
Dropbox accounts created after Oct. 2012 won't have a public folder - cpg
https://www.dropbox.com/help/16
======
bane
This feels like a step backwards. DB has struggled to figure out something
beyond being a really great cloud-share drive thing, and sorta kinda messed
around with using your DB to host media like photos (which would then make
users desire to upgrade their space) and automagically supply some interface
sugar around a pile of photos.

But they could have kept going in that direction and competed with all of the
photosharing sites, soundcloud, heck even youtube if they had wanted. Say I
like to vlog, what would be easier? After filming raw footage, edit it, make
my final cut, upload to youtube and wait for transcoding and availability? Or
just put my final cut into a "droptube" folder and it automagically appears at
www.droptube.com (not a real thing, but could be in some alternate dimension)

Or what if I want to host a simple site? Fiddle with a hosting provider, screw
around trying to figure out the 37 different metrics I'll be charged for, or
just put some html, css and js file into a dropbox "webhost" folder?

I dunno, I think they're closing off lots of opportunity and have had trouble
executing on this kind of cloud application for the masses, or they're really
not going after it.

~~~
mixedbit
My guess is that the reason they are closing this is the cost of bandwidth.
Dropbox allowed to host publicly all types of large files and exchange such
files by a link that did not require any interaction with DropBox to download.
It seems really hard to monetize such usage.

~~~
bane
I believe they already do some kind of bandwidth monitoring, so I could also
see them just passing that along to subscribers who use too much. I would have
also hoped their bandwidth costs would have improved when they moved to their
own cloud instead of S3.

~~~
TeMPOraL
I vaguely remember that they were able to throttle/block off a public file
when it caused unusually high traffic.

------
jen729w
I'm amazed that there wasn't an outcry the other month when they - just one
day, with zero notice - renamed my shared folder and made it a Team folder.

Big deal? Well, they actually changed the name of the folder. And now I can't
modify it. So yeah, big deal. I have Logic Pro templates that look there. They
all broke. It wasn't _too bad_ for me, but imagine if you had scripts or tools
or whatever pointing to a file on your FS that happened to be in one of the
affected folders. You woke up one morning and they were all broken.

You can't just rename people's files. That's not part of the social contract I
have with you, Dropbox.

~~~
NegativeLatency
Simlink to it?

~~~
jen729w
I use [http://johnnydecimal.com](http://johnnydecimal.com) (disclosure: mine!)
to organise my files. Symlinking is possible, but dirty. Messes other things
up. I can't _remove_ the folder that Dropbox put there.

It's just not right. It's my file system. Get your hands off it.

------
cpg
I relied on this "light" publishing for a few things and I'm quite pissed off.
I did not notice any notification on this.

To me, this should be done very very visibly and with tons of warnings. I used
it to communicate screenshots with details, etc. Now all links are broken and
I'm SOL with no viable solution to changing those links from documents, bugs,
etc., etc.

Very very very bad!

~~~
onli
Oh, they definitely notified their users. There were emails and warnings in
the UI, it was very visible. Really, you can't blame Dropbox there.

However, one can still blame Dropbox for the change itself. I used this on
several occasions, including hosting archives for academic publications. No
way in hell I can change those links. Maybe that wasn't a wise choice, but at
that time it looked like a good way: The link did not give a clue about my
identity, making peer review easier, and DB being a well-funded and known
internet company those links were surely meant to work forever, cool URLs
don't change is something they had to know. Boy was I wrong.

~~~
morganvachon
> _Maybe that wasn 't a wise choice, but at that time it looked like a good
> way: The link did not give a clue about my identity, making peer review
> easier, and DB being a well-funded and known internet company those links
> were surely meant to work forever, cool URLs don't change is something they
> had to know. Boy was I wrong._

I also fell into the trap (back when I had an active Dropbox account) of using
the Public folder and sharing links from there. At some point along the way,
Dropbox started allowing one to share single files from any private folder
without exposing the rest of the folder to the audience, and I started using
that method instead. Still, even if I had stayed with Dropbox I probably would
have some orphaned /Public links out there somewhere, thanks to this change.

I think we both could have avoided that trap by setting up a small storage VPS
with a provider like Digital Ocean or Vultr and installing a document
management system. It would still be fairly anonymous; a truly determined
detective could find the owner but it would likely require a subpoena, which
Dropbox would have been vulnerable to as well.

~~~
onli
> _I think we both could have avoided that trap by setting up a small storage
> VPS with a provider like Digital Ocean or Vultr and installing a document
> management system._

That can break though. And admittedly, I didn't want to have costs for this,
especially not re-occuring, being a student at the time. I could have asked my
university/IT to take care of this, but that would have meant bureaucracy and
a long waiting time, time I did not have.

I wasn't even an active DB user at that time anymore, having moved away when
Condoleezza Rice joined. But the way they are handling this I only get more
convinced that was the right choice. It is one thing removing functionality,
it is another breaking links. At least they should have a way to manually
share files, and let them have the exact same link they had before. But I
guess that is only of interest for people with an interest in technology, a
demographic DB is not interested in anymore.

------
DHowett
Dropbox has been becoming increasingly user-hostile for a great while now, and
it all centers around the deprecation of the Public folder.

I think this change primarily serves to funnel downstream content viewers to
the shared file "landing page". That landing page is filled with valuable
screen real-estate that Dropbox can use to promote itself.

That page is a usability nightmare, too. Photos can't be zoomed to full size
on certain screen configurations, videos are served transcoded, and many other
file types that the browser can render natively are flagged as
"undisplayable". File content will often become unavailable or hidden behind a
full-splash "create a Dropbox account!" affordance that pays no heed to
whether you're logged in, a customer, or just a casual observer.

~~~
lathiat
This drives me bananas every time someone links me through DropBox. I actively
dislike people sharing stuff to me with DropBox.

Would make sense to make for a free product but if people are paying and this
is still broken, seems a bit stupid.

Actually... now that I think about it; what annoys me most is the fact that it
pops up a login box. If it was just on the side not covering the content I
probably wouldn't dislike it so much.

------
baby
This was amazingly awesome because: I could teach people how to make a
website, and how to have on the internet, in minutes.

Having said that, I haven't had that public folder in many many many many many
years. So I'm surprised about this announce.

If anyone knows a quick way to let anyone do what I described above, please do
tell.

~~~
codazoda
I use GitHub. I'm a developer, so maybe this is hard... They let you use their
website to create a repo, add a file, and then in the settings specify that
master is the source branch for GhPages so that it's available via the browser
to the world at yourname.github.io/yourproject. You can even add a custom
domain if you want.

~~~
codazoda
Here are the quick steps to do this.

Visit github.com

Create an account or login

Click the green "New repository" button

Give your website a name like "hello"

Check the box to Initialize this repository with a README

Click the Create repository button

Click the Create new file button

Name the file index.html

Enter <p>Hello World</p> in the body of the file

Click the Commit new file button

Click the Settings gear icon

Scroll down to GitHub Pages

Select master branch under Source

Click the Save button

There's now a link to username.github.io/hello under the GitHub Pages heading.
You can now edit the index.html file or add css and js resources in the same
way you just added the index file. Uploading files, such as images, is also
supported. All without using Git.

~~~
kowdermeister
Great start :)

You can also drag and drop files from your desktop to your repo.

------
saycheese
>> "Dropbox accounts created after October 4, 2012 won't have a Public
folder."

Given the initial release was in June 2007, does anyone know why this only
applies to accounts created after October 4, 2012?

~~~
filleokus
Just guessing, but might they have had something in their EULA / TOS up until
October 4:th 2012 that somehow forces them to keep the Public folder
available? Maybe some language about how features are removed /deprecated, or
about how changes in the EULA / TOS are allowed to be done, that makes it
infeasible to do without breaking the contract?

~~~
bigiain
Maybe just coincidental, but while I was searching thru Dropbox mail looking
for details for another reply here, I noticed this message from Aug 26th 2016:

"We’re reaching out to let you know that if you haven’t updated your Dropbox
password since mid-2012, you’ll be prompted to update it the next time you
sign in. This is purely a preventative measure, and we’re sorry for the
inconvenience."

~~~
slg
2012 was apparently when Dropbox had 68 million email addresses and hashed
passwords compromised. It just took 4 years for anyone to find out about it.

~~~
bigiain
Cynical-me wonders if this is because whoever got this passwords also got the
backend source, and they've discovered security problems that're easier to fix
by killing features than but actually fixing the code the attackers have?

------
TeMPOraL
The second most useful feature of Dropbox (beyond being "a folder that
syncs"), gone. I'm _very_ sad about this, even though I knew it was coming.
This is literally the case of "we can't have nice things because $reasons".

~~~
bigiain
For me, this was the most-used feature. "a folder that syncs" was a nice side
effect.

(I know - I'm clearly not "their most valuable customer segment" \- if I was
them I'd probably be breaking my irrelevant-to-them shit too...)

~~~
TeMPOraL
The Public folder is what dragged me in fully and made me stay with Dropbox. I
am their _paying customer_ now, and this very moment, I'm considering whether
I'm pissed off about the thing enough to move those few gigs of data I have
with Dropbox to some self-hosted solution.

~~~
bigiain
Yeah - I've got an AWS account which in months where I don't use anything
except my S3 storage costs me around 90c/month - and I have a licence for
Transmit which gives me almost identical folder-sync like behaviour from Mac
OS. There's some useful-to-me stuff the iOS Dropbox app does, but for
90-100/year I suspect I can solve or ignore that problem...

------
discreditable
This is pretty lame, now when I share files I have to direct them to Dropbox's
dumb interstitial page which pushes them to sign up.

~~~
bigiain
Well, $600mil in VC cash, it's not like nobody saw this coming... I can almost
see in my head the guy from JPMorgan saying "So geeks, time to stop screwing
around - how're you going to increase the pressure to monetise all those users
and get me my 100x return on that half a billion dollars? Quickly!"

------
Giorgi
Pretty sure this happened because of warez. Lately lots of warez sites where
uploading in there.

~~~
the_af
How would this help? They still allow sharing links even for free accounts.
It's just that it's not direct linking and instead you're forced to go to a
Dropbox page.

No, it probably has to do with making downloaders go to Dropbox and tempt them
to subscribe.

------
make3
I really have the feeling that DropBox will die. They don't do anything Google
Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or Apple iCloud doesn't do, and these companies all
have much more money / talent / infrastructure / synergy with other products.

~~~
brandon272
For some reason I still only instinctively trust Dropbox to reliably sync my
files. I'm always worried I'm going to lose something if I put it into my
Google Drive or iCloud folder, though I'm sure by this point it is probably
just as good/reliable.

My concerns have less to do with individual files being manually added to a
Google Drive or iCloud folder and more to do with how well it handles starting
entire new project folders w/ hundreds (or thousands) of files that are
constantly being updated.

~~~
daenney
> For some reason I still only instinctively trust Dropbox to reliably sync my
> files.

Used to be that way for me too until all the nasty tricks they employed in the
OS X app installation process to elevate their privileges came to light.
Though the syncing still works as reliably I no longer trust them with the
content or to behave responsibly.

I haven't had any issue syncing with OneDrive or Google Drive for larger
projects. I don't doubt you might've run into that issue in the past but I'd
recommend giving it a go if that's what's holding you back. If anything
knowing that you can reliably switch storage providers in the future should
you need to is a good card to hold.

------
mdekkers
Tell me more about how great these kind of companies are, where they can
terminate aspects (or all) of a service you have come to rely on. These kind
of shenanigans are exactly why I don't trust Google with anything other than
core services, and why I do my best to not rely on anything "cloud" (as in,
consumer-facing stuff)Too much control in the hands of those who are not
accountable to anyone, especially not to me.

I have been told many times (here, as well as elsewhere) how I don't
"understand" cloud and related drivel. I understand cloud very well. That's
why I don't depend on it.

------
alainv
Title is evidently incorrect: the link itself clearly states they just
disabled this functionality for Free accounts.

I can verify it still works for Pro/Plus accounts with existing Public
folders.

~~~
i336_
I agree. I would recommend "(2012, 2017)" to succinctly clarify that this is
somehow relevant to right now and that further investigation is needed.

Note: I have flagged the parent comment so that it shows up for the moderators
(and also upvoted it to counteract the impact of flagging). So, nobody else
needs to flag it - if too many people do so it might go [dead].

~~~
the_af
Further investigation? They clearly state the public folder will stop working
even for paid accounts on September 1st.

~~~
i336_
I'm talking about the article title as shown here. If it said "Dropbox
accounts created after Oct. 2012 won't have a public folder (2012; 2017)" or
perhaps "... (2017)" then readers would be able to go "okay, what's this, it
has this year in it, what gives" and click it. You're only able to know about
Sep 1st once you actually open the article, which in its current form seems to
talk about an event from 5 years ago.

------
dctoedt
Unless I'm mistaken, this won't affect services such as Site44.com [0], which
lets you create up to 10 Web sites by syncing with specified Dropbox folders
for $4.95 per month. I use the service for a side project and to publish a
site for my students with the materials for the law-school course I teach; it
works quite well. (EDIT: And that's my only connection with the company.)

[0] [http://www.Site44.com](http://www.Site44.com)

------
dorianm
Seeing the /help/16, I'm guessing this is one of the oldest help page of
Dropbox. /help/1 and /help/2 don't exist, so the still published oldest one
must be [https://www.dropbox.com/help/3](https://www.dropbox.com/help/3)
"System requirements to run Dropbox", makes sense

~~~
dublinben
You're probably right. This page has existed since at least 2009, in various
forms[0]. For many years, it helpfully instructed users how to share the files
in their public folder, one of their most useful features from day 1.

[0]
[http://web.archive.org/web/20091114094103/http://www.dropbox...](http://web.archive.org/web/20091114094103/http://www.dropbox.com/help/16)

------
robinhowlett
I used to use UpShot, a OS X plugin that saved by screenshots to my Public
Dropbox folder and copied the public link to the clipboard. It was super
useful for referencing images in code reviews, wikis etc.

Anyone recommend a better alternative?

------
msie
What's wrong with the "shared link" functionality they are offering?

~~~
TeMPOraL
It's not a direct link to file, but a link to their UI which only then offers
a "download" option. Besides being incredibly annoying (over a megabyte of
useless JS and tracking crap), it kills off many functionalities that were
enabled by public links being direct-to-file URLs.

------
icehawk
This was the main reason I unsubscribed from Dropbox this month.

------
tomc1985
This is bullshit. DB's public folder was a HUGE win. I don't even know if
Nextcloud has this feature but I'm switching to it.

~~~
bigiain
_That's_ the kind of definitive action we need more of!

Me, I'ma gonna switch to Photoshop - it doesn't have this feature either, but
screw those Dropbox clowns, amirite?

------
Zhenya
Where can I find my account creation date other than a welcome email?

If I missed the instructions in the announcement, I apologise.

------
cpg
Title is incorrect. My account was created before 2012 and they just disabled
all public links.

------
alexnewman
It's cool I already switched too google cloud

------
swiley
I was under the impression those where disabled long ago.

Tor is always good if you need a quick easy way to publish something without a
public IP address

~~~
dublinben
How exactly does Tor replace the ease of publishing something with Dropbox?

~~~
swiley
You just run a web server in a hidden service, it takes less than five minutes
to set up. People without for can still see it with onion.to.

~~~
daenney
That's not answer to the parent's question. Tor has very little to do with the
ability to host your website by just plopping HTML into the Shared folder you
used to have on Dropbox.

