9 replies to this topic

[mab01uk]

Photobucket restores photos “taken hostage,” hopes to lure back customers with cheaper plans after last year’s $399 debacle

Long-time Denver photo site reorganizes with new management and much cheaper price plans......

https://www.denverpo...-hosting-plans/

 

[nicklouse]

cant see it changing much.

[Mike L]

I don't use photo hosting sites but it sounds like time to download all the lost pictures that they just returned and then tell them "no thanks". Everyone had to change to other services so why go back to a company that would lock you out of your memories. They blame CEO John Corpus, but how long did it take for them to correct something so obviously wrong. Holding your photos hostage = extortion. Everyone on the board of directors should have been immediately outraged by this action and done something about it. Anyone with even 1st year business courses under their belt should have been aware that you can't increase revenue by treating your customers as if your company is the only one that can provide a service. There is a reason their advertising revenue went down. They should have examined that and corrected the problem.

 

I just read what I wrote after this point. It's way off topic. It is more venting about the company I work for than anything else. So that being said you probably don't want to read further than this. It just sort of spewed out of me (Sorry)

 

It's a little like the management problems I see in manufacturing (I am a CNC programmer/machinist). Management often feels they are the most important element of the process because they have higher education levels than the workers. They have the relationship upside down. As a hypothetical if the workers suddenly vanished everything comes to a screeching halt. No product is produced or shipped. If management suddenly vanished product is still produced and shipped until there are no more work orders to fill. Internally who is your customer. For me my customer is everyone I write programs for. My job is not to tell them how to do their job. My job is to provide them with everything I can to make it easier for them to perform their jobs to the best of their ability. Far too often rather than asking themselves, have we provided the best tools we can afford to get the job done, management seeks the absolute bare minimum required to get the job done and then don't understand why producing anything is a constant struggle. Management is the guiding force however management is not the workers customer the workers are managements customer. What does that customer need to effectively achieve managements goals.

 

Soap box thrown in corner and broken into fire wood.

[r3k1355]

Far too late for them, anyone that cared has already moved away.

Most users that would have been amenable to paying balked at the cost and also moved away.

 

They got greedy and stupid, more fool them.

[panky]

Great news (for now) for the sites who don't have Deathrow's fix installed, but how long the company will last is another thing and then the links will be well and truly lost.

[Icey]

Anyone with even 1st year business courses under their belt should have been aware that you can't increase revenue by treating your customers as if your company is the only one that can provide a service.

 

Welcome to the world of technology, this is common practise. Bring customers in with easy access/low cost, get your product embedded in their business processes and then turn the screws.

 

Exhibit 1: Oracle. It has stayed in business for so long because it has an established install base where their products underpin huge services (UK Gov has £millions wrapped up in licences) and they know full well that they cannot be forklifted out without costing huge amounts more.

What one tech company does, the others will follow. General consensus is it's because the CxOs all come out of the same very expensive sausage factories teaching the same management techniques, so you can see the same patterns of behaviour all across industry.

[nicklouse]

just had an email from them

 

Hello,

We have listened to you, and significantly lowered the price of the Photobucket plan offerings.

For a limited time all of your 3rd Party Hosted Images have been restored. Please login to choose the plan that best fits your needs to continue hosting your images.

If a Free plan is all you want, we have it! Want 3rd Party Image Hosting for your forum, website, blog, or online store, we have it! Want more storage.....yes, we have that too!

 

 Capture.JPG   39.16K   0 downloads

Edited by nicklouse, 23 May 2018 - 11:43 PM.

[M J W J]

I jumped ship from photo bucket as soon as they implemented the charges. My photos are long gone from their servers so even if they offered free 3rd party hosting I still wouldn't be using them. I just don't trust them.

It's a little like the management problems I see in manufacturing (I am a CNC programmer/machinist). Management often feels they are the most important element of the process because they have higher education levels than the workers. They have the relationship upside down. As a hypothetical if the workers suddenly vanished everything comes to a screeching halt. No product is produced or shipped. If management suddenly vanished product is still produced and shipped until there are no more work orders to fill. Internally who is your customer. For me my customer is everyone I write programs for. My job is not to tell them how to do their job. My job is to provide them with everything I can to make it easier for them to perform their jobs to the best of their ability. Far too often rather than asking themselves, have we provided the best tools we can afford to get the job done, management seeks the absolute bare minimum required to get the job done and then don't understand why producing anything is a constant struggle. Management is the guiding force however management is not the workers customer the workers are managements customer. What does that customer need to effectively achieve managements goals.

I'd be careful with this attitude.

The guys on our shop floor had this mentality and it hasn't worked out for them. We had new management who (rightly in my opinion) decided to crack the whip and make them work harder. They didn't like it and decided to continue as normal which the new management wasn't happy about. Long story short but they dismissed one within a week, put two on final written warnings and brought a new guy in. When the new guy was introduced to the existing lads on our shop floor, they were told the new guy could be their Co worker or replacement. They were to decide.

The lads on our shop floor don't see the work that the rest of us put in. As a design engineer I sit somewhere between management and the shop floor guys so get involved with both sides.

The company I work for could gut its shop floor staff and the design team could take up the slack for 4-8 weeks if needed. I can do their job. They can't do mine. They are therefore much more expendable than they think.

Granted not every company is like this but don't ever think you are irreplaceable. Your management probably knows how to do a lot more than you think but just aren't letting on as they have other things to worry about.

[Homersimpson]

I jumped ship from photo bucket as soon as they implemented the charges. My photos are long gone from their servers so even if they offered free 3rd party hosting I still wouldn't be using them. I just don't trust them.
 

It's a little like the management problems I see in manufacturing (I am a CNC programmer/machinist). Management often feels they are the most important element of the process because they have higher education levels than the workers. They have the relationship upside down. As a hypothetical if the workers suddenly vanished everything comes to a screeching halt. No product is produced or shipped. If management suddenly vanished product is still produced and shipped until there are no more work orders to fill. Internally who is your customer. For me my customer is everyone I write programs for. My job is not to tell them how to do their job. My job is to provide them with everything I can to make it easier for them to perform their jobs to the best of their ability. Far too often rather than asking themselves, have we provided the best tools we can afford to get the job done, management seeks the absolute bare minimum required to get the job done and then don't understand why producing anything is a constant struggle. Management is the guiding force however management is not the workers customer the workers are managements customer. What does that customer need to effectively achieve managements goals.

I'd be careful with this attitude.

The guys on our shop floor had this mentality and it hasn't worked out for them. We had new management who (rightly in my opinion) decided to crack the whip and make them work harder. They didn't like it and decided to continue as normal which the new management wasn't happy about. Long story short but they dismissed one within a week, put two on final written warnings and brought a new guy in. When the new guy was introduced to the existing lads on our shop floor, they were told the new guy could be their Co worker or replacement. They were to decide.

The lads on our shop floor don't see the work that the rest of us put in. As a design engineer I sit somewhere between management and the shop floor guys so get involved with both sides.

The company I work for could gut its shop floor staff and the design team could take up the slack for 4-8 weeks if needed. I can do their job. They can't do mine. They are therefore much more expendable than they think.

Granted not every company is like this but don't ever think you are irreplaceable. Your management probably knows how to do a lot more than you think but just aren't letting on as they have other things to worry about.

A wise man once told me that if you want to know what would happen to a company if you leave get a bucket of water, put you finger in it, pull it out and look at the hole that's left! 

 

No one is irreplaceable and if everyone on the factory floor suddenly left (highly unlikely) then the company will usually find a way to survive even if they sub contract out production or bring in contract labour.

[Mike L]

I jumped ship from photo bucket as soon as they implemented the charges. My photos are long gone from their servers so even if they offered free 3rd party hosting I still wouldn't be using them. I just don't trust them.
 

It's a little like the management problems I see in manufacturing (I am a CNC programmer/machinist). Management often feels they are the most important element of the process because they have higher education levels than the workers. They have the relationship upside down. As a hypothetical if the workers suddenly vanished everything comes to a screeching halt. No product is produced or shipped. If management suddenly vanished product is still produced and shipped until there are no more work orders to fill. Internally who is your customer. For me my customer is everyone I write programs for. My job is not to tell them how to do their job. My job is to provide them with everything I can to make it easier for them to perform their jobs to the best of their ability. Far too often rather than asking themselves, have we provided the best tools we can afford to get the job done, management seeks the absolute bare minimum required to get the job done and then don't understand why producing anything is a constant struggle. Management is the guiding force however management is not the workers customer the workers are managements customer. What does that customer need to effectively achieve managements goals.

I'd be careful with this attitude.

The guys on our shop floor had this mentality and it hasn't worked out for them. We had new management who (rightly in my opinion) decided to crack the whip and make them work harder. They didn't like it and decided to continue as normal which the new management wasn't happy about. Long story short but they dismissed one within a week, put two on final written warnings and brought a new guy in. When the new guy was introduced to the existing lads on our shop floor, they were told the new guy could be their Co worker or replacement. They were to decide.

The lads on our shop floor don't see the work that the rest of us put in. As a design engineer I sit somewhere between management and the shop floor guys so get involved with both sides.

The company I work for could gut its shop floor staff and the design team could take up the slack for 4-8 weeks if needed. I can do their job. They can't do mine. They are therefore much more expendable than they think.

Granted not every company is like this but don't ever think you are irreplaceable. Your management probably knows how to do a lot more than you think but just aren't letting on as they have other things to worry about.

A wise man once told me that if you want to know what would happen to a company if you leave get a bucket of water, put you finger in it, pull it out and look at the hole that's left! 
 
No one is irreplaceable and if everyone on the factory floor suddenly left (highly unlikely) then the company will usually find a way to survive even if they sub contract out production or bring in contract labour.

This would be better if moved to the off topic section.

Please don't misunderstand me on this. I did not intend to imply that either side is more important than the other. No one person is irreplaceable. My comment about one side or the other vanishing was just for illustration and not about if the company could survive. You need the back story to understand where I' coming from. About a year before I started with this company it had been sold and new management brought in. I've worked there for about seven years now. We had more than enough work and everyone worked hard and made good money. Over the years our management team did everything that could to improve the work environment in both the shop and office areas. They installed proper lighting and implemented 5S and provided us with new better equipment to work with. They brought in new control measures so the we could be ISO and API (oil standards) certified. A process I was already familiar with. Our quality and reputation were excellent. Over the years my roll had evolved. My primary job is CNC programming. I have an AS in engineering (I never finished my BS) and a lot of experience from my previous jobs working directly with engineering doing reverse engineering and light mechanical design. One of me unofficial secondary responsibilities is acting as liaison between manufacturing, engineering and the shop floor. We had chain of command and micromanagement issues with the manufacturing engineers and scheduling contradicting each other without communicating with each other. That eventually was resolved for the most part. It took a while but we solved the micromanagement problem by convincing management that they could trust the people on the shop floor to get the job done without their input on every minor problem. The system was working well. We are/were a team.

Then our industry feel apart. We went through some very hard times. The company had to lay off people until we had the bare minimum to continue to function. It had to be done or no one would have a job. We all understood that. About a year or two ago the company was sold to another company. This is where the problem comes in. We still have the same management in manufacturing but now there is another layer that is micromanaging them. Unfortunately the new owners have clearly and repeatedly demonstrated that they have very little understanding of what it actually takes for us to achieve what they want. They are a family owned company. They squabble with each other frequently. They have tried to outsource much of our work to China. Unfortunately our customers are refusing the Chinese product and we are losing our reputation and customers.

No I don't say much about this at work. That is why I vented here (again sorry). Note I have not mentioned the company name involved. I'm not disrespectful to the new owners. We try to do what they want. But they often want things we are not equipped or tooled for. They get upset and don't understand why we can't get their jobs done in a day or two. They disrupt normal production (that pays the bills) for special projects When they get new equipment it's always a dinosaur that is barely capable of functioning and is constantly breaking down. We are all frustrated. Most of our sales department (our best salesmen) quit the other day and hired on at some of our competitors. They specifically said that the new owners were the driving force behind the change. Moral is at an all time low.