Re: Best practices for using symlinks (symbolic links)

Seconded!

Between this and the upcoming removal of the HTML-rendering I am seriously considering cancelling my Pro account with DropBox and just paying for my own (well, cloud hosted) server and using another sync app to keep it up to date. It would have more features that way as I could also host HTML content on it!

Addendum for other users like me:

• I'm told you can turn shared links into direct links by changing "dl=0" to "dl=1" in the URL.  It would be nice if there were an account setting to make that default.
  
  
• I realize there's a security concern around the existing Public folder, namely that adversaries can attempt to reverse engineer your folder structure and filenames to gain access to other files in your Public folder.  I'm OK with that limitation (in fact, in some cases that's exactly how I want it to work).  I simply make sure a) folder names in my Public folder are unique enough to make this unlikely, and b) not to put content in my Public folder that is so sensitive I would care if someone were successful in this attack.
  
  I also contacted Dropbox a few years ago when they first "turned off" the Public folder by default on new accounts (2012?), to ask if there were other security concerns (e.g. from having my User ID number publicly viewable).  They didn't identify any.

I think this topic hit a chord.  There's some more discussion on Reddit, in the Dropbox forums on yCombinator's HackerNews, and around the web.

This is very distressing. The public folder is the ONLY reason I use DropBox. For five years I have been posting graphics and sound files to a public forum (involving musical instruments) by linking to my public folder. These posts are still available and are continually accessed. I will have to find and change five years worth of posts. Additionally, there is a document I have created for work that I periodically update. The header includes the words "for most recent revision, see:" and then a custom "tinyurl" of the link to the file in my public folder. I will not be able to use the same custom tinyurl for a new link, so if the public folder goes away, it will make a large mess at work. Please reconsider the decision to kill existing links to files in public folders. I can't see how such a decision "improve(s) the Dropbox sharing experience."

I agree also!  I use my public folder daily and my links are connected to my blog.  I will be devastated if the 'lights go out' as I've got blood, sweat, and tears invested in it.  My blog has a search tool and my readers are able to pull up old files that I want to remain available.  Is there anything that can be done to prevent existing links from being lost when Drop Box makes the change?  If it must happen, can it just effect future links and not existing ones?  Please?

Well said!

I agree completely, I can't even begin to imagine how catastrohic this decision will be for individuals, professionals and businesses that have been actively using the public folder since there is NO feasible way to replace ALL the links created and shared by heavy users of the Public Folder.

This could have profound (and costly) business implications for many of Dropbox's Pro (professional) users, and I sincerely hope Dropbox will consider the terrible impact of this decision.

Morever, this breach of trust is disconcerting at best -- for both professional and personal users alike.

In fact, this decision alone may provide sufficent grounds for a HUGE migration away from Dropbox to other, more trustworthy service providers.

I, for one, may well be part of that migration.....

I know right? The public folder has been an essential piece to my business and art deals, so why kill it off even if shared links are going to be a thing? I don't understand what is the logic and reason for removing Public and making it private. It's fallacy I tell you. Dropbox, keep the Public folder public accessible. Again I state, taking Public and making it private is completely unnecessary. This is not an improvement but rather a downgrade.

This is an exceptionally poor decision. Shared links load slowly, take more effort to produce, require more management, and basically suck all around.

I only use Dropbox for two things: redundant, off-site file storage, and public links. Apart from destroying hundreds, if not thousands of links I've sent to people over the years--many of which exist in forums and such that people still read--this completely obviates the whole point of the Dropbox service.

Public files are so simple; it works like a file server, but without having to run a file server on your home computer. Things in the public folder are viewable; things outside are not. This sort of divine simplicity cannot be replicated with some bogus, social-media-style sharing feature. The public folder reduces the complexity of sharing files to that of posting flyers on a bulletin board; the sharing-style feature creates a mess of files amidst your box--which are shared? Which are visible? Which need to be changed? Which can remain the same? Which should be updated? I keep tens of thousands of small files in my dropbox; well over a thousand are in the public folder. I don't expect I lie particularly far to the end of the bell curve, either; anyone with photo collections or automatically generated files or an extensive correspondence or a software project or whatever will have a boatload of files.

To say I am disappointed vastly understates my feelings. If this development goes through, I will be closing my Dropbox account permanently, and finding another service. Mind, you, I doubt I'll find one anywhere near as good as the Public folder--there's a reason I've stayed with Dropbox for so many years.

This is a terrible decision! Why are you doing this, Dropbox?!

I've got hundreds of links in my public folder for university courses that I've been teaching for years. It will be a massive inconvenience for me (to say the least) if all of a sudden every one of those links is dead. 

Please re-think this. 

What would be the point for anyone to recommend using Dropbox to friends or colleagues now?

I certainly can't think of any, and my nearly maxxed-out sharing bonuses (I have a free account, but it is 14gb strong) suggests that I have brought you more than my share of new users - quite a few of those are paying. 

I only use it for the public folder on forums, for hosting small images or videos as part of tutorials and assistance to people working on thier cars. I make nothing from this other than good karma. Thanks for spoiling it for everyone. 

FYI: For the free users, we get booted 6 months earlier than the paying users. So you don't get a whole lot for that big sack you are paying.

I have 30,662 Files (pdf) in 7,844 Folders all linked in my public folder to my blog https://PTAB.US   I just switched to google drive, so will be porting these over between now and September 16. 2017.  I have been with dropbox since 2012.  so long... 

signed,

unhappy pro user