For those who wonder why I decline to post photos on “free” moblogging and picture sites and the like, the current saga of TextAmerica offers the cautionary note I anticipated.
Moblog hosting service TextAmerica.com recently notified some logged-in users (others complain they never got the news) that the company plans to shut off all existing free accounts on July 1st, and offer service only to users who agree to pay a yet-to-be-announced membership fee. A few months after that, Textamerica will delete all content related to those old “free” accounts — the ones created by their earliest and arguably most loyal users.
While TA has backtracked and now says that its older users won’t have to pony up the $99/year for their service, it remains in their prerogative to change their mind at any time. Why would I trust my photos to anyone under those circumstances?
Granted, in theory my online host company could play the same game, save that I already pay them money for disk storage, I know they keep backups, etc. Too many people, though, just upload their photos to Flickr or other sites and assume they’ll be there forever.
Excellent point:
Precisely why I don’t. I’d rather pay, and have control. Blogger, Flicker, “Free-service-we-have-no-real-business-model”… no thanks.
Blogger, as part of the Greater Google Co-Prosperity Sphere, I tend to think will remain free for a while. Heaven knows all their other indispensible tools are.
Flickr I just mistrust. And I dislike Flash.