Bad Fototime.com From good... to UGLY!

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SharpByCoop

SharpByCoop

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I have LONG been a proponent of paying for an image hosting service. The list of defunct photo hosting sites through the years is notable.

Since 2004 I have paid Fototime.com to host the images I post. I have been VERY proud that my posts (up until now) had remained permanent.

Without ANY notice whatsoever, the owners of Fototime shut down the site, the service, and deleted both their Facebook page and Twitter page. No response in support emails. Gone. Kaput.

(NO, it is UNRELATED to the French Cloud Service database fire. This I know from talking to their ISP.)

THOUSANDS of paying clients now with dead links, and for others, lost files.

My prized SBC Gallery of Handmade Knives which has almost 3 MILLION views has 70 of 74 pages dead in the water. :mad: I'm sorry about this. :(

I am not alone. All over the 'net are others grousing of the same thing. I paid for a year's hosting in January. Got 6 weeks.

This is the information I found in a Google search of the company;

Fototime was registered under:
Andrew Pitts
6711 Atlanta Dr.
Colleyville, TX 76034

Fototime's President:
Karl Swierenga
12660 Hillcrest Rd #4201
Dallas, TX 76230
Karl also owns KPS Solutions and Equitystat Solutions (I researched both companies and left messages wherever possible.)

Fototime's V.P.:
Jeff Kelling
3803 Cibola Trail
Carrollton, TX 75007

Bastards. Really unfair from every standpoint. I don't care that I'm posting personal info publicly. They SCREWED us. :thumbsdown:

(ANOTHER great reason why I would rather support Bladeforums for images and not depend on an outside source. Outside sources turn sour inevitably.)

I will rethink my photo hosting needs carefully, but mostly I wanted to inform viewers I had no control on the disappearance of the visuals. We deserve better.

Coop
 
I am so sorry to read this Coop. I can hear how angry and betrayed you must feel about this disgrace. The effect on you and others is immense.
I can only hope that some miracle allows you to access the images in the future.
 
Going forward I'd guess the only way to secure images is on a site that you host yourself and backup offline.

It looks like the sudden pivot in terms or just packing up the tents overnight is a business model for online image hosting.
 
To be clear: I only lost the visual access. I have saved EVERY file I produce in three sources: Local Backup Hard drive and also Carbonite and Google Drive, both in cloud, both automatically saving while I work.

It would be monumental to go back and re-insert the images. So many of them don't have more that a comment if anything.

Silly Fototime also renamed every file. I can see the filenames if I try to edit. Problem is my original file would be 'maker_xxxxxx(date)-web.jpg' and fototime renamed it 'A9453B9A776E813/orig.jpg', so I can't even tell what I posted.

Thank you for your concerns. For now I have been reducing my filesizes BELOW 500kb and posting through BF. Thank you Spark.

If BF closes, well, then, it doesn't matter...
 
I'm glad you had the foresight to keep local backups, that was smart. There've been many examples in recent years of online subscription services being unreliable, and not just image hosts. It's probably a good idea to look into expanding upon your storage hardware and hosting the photos on your own server.
 
I was a member of their service for many years, and liked it, but got a bit hinky for some reason a few years back and gave up my subscription.

This is really awful news, Coop and I hope you get some sort of compensation.
 
Yeesh, sorry to hear that! I am very glad you iept backups. The cloud and all these services are all well and good but at the end of the day you only can control what you can put your hands on. Yeah I still get paper statements from my bank too....
 
Glad you have backups Coop. No backups is a recipe for disaster. I very much doubt you will ever get anything like a refund as the company is probably insolvent.

Quite few years back the entire hosting company where I had my web hosting and email went bankrupt with zero warning: one day everything was just gone. I had backups of my site on my computer but anybody who didn't lost everything. It was enough of a monster show reclaiming my domains and getting them installed on a new hosting service.

Previously it was things like a fire or a flood that could wipe out a photographer's archive. Now it's all just data. And "poof" it's gone!
 
Ten pages of valuable (albeit discouraging) discussion on Watchin' Tyme.

Including one subscriber who lost ALL his deceased 14-yr-old daughter's photo albums. He's offering $1000 to retrieve them.

I only lost visual access. Others are heartbroken. Bad mojo.

Coop
 
My 14 year old daughter died 2 years ago and I have an album for every year of her life on fototime (from age 1-14) because I thought it was the safest way to preserve her memories. I was afraid of losing them to stored memory sticks and laptop. I honestly thought this was a full proof way to make sure i can always access her pictures from any place and irregardless of device being broken or lost . That is why i paid $99. year.

I am trying to contact the owner of Fototime (Karl Swierenga). If anyone has a working phone number for him please contact me. I am offerring $1000. cash for them to try and retrive my photos.
 
colubrid said:
My 14 year old daughter died 2 years ago and I have an album for every year of her life on fototime (from age 1-14) because I thought it was the safest way to preserve her memories. I was afraid of losing them to stored memory sticks and laptop. I honestly thought this was a full proof way to make sure i can always access her pictures from any place and irregardless of device being broken or lost . That is why i paid $99. year.

I am trying to contact the owner of Fototime (Karl Swierenga). If anyone has a working phone number for him please contact me. I am offerring $1000. cash for them to try and retrive my photos.
Click to expand...

I can't even imagine what that would feel like. I hope you get her photos back!
 
SharpByCoop said:
I have LONG been a proponent of paying for an image hosting service. The list of defunct photo hosting sites through the years is notable.

Since 2004 I have paid Fototime.com to host the images I post. I have been VERY proud that my posts (up until now) had remained permanent.

Without ANY notice whatsoever, the owners of Fototime shut down the site, the service, and deleted both their Facebook page and Twitter page. No response in support emails. Gone. Kaput.

(NO, it is UNRELATED to the French Cloud Service database fire. This I know from talking to their ISP.)

THOUSANDS of paying clients now with dead links, and for others, lost files.

My prized SBC Gallery of Handmade Knives which has almost 3 MILLION views has 70 of 74 pages dead in the water. :mad: I'm sorry about this. :(

I am not alone. All over the 'net are others grousing of the same thing. I paid for a year's hosting in January. Got 6 weeks.

This is the information I found in a Google search of the company;

Fototime was registered under:
Andrew Pitts
6711 Atlanta Dr.
Colleyville, TX 76034

Fototime's President:
Karl Swierenga
12660 Hillcrest Rd #4201
Dallas, TX 76230
Karl also owns KPS Solutions and Equitystat Solutions (I researched both companies and left messages wherever possible.)

Fototime's V.P.:
Jeff Kelling
3803 Cibola Trail
Carrollton, TX 75007

Bastards. Really unfair from every standpoint. I don't care that I'm posting personal info publicly. They SCREWED us. :thumbsdown:

(ANOTHER great reason why I would rather support Bladeforums for images and not depend on an outside source. Outside sources turn sour inevitably.)

I will rethink my photo hosting needs carefully, but mostly I wanted to inform viewers I had no control on the disappearance of the visuals. We deserve better.

Coop
Click to expand...

I'm sorry for your loss. Hopefully you'll get everything restored to you. It saddens me that it was people from Texas that did this.
 
colubrid said:
My 14 year old daughter died 2 years ago and I have an album for every year of her life on fototime (from age 1-14) because I thought it was the safest way to preserve her memories. I was afraid of losing them to stored memory sticks and laptop. I honestly thought this was a full proof way to make sure i can always access her pictures from any place and irregardless of device being broken or lost . That is why i paid $99. year.
I am trying to contact the owner of Fototime (Karl Swierenga). If anyone has a working phone number for him please contact me. I am offerring $1000. cash for them to try and retrive my photos.
Click to expand...

Sir my deepest condolences to you and your family for such a profound and devastating loss.

I wish I could help you retrieve the pictures. One can only hope and pray that the owner of the site does the right thing.
 
I got burned for every photo I had hosted on fototime. Some not replaceable. I was really bummed. :mad:
 
Ballenxj said:
I got burned for every photo I had hosted on fototime. Some not replaceable. I was really bummed. :mad:
Click to expand...

NEVER upload your original photos to any site, especially without saving them onto your computer. I always make compressed copies of the original and post the copies. And I have 2 backups of my photos; one on a HDD, and one on a flash drive.
 
Has anyone ever heard anything from fototime or anyone retrieving photos from them?
 
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