Tuesday, November 6, 2018

VOTE, and EXTORTION

Tuesday and it's not just any Tuesday! It's THE "if you don't go vote today you must really not give a damn Tuesday!"  I voted early since my age gives me that perk, and I got an absentee ballot for my 94 year old mom...I helped her fill in the little bubbles she can no longer write due to her shaky hands the more she tries to steady the pen the more it moves...so I asked "You want to vote Democratic or Republican"? She asked me, "which side is Trump on"? I said "Republican", so she says, "I wanna vote Democrat".  So there you go folks a 94 y.o. with Dementia knows better and so should any person who is registered to vote! Any American's who read my blog we have a dog in this fight let the DOGS OUT PLEASE!


 Extortion? 
Pay up or we burn your house down.
Who else is tired of this corporate bullying? I see where the MUG came from in SMUG MUG!
Yahoo sold Flickr to Smug Mug...and now they are mugging us!
After many years as a faithful Flickr user, they threaten to delete our photos!  I used to have a Pro Account...it was $24.99 a yr. Then the big remodel back in 2012 or when ever that happened... totally messed Flickr up and many people left.  
I ended my pro account...but continued to use Flickr to host my photos..NOW the new policy is pro account is $50! We have until Nov 30 to pay up and till Jan of 2019  to move our photos if we don't go Pro. And anything over 1,000 photos they will delete if you're not a pro account user.  They are giving a 30% discount for the first yr.  So I may be forced to get a pro account for one year to give me more time to move my 20,000+ photos!! AND I have always used Flicker to host my blog photos..so that means all my blog photos will disappear if I don't go pro.  So without the photos it's going to become a waste land! This is Nuclear... I'm not in this boat alone...many will be affected...HOW will I  move 20,000+ photos..I feel so extorted... there is no way I can find a home for those 20,000+ photos in the time allowed. Meanwhile I have done a "request my data" file and it will take a long time to actually get a download.  I need to know how big the file is before I can decide what to do with it.  I hope the Cloud will  help in some way Im dropping photos on Google Photos and Drive...but Im sure there is a limit on them too. 


More Corporate lunacy..
And YouTube is also changing again...Google bought it out and immediately laid waste to the cool features...Progre$$.  I don't know if they are making any creative additions to You Tube it seems to just be about Statistics, and well MONEY.   The preview looks like the kind of things you would see at a Marketing Ad Campaign Staff Meeting! The little gal may as well throw her hat in the ring.  Many small YouTube accounts are being hit with this Fake Copyright BOT.  It is a troll out to damage the reputation of any competition...by placing a strike or a copyright infringement against a video...the video is removed and yet there is NO infringement, just a corporate bot going around defeating the competition.  It takes weeks to have your video reviewed by a human and many will give up long before the video is opened up again. 
I used to have a photo-less blog. Or I'd post only one photo... I may be going back to that.   
 I have to experiment with using other hosts I suppose...Google Drive is the only way I found to get photos out of my phone other than to share to Facebook.  And you can't share FB photos here it is considered 3rd party and more infringements! Soooo the future of this blog is up in the air at the moment as I figure out a new strategy. There is no room in my budget to pay for photo hosting!


Changes don't sit well with me lately....the DANGER here folks is Freedom of Speech!  If we can't afford to speak up how will we? If only the ones with deep pockets can post online, then what? The news papers are almost all gone, TV and Radio syndicated, then along came the "information Highway" ended up being a Highway to Hell in some respects and now the Corporate Coop has this really long and virtual arm.  So what is the future of your own Blog? Stop this train I wanna get off!!



PEACE
Every day is a new Adventure.

16 comments:

  1. Hello, I just got back from voting. It looks like a great turnout, I hope results go the way I want. I am one of those Smugmug/Flickr costumers and I am not happy. I have 24,000 photos going back as far as 2009. I do not want them deleted. I do not think the price had to double, they are being greedy. I would not be surprised that Google starts charging for Blogger now. Enough of my rants, sorry. I hope you have a great day!

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    1. Eileen do not apologize for voicing your opinion...I am in complete agreement. If you find a solution drop me a line to let me know what you found. Today my brain is spinning so maybe by the weekend I'll stop seeing double and be able to see what I can do about my photos. MY Blog is so important to me can't tell you how much I read back for important info. Also Can't afford to print the blog way TOO big!

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  2. Yes I voted a week ago by mail also, I have pushed and prodded everyone to get out and vote and to vote smart to get this country back to being Great not the great that thing calls it.

    Anyway I never used any of smugmug/flickr so I don't have a problem there. But if they were to start charging for Blogger I guess I'm done. While like you it's very important to me as all my journeys are there. I do have a hand written journal but it just isn't the same or as well documented the picture I have saved on my computer and on thumb drives. I hope you can figure out some way to save you photos

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    1. JO, the elections results are bittersweet but any ground gained at this point is a ray of hope...we have to keep prodding people to vote and make sure our freedoms are in place.

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  3. You are being screwed, plain and simple. And your final comment is spot on. Freedom of speech itself is threatened if access is effectively for only those with money and power. I was happy to see the Democrats regain control of the House last night, but they lost ground in the Senate and I was dearly hoping that Beto O’Rourke would clean smarmy Ted Cruz’s clock. He came close, but that doesn’t count does it?


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    1. Yes for sure SmugMug is not doing right by us...but it is the way of the world lately the little guy gets the shaft at every turn. As I said above bittersweet but we'll take it! NOW the Dump Truck is saying "if they dare investigate him he will do the same back...kinda funny cause they have little to lose he had much to lose."

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  4. As soon as I read about the Flickr changes I thought of you, as I remember you saying that to=you had lots of pictures on it. depending on the size of your Flickr file would a stand alone hard drive be any use? I store all my photos this way. I use Google photos but copy the pictures I want to keep onto my hard drive. If Google start charging for web hosting then I would guess that many bloggers will call it a day.
    Good news about the House of Representatives. I have never followed a mid term election more closely than I did this one.

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    1. Yes you knew it was coming and warned me, I had such a crappy summer and fall my mind has been in scatter pattern for a while now. I have an external drive that won't boot up! I have backed up many photos on CD and Thumb drives, and I do plan to use Google for my hosting now...and have started to move some of the most recent files over there also. My plan is not complete yet on what to do.
      I am happy with the House being flipped, but that Senate is more vile than it was...SO Glad RYAN Is gone!! OMG so glad, NOw if McConnell would disappear,,,that would be a blessing.

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  5. Ugh, yeah I was pretty pissed when I saw the new Flickr deal. I also considered paying the 30% off price for a year till I decide what to do long-term. Haven't decided yet. Sigh. Yay for the house win!

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    1. Me too Jen at least we can get a year to deal with it, and maybe next yr it will be cheaper? We can hope I guess.

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  6. Your Mum's got it right hasn't she, good for her! I know our UK politics have a great deal of their own issues right now (to say the least) but watching what's happening in the US is quite something!!

    I only received the email from Flickr yesterday regarding the changes, i've paid for a pro account for years but i've seen many with the same response to it all as you, it's dreadful how they're managing it.

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    1. Yes, it seems hardly a fair deal...SINCE without our CONTENT there would be NO Flickr!

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  7. At least we got the House ... and Oregon re-elected our Governor Kate Brown. So Tuesday could have been better, but could have been worse. I hope Mueller tells us what he's got .... like right now. I'm sorry about Flikr -- I only belong so I can see a couple of people who only post on it, and I imagine they will quit. My photos are all just on my computer or the old ones are on a separate drive. and Picassa (which is just a mirror copy of my stored photos). I would be so sad if Blogger started charging because most everybody i know and love is on it and I would hate to see you disappear. I do know that both Typepad and Wordpress have free versions but it would be such a hassle to move . I have been having issues from some of my commenters and Typepad tells me it is not their fault. So I feel like I've already lost some of my followres because of that... I can't figiure out why they can't comment (one was able to get on to comment and two others let me know via email).

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    1. I bet if they log in with a different browser they can comment...most of those problems is incompatible browser to the website...Some sites I can't get on at all with Chrome, but with Firefox Im in like Flynn!
      YES the Election was a lesson in tolerance but I almost can't tolerate the evil on the right at the present time.

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  8. I so miss your pictures and that totally sucks!!!! Ugh! We had to pay Google to keep our photos on our blog because we've been blogging since 2007 so there are tons and tons of photos.

    Trump needs to get out!!! I've never seen a President wreak havoc on the environment as fast as this man. Ohio went mostly red, but that is because of awful gerrymandering here. We so hope that abates in the future. There are a lot of really thoughtful, insightful young folks rising up so I have hope.

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    1. Hi Jennifer! Yes Im trying to figure out how to handle the photo debacle. I imagine I will pay for the first yr since it's reduced pricing and who knows maybe the price will come down if they don't get as many paying accounts as they need. The attacks on Voting rights is a HUGE threat to us all...we have to seriously fight back against this type corruption.

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