First, a huge Kudo for the Admin and IT teams of Virily for getting the issue of the Create button missing, fixed for many users.
Now that the crisis has moved on, its time to consider a couple of other issues.
1. Pictures stripped from old posts.
2. That issue brings back the issue of editing posts and comments.
First off, Alex, Howard, and others have told me about the issue of missing pictures a couple of times. I haven’t spent a lot of time wondering about this issue, but I did spend some time look at my old posts. Now, in the past (the beginnings of Virily), you used to get 2 Virils per picture submitted up to a maximum of 20. That changed to a maximum of 2 around two years ago. I used to submit 20, cut that to 10 pictures per post. Then I cut that to 6 because I added captions for each picture in my wander project. But no matter what I only get credit for two pictures. That is fine, and I don’t write on Virily to make money, I write as a platform to share information about places, things, and memories.
I started about two weeks ago reviewing some of my older posts. Many of them have the pictures stripped out. Now I understand why from a site management perspective. Each picture is between 2 and 3 megs in size. I have over 1500 wander projects. That would be between 10,000 and 15000 pictures in total, if not more. That would be 460 or so megs of storage, and that costs the site money. Links don’t impact, and text doesn’t impact the size of the stored post, but those pictures do.
That said, I have searched the FAQs (nothing noted), and I will be sending this post and the comments to the admin team on Saturday. To see if the assumption I’ve made is correct in that there is a cost to storing old posts, and the pictures were removed to reduce that cost.
All that said, why did I bring up the second point? Well if images are stripped off, then the posts are being edited after they are shared. Based on that I believe it wouldn’t be that hard to let at least us edit comments.
1. Authors should be able to edit their comments.
2. Authors should have the right to remove offensive comments on their posts.
I am not asking or advocating the editing of posts. I do understand that is a legal kettle of fish, and no one wants that hassle. But comments should be something that can be banned, edited, and modified.
The reality of Virily is that most of the authors are not native English speakers. Base don that, comments like a good job, thanks for sharing as long as they aren’t copied or pasted are perfectly acceptable. We all understand that to read posts and to comment, and sometimes people don’t have the perfect response. Then if you can’t comment on my posts I won’t on your rule is interesting.
It is ok to make short comments. It is not ok to demand others comment in a specific way. It is also against the rules of the site to copy and paste the same comment in multiple places.
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Question of
it is rude to force people to comment based on your rules not the site rules right?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you share pictures on Virily?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Have you been on Virily for more than a year?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Have you been on Virily more than 2 years?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Have you been on Virily more than 3 years?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Have you pulled up an old post that you shared?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Did the old post have pictures still?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Demanding comments isn’t a good thing right?
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Yes
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No
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I always had my create button but I did notice my photos on the older ones not there. Pinned on doc`s board.
The photo issue isn’t a killer, it is just annoying.
I haven’t noticed missing images but no I will have a look
please let me know if it impacts you!
Lots of my pictures on my old posts have disappeared.
it makes me sad. I am sorry that has happened.
Q: it is rude to force people to comment based on your rules not the site rules right?
Yes (15 votes) – 94%
No (1 votes) – 6%
Q: Do you share pictures on Virily?
Yes (13 votes) – 87%
No (2 votes) – 13%
Q: Have you been on Virily for more than a year?
Yes (11 votes) – 85%
No (2 votes) – 15%
Q: Have you been on Virily more than 2 years?
Yes (9 votes) – 69%
No (4 votes) – 31%
Q: Have you been on Virily more than 3 years?
Yes (7 votes) – 54%
No (6 votes) – 46%
Q: Have you pulled up an old post that you shared?
Yes (7 votes) – 54%
No (6 votes) – 46%
Q: Did the old post have pictures still?
Yes (4 votes) – 40%
No (6 votes) – 60%
Q: Demanding comments isn’t a good thing right?
Yes (14 votes) – 93%
No (1 votes) – 7%
Oh sad. It would be unfortunate if old content is trimmed or removed.
i agree that would be much worse. It kind of kills the impact of my wander project but I have backups of the originals.
Ok. I hope this site starts generating tons of traffic and revenue. Once that happens, all else can fall in place.
i hope so as well. It is the only way we all get paid.
Henceforth, I will only post one picture.
I am going to continue posting more than one. But I completely understand your point!
It’s hilarious that a picture is required for each post, but the pictures are taken out.
They don’t remove the old cover picture, (required) it is any additional gallery or embedded pictures that are removed!
May need to consider a new concept for the site?
if we had a voice, I would say, that is a great starting point!
Yes, well I think I lost some of my old pictures on previous posts a long time ago, but that is history …
Sorry to hear that, hopefully you have a backup somewhere!
I still have them on the computer Doc thanks
that is important, I like to have lots of copies!
Yes, I do have a back up disc and should use it more often
That really makes me glad to hear! yes please do use it more often!!!!
I didn’t know that. I usually don’t have photos to share thus my posts contain one image.
I wish we would exit our posts and comments. Does it cost the site to allow authors to edit their posts?
Thanks for the comment first.
The issue of costing the site for authors editing is a two-fold answer.
From a user perspective, there is zero cost to enabling edits of comments.
There is little to no cost from a user perspective to allowing editing of posts.
From the site perspective, there is cost and risk
The site has to develop the editing ability and deploy that to the site (That costs)
There is also a legal risk that people post, then go in and modify that post so that it violates GDPR or other privacy laws.
Thanks Doc for the explanation. I have understood the cost of editing from the site’s side.
Also, I understand the disadvantage of authors having the ability to edit their articles as you’ve indicated. But, why do sites like Hubpages have that option. There are articles I’ve edited numerous times on Hubpage?
i cannot answer your question.
Thank you for sharing the information especially about those pictures.
it is kind of frustrating, oh well
in my case, the images are still there and are searchable. and my images are modestly sized ~500k so the scenario you’ve described only applies to me as an aggregate…
yours is the other use case (but in my case doesn’t apply to my situation). But you got me looking at my old posts.
I didn’t care when it was posted that were 2 years old.
I checked posts that were 8 months old yesterday and pictures had been removed.
(ok my mom saw and mentioned it to me).
to further confuse things, some users report being able to see the images
i am just about done now with the site. i have thought about leaving for the last two months.
When a user, in their first 100 days earns more than Carol DM does it is time to move on.
lemme know if you find someplace else
you bet, I keep looking, few pay. few have a good community like this.
hard to have it all…
that is really true although lately, things are not as good as they were.
I have checked the photos in old posts several times, generally, if a post consists of only one picture, the image remains in place but if the post consists of several images, then they have disappeared.
However I can understand it, after all I still keep the original documents from the pictures that I have shared it.
i know it is a long time problem on the site, and I completely understand the cost basis would just like a little information as to how long articles remain as published before they are changed.
Then I wonder out the costs of storing data from large platforms like Facebook, etc.
facebook has a massive data store (well north of 10 or more Petabytes) it is an interesting problem.
We generated more digital data in 2018 than the sum of all digital information produced up until 2000.
Hmm… you really understand this, Doc.
You mean, has there been a drastic reduction in the amount of data generated after 2018?
no just that we surpassed 50 years of digital data in one year. 2019 will be higher than 2018 in terms of digital data produced.
And something much bigger will be needed to store that data…
Amazon, Microsoft and Google have more servers than there were hard drives in the world in 1994!
And all that will double in the coming years.
I can’t imagine how hot the server storage rooms are even with AC.
They are getting smarter now. If you build them where the area around is cooler you can cool the data center naturally. They put them in Colorado, or underwater and it uses the energy present to reduce the heat.
I’m a little “ashamed” now, but I didn’t notice it. I don’t look at my old posts. And to be fair, I don’t even know the number of posts and pictures. ?
here is why you shouldn’t be ashamed, why would you check that?
You are right. No need to check old posts but I notice some members check everything ?
i don’t, but I do sometimes. Only this time because my mother mentioned it to me and Alex L also did the same day!
The problem with photos of old posts is already too old and very annoying.
it is an old issue, but, one that should have some communication from the admin. oh well
A lot of my older posts don’t have photos anymore, and I noticed it a long time ago. Another problem I experience is that when I make a poll, the questions and answers disappear and I have to save draft and submit them again and again.
The poll one is also a long-time bug. But I had thought it had been fixed.
Unfortunately, not, based on my experience. The last issue proved that not everyone is affected by the same bug; I have been wondering whether some people are still able to see photos on old posts, because I get new comments on them from time to time, or maybe they just leave a comment and don’t care that half of the content is missing.
i am pretty sure that no one sees old pictures, although you can still search for them they aren’t linked to the post.
But I will do further research.
The poll issue is one that went away and you may be right it may only impact some people.
I also noticed that the old posts have disappeared … otherwise I do not know how many of them are quite a few … but it does not bother me so much but I just want to know where they disappeared
I can understand why they are gone, it costs money every month to store the pictures.
If so, so be it … because I say it doesn’t bother me at all
i only care because my mother is the one that found out. She sent me an email telling me to send her one of the pictures I shared.
This is a different situation, my friend
yeah, I knew about this on really old posts. but now it is posts that are less than a year old as well.
I have noticed the photos from the old posts gone a long time now. I just went on since it didn’t seem to be a big deal to others.
i noticed the old ones, same as you a while ago. I wasn’t worried. Today I was checking posts that were less than 10 months old. The pictures are removed from those now as well.
Again, with no explanation.
I don’t expect communication anymore that way I am not disappointed. My mother actually pointed it out to me, that the pictures were missing.
I have had no problem with my pictures. But I will admit that sometimes posts are hard to read because of the poor English not counting the typo mistakes. I am not writing so much for money but just for the pleasure to be able to write…
i write because if I don’t the stuff bounces around in my head and won’t leave me alone!!!
Yes, most of the older posts have been stripped. This has gone on for at least a year or two.
i knew but I didn’t know. I am making it public now. I understand that, and i understand the cost issue. but still.
I was surprised that the a post that I had submitted had its picture missing. I had to edit. reload the picture and submit again this morning.
i have more than 1000 posts in that state. I can’t do that.