a set price regardless of how much or how little it is, then you need to provide the service agreed on. If $24.00 a year isn't enough then they need to charge more. And I believe they do. The $24.00 is for the basic account. If you use a lot of space the price goes up. I think it's a tiered pricing schedule.

Jon.

Todd Lambert

29th of September 2009 (Tue), 12:24

Flickr charges $24 a year too... but they're backed by Yahoo server farms...

Not comparing the two in performance or features, just saying that the price is competitive with the rest of the world.

Jon Foster

29th of September 2009 (Tue), 12:27

So did you all lose POTN today for a long time? What a nightmare having both sites out at once! But PBase and POTN both seem to be semi-functioning at least now.

POTN didn't crash. Or it didn't look like it. ;) Down times happen. But PBase went down for 4 days because of a power outage. Apparently their "data center" was built by Fred Flintstone. He must not have known about UPS technology (battery backups) or generators to keep things running during power outages.

At the very least you have a UPS in place on each server so the systems can shut themselves down unattended during a extended power outage. The batteries should provide enough power for all the services to shut down properly and then turn the servers off.

And POTN is screaming fast this morning! Wow.

Jon.

yogestee

29th of September 2009 (Tue), 23:28

I had a lousey day yesterday.. POTN was down, Pbase wasn't working at its fullest and to top it off the Broadband connection at my house spat the dummy..

I got the techs in from my ISP this morning..They changed the antenna, rewired and all is good..

Pbase is up and running as is POTN.. I'm a happy man :D

Jon Foster

30th of September 2009 (Wed), 01:37

Jurgen, it sounds like you really did have a bad day!

I just tried to upload another file to PBase. It sorta worked after a few tries. Apparently things are still not right yet...

Jon.

FlyingPhotog

30th of September 2009 (Wed), 01:40

My PBase seems to be working OK now. Still about as sluggish as it was before the Dark Age.

Still getting occasional thumbnail misdraws but uploading seems to be working.

Jon Foster

30th of September 2009 (Wed), 01:43

Depending on which page I go to or when I refresh it, it will tell me the site is in read-only mode. I can't delete anything and editing pictures doesn't seem to work on the first try. That's assuming I don't get the read-only message first.

Jon.

yogestee

30th of September 2009 (Wed), 04:36

Jurgen, it sounds like you really did have a bad day!

I just tried to upload another file to PBase. It sorta worked after a few tries. Apparently things are still not right yet...

Jon.

Seems to be OK this end.. I just uploaded a new image to one of my galleries and went through OK.. Some parts are still read only though..

gb_eh

30th of September 2009 (Wed), 08:52

I've officially pulled the plug of Pbase, it has been down since Friday (sure it kinda works now, but read only isn't working is it?). Just signed on with Zenfolio (http://www.zenfolio.com) and will be letting my Pbase account run out in three months.

If interested in joining you can use this http://www.zenfolio.com/zf/img/refbtn/b3.jpg (http://www.zenfolio.com/?refcode=M8F-9HH-67G) (btw: I save $5 also)

Glen

Jon Foster

30th of September 2009 (Wed), 19:01

I haven't been on PBase today. I'll check it in a few minutes. I hope it's back up now... Jeesh.

Jon.

byker28i

1st of October 2009 (Thu), 02:39

FlyingPhotog

1st of October 2009 (Thu), 02:48

Hit Stats aren't functional yet either...

Suchin

1st of October 2009 (Thu), 08:21

I've moved to Zenfolio also. They have great options, and I like them better. Am letting my pbase stand as is (have 13 months left on subscription) but will be migrating my main images over. It seems the color comes in better, too, at Zenfolio. Plus, big plus, I have a mac uploader available. That makes it easier.

Suchin

1st of October 2009 (Thu), 08:23

That is a mega lousy day!

gardengirl13

1st of October 2009 (Thu), 08:58

Ugh, OK I need to chime in too. Still can't delete photos, or delete original. It seems to still be running really slow, and I can't find any information on when it'll be working again.

Sure I'm not depending on Pbase for my business, if I was I'd be gone, but I do depend on it for my husbands gigs. I shoot his band and people looking for photos afterward are getting impatient!

One question I have is after deleting all my originals I was using 16MB of space the day the power went out, this morning I checked again to load a pile of photos and it's saying I'm now using 35MB. Sure that's still not much, but after uploading today and not being able to delete I'll hit my quota soon!

Jon Foster

1st of October 2009 (Thu), 15:30

Just checked it again. Still not working! WTF? In about 6 hours it will be a solid week of down time and or loss of functionality.

Maybe it's time to turn one of my servers into a picture hosting box...

Jon.

ssim

1st of October 2009 (Thu), 15:47

Pbase is limping along. I cannot delete photos, delete originals, lots of fuctionality is missing, the forums are missing, email messages aren't being responded to and there's nothing on the site to explain they are still having issues.

That's about a week of downtime now, which really is unacceptable for a paid service.

They didn't respond to emails when things were normal, you really don't expect them to get a sense of customer service and do it now do you. Silly you;);).

They really have had the makings of something great but Slug (what a fitting name, probably short for Sluggish) just seemed to have that "I don't give a damn" attitude. If there is one thing that just drives me crazy is bad customer service. Their's isn't just poor, it is downright absolutely crappy.

I am not a techno wizard but in a previous job I negotiated a contract for a service that ran off of servers in Dallas while we were in Montreal. If I recall (I've since retired from there) it cost us something like 8 grand a year for a level of service that they guaranteed up time of 98%. I do know that our data was duplicated on another server and if things did go bad it was a matter of minutes to get things running off of the other one.

It seems that there is still some shake out happenings in this industry and it would be great if someone with a sense of caring (that would be just about anyone except the current owners) would make a bid to buy that company and build on what they already have.

I cannot believe that it is a week now. Hard to imagine in this day and age. I am sure that Slug is apprehensive to turn the forum back on because he is afraid of what his users are going to say.

I don't care about the little things like the hit counters but surely they have got it to a point where we could delete and edit our images. I have considered making a move to someone else, probably Zenfolio from what I have looked at so far. I have over 12,000 images on there and that is a ton of work to make the changeover.

The biggest problem they have is that they have a guy running this that doesn't care. The users can, and have, blast him from every side and he just seems to shrug his shoulders and say oh well. Nothing will change, imo, until there is someone else in charge there.

FlyingPhotog

1st of October 2009 (Thu), 16:02

Just re-re-checked mine and oddly enough, my galleries and images are loading faster than I can ever recall them doing so.

yogestee

2nd of October 2009 (Fri), 00:01

Yeah,,I just checked mine this miniute,, it's really flying although it's still in read only mode..

Maybe something good will come out of it..

Suchin

2nd of October 2009 (Fri), 09:00

I have over 12,000 images on there and that is a ton of work to make the changeover.

I've seen a migration assist at Zenfolio but am not using it as I'm not going to bring over everything I have at pbase just certain galleries. You might look into that.

tonylong

2nd of October 2009 (Fri), 13:20

I agree that things have speeded up since the "disaster" -- doubtlessly beefed up servers. The two things that seem to be still missing from what I've seen are the ability to delete/replace photos and the view counter. Uploading photos and creating galleries seem to work fine.

Jon Foster

2nd of October 2009 (Fri), 21:07

I've uploaded a few shots today but that's about it. I honestly don't know if it seems any faster. It's not worse so that's a good thing but I'm still not real impressed with how things have been working or how things have turned out etc.

Jon.

Jon Foster

3rd of October 2009 (Sat), 10:58

I've been looking at the options available on Zenfolio this morning. The Premium account looks pretty good. The Unlimited account doesn't seem to bad either to test the waters.

Jon.

yogestee

3rd of October 2009 (Sat), 23:47

I added a new gallery this morning with 48 images.. Pbase is working great..

Happy Chappy!! :D:D:D

FlyingPhotog

3rd of October 2009 (Sat), 23:50

Jurgen,

Can you delete images? I can't on mine, yet... :(

yogestee

3rd of October 2009 (Sat), 23:51

Jurgen,

Can you delete images? I can't on mine, yet... :(

Sure can Jay..

FlyingPhotog

4th of October 2009 (Sun), 00:03

Sure can Jay..

Thanks for the feedback. Guess I'll go do some shredding on my account.

Hope that's the last time that happens for a while.

yogestee

4th of October 2009 (Sun), 00:54

Thanks for the feedback. Guess I'll go do some shredding on my account.

Hope that's the last time that happens for a while.

Me too.. While all this was happening I was looking for another hosting site.. I checked out Zenfolio and Clikpik.. I still reckon Pbase is the best value for money..

Jon Foster

4th of October 2009 (Sun), 08:22

Wow. I was able to delete a picture! Isn't that great? After 10 days I can delete stuff again.

Jon.

gardengirl13

5th of October 2009 (Mon), 12:35

Seems to be a ok now, as others have said it seems to be running a bit faster too, plus they're comping us all of sept's fees!

tonylong

5th of October 2009 (Mon), 12:55

Deleting images works for me, but has anyone noticed if the view counter is functioning yet? It's a bit disconcerting when you view Statistics and note that absolutely nobody has looked at any of your images for the last 11 days:)!

Oh, and I agree it is significantly faster -- not surprising if they had to update their server(s).

yogestee

5th of October 2009 (Mon), 13:08

No hit stats on my images Tony..

gardengirl13

5th of October 2009 (Mon), 13:29

If I look at the hits for the last 11 days they're all 0, but if I look at the photos themselves I see the hits for each one in the last few days (they're photos I just put up so I know the hits are new.)

Jon Foster

5th of October 2009 (Mon), 18:47

They are comping us for September? I didn't see that. My counters are still at zero too. At least they were earlier today. I'll look again. I also use StatCounter with my PBase galleries. It's been registering hits since the pictures came back online. I guess that's one good thing at least.

Jon.

gardengirl13

6th of October 2009 (Tue), 07:40

I can't find the page that stated that. I sent them an e-mail about some of the problems and they sent me a link back, in the link it had an update on what was going on and in it it said they will not charge us for the whole month of sept.

Jon Foster

8th of October 2009 (Thu), 23:25

Here it is.

http://www.pbase.com/message.html

Jon.

Jon Foster

19th of October 2009 (Mon), 00:49

So I was just uploading pictures to PBase from a shoot today... Poof! After 24 uploads PBase can't be reached... I hope this isn't a repeat!

Jon.

FlyingPhotog

19th of October 2009 (Mon), 00:51

So I was just uploading pictures to PBase from a shoot today... Poof! After 24 uploads PBase can't be reached... I hope this isn't a repeat!

Jon.

PBase appears down or you can no longer upload?

Mine's working so far as I can tell.

ssim

19th of October 2009 (Mon), 01:25

Everything is working fine for my account. I would hope that we would make sure that it is not on our end (such as losing an internet connection) before we start posting. It is not uncommon for sites to have a momentary blip that will give that kind of a message. I would be more concerned if you can't proceed after a few minutes.

sapearl

19th of October 2009 (Mon), 05:47

Working fine for me right now also - uploaded 535 proofs last week to one gallery and still looking good.

stsva

19th of October 2009 (Mon), 07:54

Although the page statistics function is apparently still not updated and working.:cry:

Suchin

19th of October 2009 (Mon), 08:35

Several of my photos have been resized at pbase and are now small, larger than thumbnails but still small. This is weird, just some, not all of them.

I've been downloading particular galleries (image by image) to move to Zenfolio. Will have to go and retrieve the originals off remote HD which is like doing an archaeological dig so I've temporarily uploaded the few small images to Zf.

Bummer
:(

http://suchinrai.zenfolio.com

Jon Foster

19th of October 2009 (Mon), 18:54

It was back again when I checked later. But it's been slow for me all day. This morning on another forum a poster was saying most of her linked images from PBase were showing up as broken links. I hope nothing is happening (again). I still haven't made any sort of move to another service...

Jon.

yogestee

19th of October 2009 (Mon), 20:16

,,,and I'm not getting any updates of pages viewed..

Mine has been stuck on 156013 views since all this business began..

Jon Foster

20th of October 2009 (Tue), 02:47

It seemed ok tonight. I uploaded a few more things.

Jurgen, I've been using a counter from Statcounter.com to watch my hits. I set it up before the big crash and it's been working since everything came back online. The PBase counters aren't working yet. But when they did, the stats from Statcounter never really matched what PBase reported. I think part of it was the time a day would start/stop.

Jon.

ssim

20th of October 2009 (Tue), 05:14

,,,and I'm not getting any updates of pages viewed..

Mine has been stuck on 156013 views since all this business began..
The most recent update that they have on their site says that the hit counter is not working yet as they are working on a new one. Not sure why they could just keep with the old while they did that but they chose this way. The update can be seen at http://www.pbase.com/message.html . For greater clarity here it is.

gardengirl13

22nd of October 2009 (Thu), 07:34

Yeah I checked again this am and they still have not updated any info since the 8th! They could at least send us weekly updates! I really don't want to switch, cause as others have said, finding 4000 images will take me many MANY hours that would be better served taking photos!

It's a bit weird seeing 0 hits for a month now though!

I'm glad they're not counting the usage though since mine was 16MB before and today is over the limit. I hope they fix that soon too.

Jon Foster

22nd of October 2009 (Thu), 20:48

Things have seemed ok for the last couple days...

Jon.

ssim

28th of October 2009 (Wed), 15:23

There is an update dated 22OCT speaking to the updated hit counter. It is apparently their highest priority. All of the image views since the outage will be reflected once they have this new system up and running.

http://www.pbase.com/message.html

johngalt_ny

29th of October 2009 (Thu), 11:11

I've been with PBase for 4 years and I'm really sorry to say this but when my current subscription expires next October, so do I.

I truly love the ability to customize the CSS display and I do like the interface for moving and naming individual images. I also like the ease of browsing other members and being able to contact them. Lastly, the comment management area is the best of any site that I've seen.

All that said, the site is routinely brutally slow and this last disaster confirms to me that the infrastructure is woefully deficient and not to be trusted. Honestly, is UPS on the servers that new an idea?

I've rarely used their customer service but the horror stories are legion.

Putting it all together, I recently moved all my model galleries to Zenfolio. It offers way less in terms of display options and doesn't get near the hits of PBase. I slo miss the forums and comment management but, all in all, it looks to be a more reliabe, better operated site. When and if they add a community forum and a "favorites" option, they'll blow PBse away. At least I hope so.

Jon Foster

29th of October 2009 (Thu), 18:42

And it's down again... WTF?

Jon.

yogestee

29th of October 2009 (Thu), 19:57

And it's down again... WTF?

Jon.

Working fine at my end..

stsva

29th of October 2009 (Thu), 19:59

It was actually working very fast when I uploaded a PAD image earlier tonight.

Jon Foster

29th of October 2009 (Thu), 23:34

It's back again. I uploaded one file earlier, processed another, tried to upload it and got a message about the system being offline again and when it came back it would be in read only mode. The date stamp on the message was from last night (10-28-09). I've uploaded one more file since it's been back.

Jon.

Suchin

30th of October 2009 (Fri), 08:20

When and if they add a community forum and a "favorites" option, they'll blow PBse away. At least I hope so.

There is a community forum at zenfolio. It's at
http://forums.zenfolio.com/forums/
There's a separate log in for the forums.

Also, there is a favorites option of sorts. Check out "collections" which functions as a favorites and you can have your favorites in a gallery structure.

I recently moved to zenfolio and find it structure a bit alien at times and hard to get used to (a bit), but I think you'll find most of what you want there.