PhotoPoint CEO responds... [FReeper gets exclusive commentary about recovering your images!]

The Imaging Resource ^ | 02/14/2001 | By Michael R. Tomkins [aka HKDragon2]

[RonDog]

Thursday, February 14, 2002

PhotoPoint CEO responds...

09:17 ET - Pantellic Software's Dale Gass explains why his company closed doors without warning, answers criticisms and rumors, and discusses plans to get photos back in the hands of their owners...

Dale Gass, CEO of Pantellic Software Inc. - the company behind the PhotoPoint website which we've discussed so much on the site lately, emailed us overnight to comment on the site's closing and the causes behind it. As regular readers will know, the company is contemplating ways to return photos to customers, and soliciting feedback from past subscribers as to how they would like to see that happen.... (More)

[RonDog]

FReeper HKDragon2 [aka Michael R. Tomkins] is a professional journalist with a website called The Imaging Resource, and has requested that we do NOT post the full text of this article, but rather CLICK ON THE LINK to his website, to send our traffic to his website.

FWIW, The Jewish World Review website has made this same [goofy, IMHO] request.

Please CLICK HERE to read the REST of this BREAKING NEWS about getting your images back.

THANK YOU, HKDragon2!!

[RonDog]

See also:

Photopoint.com trying to milk users out of more money!!!
LATEST NEWS FROM PHOTOPOINT.COM
Posted on 2/13/02 9:39 AM Pacific by Registered

[RonDog]

HERE is what is currently posted at www.PhotoPoint.com/statusupdate.html:

Updated: Wed Feb 13 13:48:37 AST 2002

PhotoPoint.com is currently offline.

Please check back here (www.photopoint.com) for further developments.

I would like to assure people that their photos have not been lost, and are safe. However, due to the bandwidth, hardware, and labour costs, we are unable to put the site online. Pantellic Software is insolvent, and had no choice but to close it's offices and lay off all employees on December 15th.

---

Please take a moment to answer this survey. Only surveys with valid PhotoPoint username/password will be considered. Your first submission is the only one that will be taken into account. Please answer honestly, so we can do what is best for the membership.

Your responses will be summarized to determine the level of interest in the different options. Any attempt to use the fields to send comments will result in your submission being invalidated and discarded.

This information will be useful in determining how best to move forward in allowing people to possibly get their photos back and/or have their photos online again. We are looking at various options for finding PhotoPoint members a new home.

Thank you for your feedback.

Email address:
Password:

If PhotoPoint is not able to come back online, I would be interested in getting a CD-ROM of my Photos, for $24.95 plus shipping:
Yes
No

If PhotoPoint is able to come back online, I would be willing to pay $5.95 per month for the service:
Yes
No

eBay photo hosting, or the ability to host photos pointed to by third party web sites is:
Not important to me, and I would still be interested in the service.
Essential to me, and I would not subscribe unless this were available.

Please notify me via email if you are able to offer any of the above services:
Use the email address of my account, as above
Use a different email address:

[snowfox]

This is a good lesson in the number one rule of computer usage. If you are doing something on a computer that you consider important, Back it up! Preferably to a removable media, like a CD-R, if you can. (I go through about a 50-pack of CD-Rs a month doing this.)

[Merovingian]

As seen Here Also

[RonDog]

Thanks. I already posted a link to Registered's article.

What is NEW here is the LONG personal e-mail to HKDragon2, which is posted on this website HERE.

I know that it is a PAIN to do this his way, but please click on the link to his website.

[RonDog]

O.K., here is a short quote from HKDragon2's e-mail from the PhotoPoint CEO:

"...Now at this point, I have two choices. Walk away from it all, get a new job, and greatly simplify my life; or find a way for people to get their photos back. I am choosing the latter, and I will do everything within my power, to make sure this happens. It is worth filtering out the screams of the pissed off people who think they're being "held hostage", in order to get back the meaningful family photos of people who innocently neglected to keep copies. For every ten ranting abusive messages I get, there is one sincere and heartfelt plea. I think that's reason enough to do what I can..." - click here for more

[Snow Bunny]

Thank you !!!

[Merovingian]

The 9/11 part is interesting..

[RonDog]

"Dale Gass, CEO of Pantellic Software Inc. - the company behind the PhotoPoint website which we've discussed so much on the site lately, emailed us overnight to comment on the site's closing and the causes behind it..." - FReeper HKDragon2

PhotoPoint ping!

Please check out HKDragon's e-mail from the PhotoPoint CEO here.

[RonDog]

Thanks.
As a sidebar, please explain to (relative newbie) HKDragon2 the benefits of us posting the FULL TEXT of his article here.

Would he not get MORE hits, longterm, from FReepers who might never have visited his website?

Also, would he not get more REGULAR visiters to his website, if they got to see how wonderful it is from FULL TEXT posts of his articles here?

Or?

[Merovingian]

Yes, I think you are right, RonDog...He can post both the full article and a link to his site, most freepers are interested in seeing other freeper's sites..

[michigander]

I've been reluctant to make a spectacle of this.
But, it appears, for any images that would be for use primarily here at FR, if you follow these directions, web space and bandwidth is being provided by our gracious hosts.

If you have an image saved somewhere on your hard drive and remember where you saved it. Click here:

FR image upload

and press the "browse" button and direct it to the place you saved the picture and when that address appears in the "upload an image;" slot, press the "upload" button. (this is going to upload your picture to the FR server.) Press the "okay" link on the page that appears and when the picture shows up, find the address and link to it at that address using the standard <img src="" height="' width=""> described here under the How to post an image: section.

John Robinson,
If this is out of line in any way, feel free to delete this reply (not that you would need permission anyway).

[Sungirl]

It seems to me that the Robinsons have already said they intend to provide some space for picture uploads for registered freepers?

Is there any other place where you can upload pictures on the internet and link them when you post in a thread?

[Sungirl]

Oops... posted it twice....how can you delete your image from there?

[michigander]

Is there any other place where you can upload pictures on the internet and link them when you post in a thread?

That seems to be the big question doesn't it.
My easy answer is, if your willing to pay for it, I'm sure there is. For free, I don't know.
Either way, you're likely taking your chances as to the future availability.
Perhaps the Olympic figure skating judges could provide a more definite answer. ;-)

[michigander]

how can you delete your image from there?

???

[SamAdams76]

(I go through about a 50-pack of CD-Rs a month doing this.)

That's about 40 gigs a month of data! Damn! What are you archiving, the Library of Congress?

I've been using computers for 10 years now and I can still fit all my data files on a single 250MB Zip Drive. Of course, I'm not one to hang on to a lot of old stuff, I'm a big fan of the Recycle Bin!

[counterrevolutionary]

Is there any other place where you can upload pictures on the internet and link them when you post in a thread?

I use the webspace my ISP provides (my only concern would be the bandwidth usage from all the page views, but I assume my ISP will let me know if that becomes a problem).

[counterrevolutionary]

Is there any other place where you can upload pictures on the internet and link them when you post in a thread?

I use the webspace my ISP provides (my only concern would be the bandwidth usage from all the page views, but I assume my ISP will let me know if that becomes a problem).

[Palladin]

Try webshots.com.

[counterrevolutionary]

Apparently Webshots doesn't let you do that anymore. From their FAQ:

I used to be able to link images from the Webshots Community to other web sites, but now it's not working. Why?

Unfortunately, due to abuse, you can no longer display Webshots images on other web sites.

You can only view Webshots images from Webshots pages and within the Webshots software.

Alternatively, you can post a link to the page that contains the image you'd like to display.

[RonDog]

Oops... posted it twice....how can you delete your image from there?

I think that I know what you did.
Same thing used to happen to me whenever I tried to upload an image to the "Caption This" directory.
Must be a glitch in the system. ;(

The only work-around I have found is fairly ugly:

After you have successfully uploaded your image the FIRST time,
hit Control-Alt-Delete, then click on "End Task" to dump that program.

As for duplicate posts - and clogging up the FR hard drive with too many images - it seems to me that John said something about PURGING images after a while.

In the interim, this "Caption This" function DOES provide a quick, convenient place to store:

- images on websites that do not allow third-party linking, i.e. Geocities, Tripod, etc.
or
- images on the "News" sites that change urls after a few days.

FYI, michigander - see JohnRob's Caption This ... discussion thread, where he announces this new feature:

Posted on 12/2/01 6:32 PM Pacific by John Robinson

I've put online a "Caption This Image" page. You can upload an image and add your own captions. It is currently only a curiosity, but could be a permanent FReepture (Free Republic Feature) in the future.

Caption This Image

FReepture, John?

[Sungirl]

Thank you...