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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!
Rich
Super User II
Super User II
Chris R. wrote:
Dropbox have ... been removing new posts about it, and 'rolling them' into this one large topic. In this way, I presume, they hoped to adopt a kind of censorship
It isn't Dropbox that's been doing that. It's been people like me, Mark and other Super Users, and in one case yesterday, the automated spam filters (see my reply above). A Dropboxer or two may have done some as well, but it's been mostly the Super Users.
Yeah? So where did the "Super User" label come from then?
And why do you leap in to defend Dropbox at every opportunity?
I'm here to help moderate the forums. That means keeping threads on topic and moving irrelevant replies to the proper threads or, in some cases, removing all the spam and the spammers. As mentioned previously, the forums, while provided by Dropbox, are primarily user supported. A Dropboxer does reply on occasion and (finally!) more frequently with the rollout of the new forum platform, but they are still meant as a user to user support method. Causing a scene here will not draw the attention of Dropbox; at least not the attention you're looking for. The developers typically do not participate here. The decision makers do not participate here. They do receive the feedback that you leave here, though. So, keep up the fight, so to speak, about removing the links. Just keeps the threads on-topic and stop spamming the site, and everything will be fine. I can tell you from experience that one, massive, thread such as this one is more effective than spamming 20-30 unrelated posts. Dropbox DOES hear you. They just rarely, if ever, respond publicly.
As for defending their decision... I'm not. I'm just as upset about the removal of existing links and I've made that known to my contact within Dropbox (that's Ed, from above, by the way). Dropbox knows my opinion on the matter so I see no reason to continuously post about it here. What I am defending, well, not defending but in agreement with, is the removal of the feature that creates the links. It's was deprecated in 2012 and replaced with a better system that allowed linking from anywhere in your account. The Public Folder is a relic that is no longer needed and served to cause confusion for new accounts that were looking for the feature.
So, back to the subject at hand... Public Folder... scrap it, sure, but the existing links should remain. Discuss it. Vent about it. Yell at me about it all you want if it helps (I can take it). Just keep things polite, on topic and in the appropriate place. Oh, and keep the language clean, please.
Thank you.
The public folder is what brought many people to Dropbox - what set it apart and made it differ from the competitors. Calling it a relic does it and all the people that desire the functionality an injustice.
I don't see how anyone can say that the replacement functionality is superior unless they're in the pockets of Dropbox. Only Dropbox benefits from its removal; users suffer from the increased complexity of managing both a file system and a links system (when really, the two are the same thing).
They also suffer the "indirect" removal of direct links - the main reason for this move, I'm sure. I mean, when you share something with someone, Dropbox wants some ad space or a means to generate conversions and revenue. What happened when they introduced the new links system? That's correct, you handed a link to someone that was not logged into Dropbox (or indeed did not have a Dropbox account) and they were immediately pestered to sign up before they could access the content you linked.
And with that, they suffer the consequences of increased bandwidth and resources to load the linked content, and the decreased functionality of clean, universal embedding whether you're in a terminal or on a browser.
And of course, they suffer the vanishing of the links to their content - probably the thing that stings the most for many.
In fact, you could go one step further and call the newer system and functionality relics that Dropbox initially saved many people from. Before Dropbox, most people relied on upload sites with big download buttons. Dropbox saved people from this by presenting a far simpler and more hassle-free approach that is now being slowly peeled back.
Oh well, there are better alternatives now - similar companies that offer all the same features and more; free and paid. Or people could do one better and rent their own VPS for a similar price and a vastly larger degree of control.
Rich wrote:
We're just here to keep things moving in a civil manner. We don't censor your messages other than for violations of the community guidelines. Don't spam, swear, harass, threaten, etc. You can vent all you want; just be adults about it.FYI - you said the same thing to me about language. I live in Britain and for your information, the words h-e-l-l and d-a-m-n are NOT swear words over here and haven't been for decades (if you can point to anything objectionable about either word I would be both grateful and amazed and disbelieving). We in the UK are far more likely to object to the utterly ghastly MF word which you Americans use at the drop of a hat.
You're b***** d*** right, mate !
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My feeling is that the more DB moderators will argue over what is or what is not a violation of the community guidelines, the less they will have to take a stance on what we ***ALL*** think here : DB users have been misled (to say the least) and moreover they don't receive any ***official*** answer from DB !
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Some more turmoil to come on this thread, "fellas" !
I am posting from France (it does not make much difference but let's put it this way : my contacts at DB's Zendesk were all French-speaking individuals).
When I first realized that we were going to be screwed (a few months back when DB announced the changes), I understood that DB FREE accounts only were concerned with the PUBLIC LINKS issue and not PRO accounts.
So I decided to ask this very simple question on the (French-speaking) DB Zendesk :
"Will there be any change on public links (past and future) if I upgrade my account to a PRO account ?
In other words : will the following link : https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29826503/fm9833e.jpg still be accessible after the upgrade from FREE to PRO WITHOUT any change in the address wording ?
I just wanted to make sure that DB would definitely "grandfather" old links so that I don't get any broken links in the (numerous) posts that I made in the past 5 years in which I used public DB links !
Here's now the sequence of the events past my "very simple" question :
#1 first answer from the Zendesk on 01-2017 (from a guy called Clovis) : "No, they will be no change, go ahead with a PRO account"
#2 I then subscribed a PRO account on 01- 2017 >>> (I am a poor and confident moron ...)
#3 I posted again the same question to the Zendesk on 02-2017 to make sure I had been well understood (those guys are French, I am French, we normally speak the same langage ... poor me !)
#4 last answer from the Zendesk 03-2017 (from a guy called Matthieu) : "No, all public links will be broken as of Sept-01 2017, no matter FREE or PRO account !"
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I think that I have been more than misled : I have been f***d !
Legally, I feel like suing those guys.
I am afraid you are right ("zero authority with Dropbox").
You must have some guts to face such a roaring turmoil ...
If Dropbox stated to you that their product would meet a certain spec that it turned out not to meet, then I would think you have legal grounds for at least reclaiming your money. Dropbox can state anything in its terms of agreement, but this is all overridden by the law which, I expect, protects customers from being lied to.
Note: I am not a law specialist.
Also, I checked again and *still on this day*, pressing the Share button in the public folders produces old-style links *without a warning*. Even apart from the quality of their decision, the move is ill-prepared and ill-communicated. Highly unprofessional.
(I filed a bug about this, which they responded to with a useless link to a generic help page, rather than fixing the problem.)- They don't like it when you described how they lied to take your money
- Mark
ym58 wrote:
My last post (March 03, 2017 - 7.30pm Paris-Brussels Time) has just disappeared ... ?!?
What happened ?
Here's a copy.
Apologies, it got stuck inside the spam filters.
I've unblocked it for you and it should appear shortly.
In terms of suing, I doubt you'd get anywhere - their T&C's do state the can change the services at will, and you will have had almost a years service out of them by the time the changes happen. However, depending upon where you are you could claim a chargeback to your credit card company for the service from Sept. onwards (i.e. at a cost of $8.25 per month if paid annually) for loss of service.
- Mark
JackDemirgian wrote:
They don't like it when you described how they lied to take your moneyIncorrect - the issue was the swearing within the post, that trigged the spam (which also houses the filters).
I've released the post to the thread now.
Caution, you're gonna be censored as well :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: !
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Do you mean DB could possibly use disloyal means to shut up "discordant" voices ?
Are we in some sort of a DDR remnant ... :scream: ?
