The image: a Google Photos link. I don't know how long this image will persist, or if the URL pointing to it is static.
The rant:
Dongregg, thank you for what you posted. It was lovely, even if I do say so myself.
I don't know if I can download the images from PB or not - there appears to be lots of problems with PB's server software - but all of these images should still exist on my hard drive in one or another of my "things I'm messing with" directories.
I very rarely mention the fact that I'm a moderator on this forum, strongly preferring to be just another user (truthfully, my initial interest in
becoming a moderator was just in the ability to zap spam), but as a moderator on WTI, I have this to say: a search of "photobucket.com" yields some 1650 results listed on 165 pages. A random sampling of these hits yields a very high incidence of "Update your account" graphics rather than something WTI members would like to see. This angers me greatly.
As just another regular user, I have maybe two dozen images on Photobucket (PB), and I have virtually zero investment in any of them. They are the results of me playing with an image manipulation program, and I shared them here just on the off chance that somebody else might enjoy seeing them. Apart from that, the only thing that bothers me personally about this whole PB thing is the holes it leaves in this thread, and I think I'm going to let those holes stand. It's my intention to re-post most or all of these images, possibly in another thread, while I consider alternative approaches.
I don't understand their arithmetic, and I really don't understand their PR.
PB is saying they have a hundred million (1e+8) users hosting fifteen billion (1.5e+9) images (some 1500 images per customer), that advertising revenues are declining and that some 75% of their operating expenses are because of people using unpaid accounts. From this I guess that roughly 75% of their accounts are unpaid ("freemium") and exist to generate revenue through advertising.
If it's true that some seventy five MILLION people are using their service without paying anything directly out of their own pockets, it makes perfect business sense to send them all an email "You need to upgrade your account within the next couple of months to one of our paid tiers if you want to hotlink your images". If hotlinkers were suddenly required to spend five dollars a month to keep their images alive out in the wild - assuming
all these people make such an upgrade, PB could have raked in as much as some three hundred and seventy five million dollars ($375 000 000) per month.
As it stands, I think it's rashly optimistic to hope that even
one percent of the unpaid accounts will be upgraded to their new $400/year plan. Granted, from the customer's view, that's only $33.33/mo, but (1) this plan is available only on a
yearly basis, it's due
a month ago, it's nearly universally completely unexpected, and there are (at the time of this writing) far too many completely free alternatives. One percent of seventy five million, times four hundred dollars, comes out to some twenty five million dollars ($25 000 000) per month, or about 6.7% of the revenues they might have realised otherwise.
Oh, and could PB not have grandfathered images prior to a certain date for the sake of the millions of fora using images hosted on it?
We're conditioned to accept that free things don't remain free forever. When I first saw my own images being replaced with this 'you have to upgrade your account' image, I didn't think about it. I dug up my "encrypted notes" directory, fished out my credit card number and bopped on over to the PB site with the idea that I'd be paying a small handful of dollars. Imagine my surprise when I learned what they wanted. Newer forum members may not be aware of my personal posting history, so let me just suggest that the language I hurled at the computer screen was somewhat beyond what folks would describe as "vituperative".
The practical effect, in terms of PR, is that PB is saying "We don't want you hotlinking any more. You may certainly do so, but you'll pay through the nose for it". What it's also saying, in practical effect, is "We now reserve the right to spring upon you more nasty surprises in the future". It's almost certainly true that PB has just priced itself out of the ebay and amazon markets, and the resentment it's garnered from hundreds of millions of BB users will not soon be forgotten. We won't be able to forget; we'll be reminded of this time and time again as we review old threads on any of the untold number of fora we might visit.
PB is apparently not taking any phone calls, not from users and not from the likes of the BBC or New York Times.
Photobucket, therefore, has my full and wholeheartedly given permission to take an old, splintered up old wooden plank, spread on it a thin layer of monster glue, coat it with hundreds of tiny shards of broken glass and stainless steel lathe shavings, and insert it with a hydraulic press into one body orifice until it reaches another. I would further recommend a follow-up lavage and purge with battery acid and pulverised pure potassium.
Back to the image: Oskar has just fallen asleep. Prior to this moment, Eli actually has something of a blank expression on her face, as if she'd just given something away and she's trying to figure out what it was, and what it's going to cost her. In
this moment, my interpretation is that she realises nothing was being taken
from her, but that she was being given a gift. If you'll watch the movie carefully around this time frame, you'll see her eyes and throat working, as if she's trying not to cry.
I darkened the background, turned up the red a little bit on Oskar's shoulder, turned up the cyans and blues on Eli's exposed flesh and added just a hint of purple around the eyes and the base of the nose to suggest this interpretation.
