I just received an email from "The Dropbox team" which said in part:

"...we’ll soon be ending support for the Public folder. Dropbox Basic users will be able to use the Public folder until March 15, 2017. After that date the files in your Public folder will become private, and links to these files will be deactivated. Your files will remain safe in Dropbox.

If you’d like to keep sharing files in your Public folder, you can create new shared links. Just make sure to send the new URLs to your collaborators..."

This is going to render lots of very valuable advice posted on these forums almost useless if that advice relied on images from the contributor's Public Dropbox folder.

I agree, that could catch people by surprise. I use the 'paid' version of Dropbox so I would not have received that warning. Did the message imply that everything would be saved if you upgraded to the paid version (nasty marketing ploy, but at least that would make some sense)?

Hi Matt,
Here's the email in full:

Hi Richard,

We’re always looking to improve the Dropbox sharing experience. The Public folder was the first sharing method we introduced, and since then, we’ve built even better ways for you to share securely and work together with your team.

As a result, we’ll soon be ending support for the Public folder. Dropbox Basic users will be able to use the Public folder until March 15, 2017. After that date the files in your Public folder will become private, and links to these files will be deactivated. Your files will remain safe in Dropbox.

If you’d like to keep sharing files in your Public folder, you can create new shared links. Just make sure to send the new URLs to your collaborators.

In addition to shared links, we have a number of sharing options designed to make collaboration easier and give you more control. To learn more, visit our Help Center.

The Dropbox team


As you can see, no mention of upgrading and it seems that if you create new links outside the Public folder they will work. The annoying thing is all the links that people have previously created to their Public folder files and posted here will be lost.

Regards,

The main thing is that when this goes into effect then only those with a DropBox account can view your public files. Now anyone can if they have the url. Dropbox is free so I doubt that this will be a big issue unless one does not want Dropbox on their computer. YMMV

I have to disagree Mario. Someone like Noel96 has posted a lot of very valuable tutorials using images in this forum, Anyone can view his posts and images whether that person has Dropbox or not.

When someone asked Noel to describe how he posted images he said that he uses the free Dropbox account and places his images in the Public folder. It seems pretty obvious to me that these images will no longer appear in his tutorials after March next year. In the email Dropbox said they intend to deactivate the links.

Regards,

On this point I agree with you. Noel would have to go back and place the new URL in all of his posts. All old images, songs, whatever is in the now public folder will lose its current URL.

But after the change all one needs to do is to get the free Dropbox. That was the point that I was trying to make. No big deal for new posts but as you said a real PITA for previous posted material.

It might be that people may still not need to get the free Dropbox. I just created a new post in Tips and Tricks forum:
http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=384320#Post384320
and with the coming changes in mind I didn't use the Public folder but created a new folder instead.

The link to the file I posted may ask the user to sign in or sign up to Dropbox but they can click "No thanks" and proceed with the download.

I used the same method I have used in the past to post the images but they don't display directly on the screen, which is a PITA for readers trying to follow along.

I've had to do this when intentionally killing a couple of my old sites .. it is indeed a PITA. And a hard lesson.

I figgered I was saving a few bucks, and then later realized 'Ah Crap! all my links are fubarred'.

One user alerted me a post was bad, then I realized dozens were bad.
I was not in a good mood, being as it was a self-inflected wound.

Hi Richard,

When I got the email from Dropbox, I started processing the implications since, as you've already said, I use the public folder for all my images in posts on these forums.

Going back and altering all the links in my posts is not possible.

At the moment, I have until mid-March next year to see if I can somehow 'save' the information. I have a couple of thoughts in mind and I'm presently testing them out.

Regards,
Noel

I wonder if Andrew could help in this special case. Maybe make those previous posts editable? Maybe create a special area with rights to post your files on the PG Music site?

The large majority of my posts are in relation to problems that others have had. Given the changes that BIAB has undergone over the last few years, my older posts are not always relevant to today's product. When the images in these posts disappear, it shouldn't be an issue.

Also, many of the threads in which I've been involved were also supported by additional material from a number of other users. In these cases, the other posts in the threads will be valuable and will most likely clarify any confusion created by my missing images.

At the end of day, if any confusion arises when Dropbox's processing kicks in, I'll still be around to help clarify things.

Noel

One possible answer, if indeed it is possible, would be to have the ability to load images in our posts the need of a a URL. That is have your JPG image from paint or whatever and load it directly into our message. That would be a one way to solve this problem, again if it is possible to do so.

Hi Mario,

Hope all is travelling well for you!

It is possible to attach images directly to posts using the 'Filemanger' that's found under full reply mode. If you are a regular user of the 'Quick reply' window at the bottom of a thread, you might not have stumbled across this 'Filemanager' yet.

In future posts, this will probably be the way that I'll go. It's drawback is that it doesn't allow positioning of images in amongst text; all images appear at the end of the post. I can work with this, though.

All the best for a NY Christmas!
Noel

Yeah, you have to get used to typing 'The first image below shows X, second image shows Y .. ' then hope you got the order right.

I went this route (using the Filemanager) recently myself.

some forum software allows you to paste anything on the clipboard (including graphics) directly into a message. Maybe this software has that ability, but it isn't turned on.

Regarding Noels' situation, it sounds like if he upgrades to a paid account (not that expensive.. about $100 USD per year, and you get a lot more space for the money) his links would stay active.

The fact that paid users didn't get the email suggests this is true, since they no doubt have links to files in their public folder, and they aren't being warned they will go away in March.

Thanx Noel for both showing me this option and also stopping me from making a stupid post on the wishlist forum.

I use the full reply mode but never looked at this option.

All is well here and I hope it is well there also. I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

The dropbox web site says that the public folder of paid subscriptions will go private also, but there is a year more lead time. (If I understood that correctly.) This will give companies more time to change their workflow.