I feel I owe a small explanation to my many Fotothing friends who have wandered over here to find out what happened to me and to discover why I have left. First, though, I think I need to provide a little background to the whole situation.
Fotothing was originally created by Dom Ramsey as a photo blogging site – a way of encouraging people to take pictures every day and share them with their friends. To start with I felt a bit dubious (after all, at that time I had Pewari’s Piccies and didn’t feel the need for yet another place to put my photos). However, I was soon sold on the idea, became a regular poster, got a lifetime Pro membership when the opportunity came and was eventually made a moderator. The moderation policy was fairly loose – any photos of a very adult nature were removed, any copyrighted image that was complained about with proof of ownership was removed. Anything else was pretty much left to the users’ own devices. The community grew, and despite a few bumps along the way, was a strong one. The site evolved slowly, listening to users concerns and suggestions, some great features were added (forums, slideshows…) – it still had a long way to go, all of us knew that, but it was going places.
Then, due to the financial pressures of an ever-growing bandwidth-intensive site, Fotothing was sold to ADVFN – who appear to have a diverse portfolio (a financial information website, and a dating website). To our relief, Fotothing carried on much as before only with a greater userbase – Dom was still at the helm. Fotothing continued to evolve with the addition of slideshows and tweaks to the UI to make it sleeker and easier to use. Users will still listened to, acknowledged and explanations were given if policy diverged from the request (such as the judges’ picking of less technically brilliant challenge entries).
In the middle of October, Dom left ADVFN but remained a shareholder and a moderator of the Fotothing site. This was when the trouble started. He appears to have been replaced by (two? three?) people whose contribution to the website has been to systematically destroy all the hard work Dom has put into the site, and to severely damage Fotothing’s chances at commercial viability. These changes have been made in an extremely haphazard and amateur manner, implemented (without testing) directly onto a live site (often breaking it) and with seemingly no rhyme or reason. Explanations have been in very short supply. A website that was previously simple, elegant, and attractive to the amateur photographer, has become clunky, ad-focussed (even pro members now have the “joy” of unsightly ads, with arguments abounding about what exactly constitutes an ad on the boards) to the point of having to scroll to view the photos. It seems to be increasingly marketed to those who just want free webspace to upload site graphics, cartoon jokes and ebay item images – none of whom are likely to see the ads or bring in the site other revenue by buying merchandise or turning pro.
I’m angry and upset (as you’ve probably gathered). Those who know me well will realise that it takes quite a lot to push me to that point – I’m must more likely to laugh things off and let them go. I’m fed up:
- of always appearing the bad guy on the forums (even though I have equally praised good functional improvements on the boards – it is not change in itself that makes me angry).
- of not knowing what to expect when I log on.
- of systematically seeing my friends slowly lose interest in uploading photos then quietly fading away because the site is making it harder and harder to use.
- of the policy that key founder members are being ignored on the boards or treated as troublemakers by the management while other members are responded to (albeit in an extremely disrespectful manner).
- of ADVFN not realising that its users aren’t an annoyance, they are their CUSTOMERS and potentially paying their wages.
- of watching Fotothing’s traffic (via Alexa.com) rapidly declining as every week goes by.
- of Fotothing members who are professional web designers, website developers, customer service and marketing professionals constantly having to point out how appalling the service and PR has been handled by ADVFN staff.
- of having a leaving notice on my Fotothing moderated (albeit understandably) due to being a high profile member, when others’ leaving notices have been allowed to stand as is.
I shall miss my friends greatly. I very much hope they will keep in touch with me either here or on my Flickr site. Fotothing just isn’t a welcoming or pleasant place for me to be any more. I also very much hope that Dom will include me in any future project he might put his expertise to.
Update: posts on the forums that disagree with Fotothing management are being deleted as I type. What a shame they have no jurisdiction over personal blogs…
22 responses so far ↓
1 Vibeka // 10th Dec 2005 at 11:57 pm
Sorry to hear that you’re leaving, Pewari… your fotothing was the first that I saw on the site, and it convinced me to join. You will be missed!
2 Pewari // 11th Dec 2005 at 1:45 pm
Thanks Vibeka. I hope you continue to enjoy Fotothing and that they clean up their act very soon :)
3 Paula // 11th Dec 2005 at 10:06 pm
Well the photos you requested are on now, don’t say I didn’t warn you!
I must say I haven’t found any problems but then I am not that into it, just posting photos now and again, I never got really involved. I hate it though when politics moves into something that is supposed to be fun and light hearted! We shall see what happens.
I haven’t yet found a better photo site as there were others I was with but certain other users were not as nice as the ones on Fotothing, and that is me being polite!
4 James // 20th Dec 2005 at 10:55 am
I recently joined Fotothing and I have to say that I have not experienced any problems.
5 Pewari // 20th Dec 2005 at 11:10 am
That’s nice to know James. Shame your IP address comes from ADVFN HQ though, or that would have been a much more useful comment.
6 Sheila // 27th Dec 2005 at 8:18 pm
All of what you say is right, Pewari. We do miss you though! I hope by staying and trying to be a steadying influence, we might rescue Fotothing from destroying itself. Wish us luck!
7 Pewari // 27th Dec 2005 at 10:28 pm
Good luck :)
Although I see the site is currently out and has been for a good portion of the day. Hope that it’s just a server outage and not anything more sinister.
8 Sheila // 28th Dec 2005 at 8:31 am
And it’s still out this morning!
9 Kal // 14th Mar 2006 at 12:12 am
“Shame your IP address comes from ADVFN HQ though, or that would have been a much more useful comment.”
*cackling*
10 Geoff // 10th Jun 2007 at 2:35 pm
“That’s nice to know James. Shame your IP address comes from ADVFN HQ though, or that would have been a much more useful comment.”
Ha Ha Ha Ha….. thats great !!
Geoff,FT member
11 jomoud // 10th Jun 2007 at 3:12 pm
Hallo my friend:
It has been a long time since you left Fotothing. And yes, some of us still miss you.:)
Since you left FT many things have happened at the site. Some were definite improvements, others little stopgap fixes.
However, you may be interested in the latest happenings on that site.
Fotothing has now decided to place myriads of adverts, goggle links, on Pro members pages as well. Even though the the majority of Pro members paid their annual fee to gain the benefit of NO Adverts, which feature was part of the agreement.
You can well imagine that a major war has broken out on Fotothing.
I thought you might be interested in this news.
John
12 Pewari // 10th Jun 2007 at 4:55 pm
Hello jomoud, long time no see :)
I can imagine that might be a rather controversial move, yes :( Try Fotonomy for a bit? Free, minimal ads, nice design and also created by Dom Ramsey. It’s a bit of a small community at the moment, but the potential is there :)
13 swed // 10th Jun 2007 at 4:56 pm
and things are only getting worse, i hope the fotothingers can get together this time and make their collective voice heard, thanks pewari
14 fotothinger (Pro) // 10th Jun 2007 at 6:31 pm
Fotothing is great!! Well it was!! Personally they dont give a toss now!! They take your money and give you GOOGLE ADS!!!! LOL
Come on fotothing!! You have taken our money and screwed us!!! lol
I`m signed up for another 1 month!! After that I`m thinking of joining shozam with the money I would have spent on fotothing and have something at the end of it….. The new owners screw around with the server. I have notice the bad speeds and server downtime too!
They would have more people going pro if they took the google ads off…
Its not the cost of the site as many others are cheaper!! Its the community thats important to me !!! If the Pro community leave it will be an empty server with no soul…
15 jomoud // 10th Jun 2007 at 7:35 pm
Pewari:
I have been a member of Dom’s site fotonomy for quite awhile. The only reason the majority of my uploads and time were spent on FT were my many friends. And to be very honest, also the one feature Dom’s site misses, it being the forum and instant messaging with friends.
But you’ll see me more at fotonomy from now on, and if ever Dom’s needs to raise money for additional fetaures and/or bandwith, I’ll be one of the first to take out a paid membership.
John
16 Pewari // 11th Jun 2007 at 1:41 pm
Yes, sorry jomoud – found you there just after you wrote that ;) Observant, moi?
17 fotothinger (Pro) // 11th Jun 2007 at 11:15 pm
Quote!
Dom’s needs to raise money for additional fetaures and/or bandwith, I’ll be one of the first to take out a paid membership.
I opened up an account on Doms site,but I`m worried he will just sell it on just like fotothing! If he allows only paid members to use it after 3 months I¬ll put my hand in my pocket and help out too.
18 Pewari // 14th Jun 2007 at 3:36 pm
Some rather “interesting” developments :(
19 jomoud // 14th Jun 2007 at 9:54 pm
I was aware of this Pewari
and so are many other Fotothingers:)
I made sure of that:):):)
20 Pueo // 23rd Nov 2007 at 1:24 am
Hello Pewari,
Just stumbled upon your site. Thought I should say hello.
Fotothing has evolved. The navigation is a little better than a couple of weeks ago. At least users now have an idea of where the older and newer pictures are. I’m still a “lifetime pro” there so I’m happily ad free. I can’t say the same for others though. Such the shame. Now if only fotonomy would have direct messaging and forum areas…
~Pueo
21 Pewari // 24th Nov 2007 at 12:25 pm
Hi Pueo, glad to hear that it’s finally getting a bit better for you guys.
22 Gino // 8th Jul 2009 at 6:35 am
I am so sorry to hear. I wish you all the luck, you hang in there ok ? I have been with fotothing for about a week now. I have had so far 1 problem. I cannot upload picture to my site on fotothing. It saids the webpage cannot be found..lol Is this the beginning of the troubles ? I already so far have 18 picutures. Good luck to you.
The views expressed in these comments are not the views of the publisher. However, we believe in the rights of others to express their legitimate views and concerns. Any legitimate complaint emailed to pewari@may.be will be seriously considered and the post reviewed as desirable and necessary.
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