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In putting together this little blog-thing I signed up for ezarchive, a pay service that hosts (stores) large image and audio files so that you can create links to them on your website. It is because of this service that many of these pictures and all of these mp3s are up on my blog. I got this email from them today: (if you don't care to read it I can summarize: 'we are ezarchive, and we are dicks.' end transmission).

On 10/15/06 7:56 AM, "contactus@ezarchive.com" wrote:

Please look out for an invitation to be sent to you during the week of October 20-27, 2006. This important invitation will tell you how to use the Grabber Tool, which will move everything in your archive over to EZArchive 3.0. If you have not received the invitation by midnight on October 27, please send a note to contactus@ezarchive.com. As you know, all accounts must be transferred or they will be closed by November 1, 2006. GOOD NEWS: The new site is awesome, easy to use and you can transfer to it for free. Also, if you want to change your login name at this time, you will have the option to do that.(Or keep the one you have.) BAD NEWS: You will have to recreate any ShareMail links and web links you have made to blogs and Web sites once you are in the new environment. Your current links will work just as they do now until November 1, even after you set up your new account. You can set up new links in EZArchive 3.0 during this transition period in anticipation of the switchover on November 1, but they will not become active until the old ones are deactivated. We realize that this is a major inconvenience for our large blogger population, but we hope that you will agree that the uptime stability you will get in the new system is worth the short-term hassle of switching over. Please note: If you have established an EZArchive blog, this functionality will also be affected. Please contact us immediately so we can help you set that up again moving forward. Stay tuned...EZArchive 3.0 is on the way! Look for your invitation next week! All the best, EZArchive Customer Support * If you would like to unsubscribe, please write to contactus@ezarchive.com and we will remove you from our mailing list.


This was my emailed reply, which I have yet to get a response to: (again, I can summarize for you, 'you are ezarchive, and you guys are dicks')





Really?

Are you absolutely serious? I need to personally move all of my files, which I have paid you to keep in one place, with your little ‘grabber tool’? Even better, I have one week to do so or my account will be closed. Holy shady business practices. What sort of compensation do you plan on offering people who may have hundreds of files uploaded and linked to your site? None? Or an ‘awesome’ new site, that I can transfer to for free because I already pay you a hefty amount to not deal with this sort of nonsense. I also like the fact that after I (in theory, and if I were a mindless drone who has nothing better to do with his time) take the time to recreate links to my website those links will not even work until the old ones are deactivated. What sort of dog and pony show are you guys running here? If you were smart you may have planned this a bit better, and maybe realized that it’s the people who subscribe to your service that pay your rent and allow you to toil away in your cubicle day after day. Why, seriously, would I pay you so that I can re-do all of the work that I have done once already? Even if you offered to pay me to do it I would refuse because I already have a job that doesn’t involve dicking around with a computer all day, and I’d rather not resign myself to one. You hit the nail on the head with one thing, this is a ‘major inconvenience’ to your blogger population, who, it’s safe to say, will be off using some other service within the next week which won’t certainly screw them over. Have you accounted for those who take in ad revenue to their web sites and may, genuinely be losing money because of this asinine operation that you have planned? I understand that technological development in a necessary evil, particular in this realm, but really, this is just foolish. Why would I go through the hassle so that I may benefit from your ‘uptime stability.’ Your esoteric promises are not so enticing to me. Bottom line is that you need to reevaluate your idea of commerce. If this were a store, or any other sort of face to face operation, you would never have the nerve to suggest something like this, mostly from fear of being kicked in the throat. Think about it. Really. Put yourself in my shoes. They are nice and comfy, and I think that this sucks. If you disagree then enjoy your unemployment, because I’m pretty sure that I’m not alone in my ire.



Thanks (for what, I am still a bit unclear),
Lucas