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Forum Discussion
ae2rigc
8 years agoNew member | Level 2
Ending support of public folder
Just heard from dropbox that support for the public folder is ending.
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As a result, we’ll soon be ending support for the Public folder. Dropbox Pro users will be able to use the Publ...
- 8 years agoLGM - the issue is that people are abusing it and causing issues for everybody by getting the Dropbox domains blacklisted which cause emails to fail and downloads to be blocked by firewalls etc.
In terms of changing the extension, sorry, no idea how you would do that!
Mark
Super User II
This isnt exactly new news I'm afraid.
And it was replaced a LONG LONG time ago by shared links which are pretty much Public Links BUT allowed in any location within your Dropbox: www.dropbox.com/help/167 (as per the link in the email)
Edit: apologies I have received my email now. I believed initially this was a change to the way HTML files were rendered not that they were going completely.
ae2rigc
8 years agoNew member | Level 2
@Mark - Thanks but the behaviour is different.
@narikaa - I hadn't considered the loss of already posted conent, that is indeed an issue
- Mark8 years agoSuper User III'm not sure how its different behaviour in the examples you gave?
You can also create any link using the format above to get a BB-type link by changing the www. to dl-dropbox...- rileyph8 years agoHelpful | Level 6Why can't Dropbox preserve existing public links?
Then just impliment changes for new ones. This would save your users a lot of money, and reduce the anger felt towards dropbox.- Bob J.8 years agoHelpful | Level 6Yes please preserve the existing ones.
I can handle new links by other means (albeit less conveniently) but it would be almost impossible to modify existing links on forums that are probably closed now.
If you have problems with specific links causing issues then get in touch with the person - they will understand and will fix the issues one by one.
But please at least keep those old links working
- LGM8 years agoHelpful | Level 5
Mark: "You can also create any link using the format above to get a BB-type link by changing the www. to dl-dropbox..."
You are right !
So maybe we just have to slightly modify the Dropbox finder extension to provide an extra menu entry "Public Share" which would create the share link following this syntax ?
- Mark8 years agoSuper User IILGM - the issue is that people are abusing it and causing issues for everybody by getting the Dropbox domains blacklisted which cause emails to fail and downloads to be blocked by firewalls etc.
In terms of changing the extension, sorry, no idea how you would do that!
- malphadour8 years agoNew member | Level 2
Mark wrote:
I'm not sure how its different behaviour in the examples you gave?
You can also create any link using the format above to get a BB-type link by changing the www. to dl-dropbox...Firstly this means having to eidt EVERY time you create a link - something I do dozens of times a day. Secondly if it is so easy then why change it in the first place????? This move makes absolutely NO sense and has just annoyed your user base. I currently have a dropbox rep trying to sell us a pro account and he has jsut lost the sale because simple file lining is the single reason we use dropbox - making this function complicated (i.e having to MANUALLY edit every link we create) is utter stupidity and a step backwards - how is that usefull??
- Paul118 years agoHelpful | Level 5I do not understand the Dropbox owners. Every comment made in this forum makes sense. I too have thousands of links to images on BB's. This is a nightmare.
No single need to continue my Pro subscription. Let's cancel!
- DavideProfe8 years agoHelpful | Level 6
"I hadn't considered the loss of already posted conent, that is indeed an issue"
Are you SERIOUS?????
ALL the embedded documents I have on countless bogs, mails sent to collaborators, as other users have already pointed out will be soon not working?????????
I'm supposed to start changing links one by one?????????
It is the WORST strategical mistake a company like Dropbox could have done.
Thumbs down.
I hope the CEOs will go back.
Ok, make ALL documents in Dropbox shareable, not only in the public folder. That's good and very handy.
But don't dismiss the ALREADY DONE links to your users.
You'll find users migrating, just for anger and frustration, even if they will have to do the same work in another cloud storing space.
Think it twice: you'll lose the simpathy (and the membership) of thousands. Seriously. Don't do that.
KEEP the links working, and ADD the ability to make public all documents regardless of the folder they are in.
It's simple common sense.
Do you need money? Ok, I'll pay for it. But don't throw all my lifework to trash.
- TonyProctor8 years agoHelpful | Level 5
It certainly is a staggering decision by Dropbox. I'm astonished, too, that they haven't engaged in a better dialogue with their users. The first-line support keeps saying the same things, but the people who made this decision are nowhere to be seen.
There is a very good business case for doing this differently. This would help existing users, and protect what's left of Dropbox's reputation. The intended change affects files in the Public folder, *and* in any of its sub-folders (hands-up if you didn't know that), but not everything in those folders was intended to be public in the first place. Solution: simply give a button/option to select for each of your intended public fles that would retain the existing URL after the changeover -- the option can be removed after that time.
It's already been noted that retaining a limited number of those old URLs is not technically difficult. It remains a mystery, though, why this change is so important to Dropbox that they're intent on using the "hammer approach" with little consideration of the impact on their users.
- kiaz h.8 years agoHelpful | Level 6
TonyProctor wrote:
It remains a mystery, though, why this change is so important to Dropbox that they're intent on using the "hammer approach" with little consideration of the impact on their users.
It's important because some manager (PR, or financial) said so. You know those managers who invent sometimes some idiotic things to justify their own existence/job.
- verstaerker8 years agoHelpful | Level 5
sure i also would pay a reasonable fee to keep my links alive and keep the public-foldr functionality
but as i assume that dropbox wont change their decision i already started running my own cloudserver on my NAS and share my files thru that.
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