You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.
Forum Discussion
Ending support of public folder
Just heard from dropbox that support for the public folder is ending.
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As a result, we’ll soon be ending support for the Public folder. Dropbox Pro users will be able to use the Publ...
- LGM - the issue is that people are abusing it and causing issues for everybody by getting the Dropbox domains blacklisted which cause emails to fail and downloads to be blocked by firewalls etc.
In terms of changing the extension, sorry, no idea how you would do that!
This I fear is disasterous news for anyone (like me) who has used the public folder links to post images on web forums.
Web forum software, it seems when using the [img]....[/img] codes , accepts the "https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com......." format of current public folder links , but rejects the "https://www.dropbox.com......" format of current links from any other folder.
This means the horrible prospect of not only the loss of many years of input across multi forums (with the upcoming negation of 'old' links to the Public Folder) but the need to seek out alternate on-line storage for the future!
Oh dear! No Public folder access even for Pro.
It started with no html access which did not affect me too much as I was using kml - BUT?
I support a number of systems to provide public access to some conservation work I do with Google Earth.
I maintain a small group of tiny.cc short urls to a set of kml files stored in my public folder. e.g. http://tiny.cc/WhTraps
These provide kml code to view trap locations and results and are updated frequently.
In turn some traps have links to image files of those traps. This allows the trap sponsors to see on Google Earth a picture of 'their' traps. This works really well.
The image files reside on another shared DropBox maintained by the trap owners and need to have calculable file names via a DropBox folder rather than individually coded file names. So the : https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8532225/TrapImages/B23.jpg
rather than:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4rvtdegltl863uz/File%2028-02-16%2016%2045%2017%20enhanced.jpg?dl=0
which do not show up in Google Earth.
I moved to DropBox Pro to maintain this a little longer.
My DropBox options are getting smaller by the day
In another project i have similar links to tiny html files so that a client can scan a QR code on a chemical bottle and get a quick view of its contents, and more importantly to access safety information using their phone.
My use of both of these now ends in less than a year.
What to do?
Bob J.
It started with no html access which did not affect me too much as I was using kml - BUT?
I support a number of systems to provide public access to some conservation work I do with Google Earth.
I maintain a small group of tiny.cc short urls to a set of kml files stored in my public folder. e.g. http://tiny.cc/WhTraps
These provide kml code to view trap locations and results and are updated frequently.
In turn some traps have links to image files of those traps. This allows the trap sponsors to see on Google Earth a picture of 'their' traps. This works really well.
The image files reside on another shared DropBox maintained by the trap owners and need to have calculable file names via a DropBox folder rather than individually coded file names. So the : https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8532225/TrapImages/B23.jpg
rather than:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4rvtdegltl863uz/File%2028-02-16%2016%2045%2017%20enhanced.jpg?dl=0
which do not show up in Google Earth.
I moved to DropBox Pro to maintain this a little longer.
My DropBox options are getting smaller by the day
In another project i have similar links to tiny html files so that a client can scan a QR code on a chemical bottle and get a quick view of its contents, and more importantly to access safety information using their phone.
My use of both of these now ends in less than a year.
What to do?
Bob J.
Yes, if anybody has an option that is similar to Dropbox (especially the use of a Public folder), please do share. I realize this is Dropbox's forum, and I don't want to incite cross-advertising, but I don't think I'll stick with Dropbox.
Why? Because I don't see a reason for this change other than to stir up the pot.
This is so bad Dropbox..All my forum post are totally gone..:( all work on my forum is gone..many years of posting is gone...
You need to go back and make this right again..
My car forum have lost 1000 of picture today :(
Headline:
March 15, 2017
DropBox sets new world record for most 404 errors in a single day.
- I have over 1300 images in my Public Folder shared across hotlinks all over the internet, on websites, forums and blogs, many of theme are shared in multiple links. The end of the Public folder will be an absolute disaster for me. I will have thousands of links to chase down and it will take me months of work to do so. Dropbox was supplied to make my life easier, not harder.
**bleep** you Dropbox. This is yet another example of developers and software engineers that just cannot resist the temptation to muck around with things that are already working.
If I cant trust Dropbox to keep my links safe, how can I ever trust them to keep my files safe?- Has anyone from Dropbox actually addressed our concerns, or are they just ignoring us and hoping we will all go away?
I've prepared this for anyone to use, everywhere here, and everywhere on the net. Please copy it and post everywhere :
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Dropbox are about to kill off part of the internet.
Explanation:
Newer users may not realise that Dropbox once included a “Public” folder for shared links. Everything in that folder got a unique url which could be copied and given to any other individual(s) as a direct link to that content, or which could be embedded into another forum post so that - for example - an image would appear.
Dropbox ended support for a Public folder for new users some years ago, but existing users were assured they could continue to use theirs. There are now millions of links on the internet which are from Dropbox users’ Public folders.
Now Dropbox are discontinuing the Public folder for ALL users. If this wasn't bad enough (after the promises which were made), Dropbox are refusing to ‘grandfather’ (i.e. preserve) the links that are already out there, even after they end support for all Public folders. All such links will, overnight, become ‘dead’, wherever they are on the internet.
Dropbox refuse to explain WHY they will not preserve existing links, refuse to enter into discussion about this, and refuse even to explain WHY they won't discuss it.
(If you share unease or even outrage about this, copy and paste this message all over these forums and wherever else you go; Share on Facebook, LinkedIn; post a link on Twitter.)
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If you're upset by this change.... We're trying (perhaps in vain) to get Dropbox to take notice! Like our Facebookpage and help us get the message to Dropbox that as paying customers, we do not want to lose the Public Folder! :triumph:
https://www.facebook.com/Dropbox-dont-kill-public-folders-1757807227875969/
