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Dropbox accounts created after Oct. 2012 won't have a public folder

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Re: Dropbox accounts created after Oct. 2012 won't have a public folder

#61

Post by djsumdog »

baby wrote: post #41
scrollaway wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Archive.org lets you upload your own files, with metadata. http://archive.org/ You have a bit more of a guarantee there. Bonus points if you fill in the copyright field correctly. PDFs, audio files, video files etc will all be post-processed and rendered like you would expect them to be.

Isn't that taking advantage of a service that is not to be used for this?

I don't see the harm so long as you're releasing your own content, either into the public domain or under a CC license.

Re: Dropbox accounts created after Oct. 2012 won't have a public folder

#62

Post by jpalomaki »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #51
codazoda wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect they just want to focus on their core benefit so that they don't stretch too thin.

The core benefit of Dropbox is being "a folder that syncs". They've pretty much nailed it at the very start, and all the recent changes seem to be only step backwards. Lack of ability to link directly to files (instead of their heavy and useless web UI with "download" button) is something that makes their product worse, from user's POV.

Smart sync was a giant leap forward. This one actually makes the sync usable on business accounts as well (fairly small laptop SSD and 15 people storing stuff was a difficult combination).

Re: Dropbox accounts created after Oct. 2012 won't have a public folder

#64

Post by filleokus »

saycheese wrote: post #47

>> "Dropbox accounts created after October 4, 2012 won't have a Public folder." Given the initial release was in June 2007, does anyone know why this only applies to accounts created after October 4, 2012?

Just guessing, but might they have had something in their EULA / TOS up until October 4:th 2012 that somehow forces them to keep the Public folder available? Maybe some language about how features are removed /deprecated, or about how changes in the EULA / TOS are allowed to be done, that makes it infeasible to do without breaking the contract?

Re: Dropbox accounts created after Oct. 2012 won't have a public folder

#65

Post by daenney »

brandon272 wrote: post #42
make3 wrote: post #35

I really have the feeling that DropBox will die. They don't do anything Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or Apple iCloud doesn't do, and these companies all have much more money / talent / infrastructure / synergy with other products.

For some reason I still only instinctively trust Dropbox to reliably sync my files. I'm always worried I'm going to lose something if I put it into my Google Drive or iCloud folder, though I'm sure by this point it is probably just as good/reliable. My concerns have less to do with individual files being manually added to a Google Drive or iCloud folder and more to do with how well it handles starting entire new proj…

> For some reason I still only instinctively trust Dropbox to reliably sync my files.

Used to be that way for me too until all the nasty tricks they employed in the OS X app installation process to elevate their privileges came to light. Though the syncing still works as reliably I no longer trust them with the content or to behave responsibly.

I haven't had any issue syncing with OneDrive or Google Drive for larger projects. I don't doubt you might've run into that issue in the past but I'd recommend giving it a go if that's what's holding you back. If anything knowing that you can reliably switch storage providers in the future should you need to is a good card to hold.

Re: Dropbox accounts created after Oct. 2012 won't have a public folder

#67

Post by bane »

mixedbit wrote: post #40
bane wrote: post #6

This feels like a step backwards. DB has struggled to figure out something beyond being a really great cloud-share drive thing, and sorta kinda messed around with using your DB to host media like photos (which would then make users desire to upgrade their space) and automagically supply some interface sugar around a pile of photos. But they could have kept going in that direction and competed with all of the photosha…

My guess is that the reason they are closing this is the cost of bandwidth. Dropbox allowed to host publicly all types of large files and exchange such files by a link that did not require any interaction with DropBox to download. It seems really hard to monetize such usage.

I believe they already do some kind of bandwidth monitoring, so I could also see them just passing that along to subscribers who use too much. I would have also hoped their bandwidth costs would have improved when they moved to their own cloud instead of S3.

Re: Dropbox accounts created after Oct. 2012 won't have a public folder

#68

Post by TeMPOraL »

bane wrote: post #67
mixedbit wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is that the reason they are closing this is the cost of bandwidth. Dropbox allowed to host publicly all types of large files and exchange such files by a link that did not require any interaction with DropBox to download. It seems really hard to monetize such usage.

I believe they already do some kind of bandwidth monitoring, so I could also see them just passing that along to subscribers who use too much. I would have also hoped their bandwidth costs would have improved when they moved to their own cloud instead of S3.

I vaguely remember that they were able to throttle/block off a public file when it caused unusually high traffic.

Re: Dropbox accounts created after Oct. 2012 won't have a public folder

#69

Post by rodgerd »

baby wrote: post #7

This was amazingly awesome because: I could teach people how to make a website, and how to have on the internet, in minutes. Having said that, I haven't had that public folder in many many many many many years. So I'm surprised about this announce. If anyone knows a quick way to let anyone do what I described above, please do tell.

OneDrive has public folders, although the URLs are opaque.

Re: Dropbox accounts created after Oct. 2012 won't have a public folder

#70

Post by scrollaway »

baby wrote: post #41
scrollaway wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Archive.org lets you upload your own files, with metadata. http://archive.org/ You have a bit more of a guarantee there. Bonus points if you fill in the copyright field correctly. PDFs, audio files, video files etc will all be post-processed and rendered like you would expect them to be.

Isn't that taking advantage of a service that is not to be used for this?

The Archive's philosophy is that they welcome any and all content. If you want your content to be on the internet, available for everyone to see and for the future to find, then by all means use the archive. Far more apt than a dropbox folder imho.
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