Phanfare Relaunches as a Photo and Video Sharing Network for Families
I am pleased to announce that we have relaunched Phanfare as a Photo and Video sharing network for families. Here is the press release.
I co-founded Phanfare with Mark Heinrich in 2004 as a way to share photos and videos privately with friends and family. We both had young kids. Before Phanfare, we both maintained private websites of photos. These were fairly simple sites, protected with a single password. We would maintain these sites by generating HTML locally on our computers and then FTPing the content up to the server. The sites had web-resolution only, no slideshows, no video and no collaboration features.
Phanfare 1.0 was created in the model of our personal sites. We knew the issues around workflow with digital photography and the clunkiness of web-based tools to manage photos and videos, so we created full featured downloadable clients that would keep the Phanfare websites up to date.
Phanfare grew nicely over the first two years. We hired employees, raised money and continued to evolve the product. As an insider, it was great to see the whole Phanfare system grow, to watch our aggregate storage numbers increase (over 70TB), and to scale the system.
In the third year, Phanfare’s growth slowed considerably. We still were not profitable and had a long way to go to get there. At the same time, we realized that from the perspective of a user Phanfare had become a bunch of content silos, each one unaware of the larger network. We also have a strong vision for wireless integration with Phanfare. We want wireless display frames and wireless cameras to integrate with Phanfare. But we were too small to accomplish those goals.
We took a hard look at the business plan and what Phanfare had become, thought about the target user, and designed a new version, Phanfare 2.0, which we released to the world yesterday.
Phanfare 2.0 is a photo and video sharing network for families. Each person connects with their friends and family within Phanfare. Your friends and family are allowed access to your content. People not connected with you are kept out. Your friends and family can use Phanfare for free. Each account includes 1GB of free storage and 20 free prints to get them started. You get a dashboard where you can see the new albums created by friends and family in a glance.
We feel this new version of Phanfare is much more collaborative than the old version while remaining focused on the family oriented photo and video shooter. The web albums and web slideshows are still high quality. You can still add your own music from iTunes.
While we feel Phanfare 2.0 better addresses the needs of the target market, we know that there is a significantly different flavor to the new system and that not all of our 1.0 customers will come along for the ride. But we feel that Phanfare will emerge stronger than before and able to serve more people than before.
Phanfare 1.0 was really web hosting optimized for photos and videos. It certainly found a devoted following, but not a huge one relative to the scale of our planet (we have around 11,000 customers right now). In Phanfare 1.0, the company’s strength grew linearly with the number of subscribers we had. But there were nearly no network effects. Phanfare was not more valuable to the millionth new user because for the 999,999 users already on the platform before they arrived.
Phanfare 2.0 is a true network, and as such, its value to an incremental user is proportional to the number of people already on the platform when he or she arrives.
Phanfare 2.0 includes integrating Kodak printing, because we realize that no system for families is complete without printed output.
Finally, Phanfare 2.0 is free in its basic form, which allows everyone to use it and enjoy it. We will be aggressively increasing the amount of free storage we can offer the community as other revenue streams come online for us and the cost of online storage decreases.
We hope everyone loves the new Phanfare and we want to reaffirm our commitment to empower people to celebrate life through photos and videos.
TAGS: Phanfare, Photosharing, Videosharing
We’ll - we’ll give it a good shot. If you’re not in - you can’t win.
Regards.
Super. So, when does my account get updated to 2.0?
For what it’s worth, I’m excited about the new features. I’m hoping my family starts using Phanfare, since I can’t stand Kodak’s picture-sharing site. Speaking of Kodak, I take it we won’t be able to order pictures though other services, such as Snapfish, anymore?
I love Phanfare and have been using it to back up a lot of my photo library. Looking forward to getting to use the networking features.
I can’t say that I am thrilled with the fact that now whenever I have a viewer that clicks on my gallery link they have to sign-up or sign-in to view my albums. This is deferring them to want to view my gallery. After contacting Customer Service and being informed that is will be standard after June, I am rather disgruntled. This should be an option for the user. I understand your target is primarily family and friends now -which is great- and I do use it for that purpose as well. However, you are hurting a huge market from those of us who use Phanfare for our business purposes to showcase our work. Please reconsider this new “design” and usage.
How do I upgrade to the 2.0 version? It seems that I’m still operating on 1.0 and I couldn’t find any info on your site. Thanks!
I understand the business strategy behind the new 2.0 version, but it seems that a smarter solution would have allowed you to keep the business/portfolio users AND attract the family/friends users. It appears that you have decided that your business users are of no value, and therefore there is no interest in accomodating these loyal followers at all. Also, one of the most attractive features about Phanfare was not forcing viewers to sign up to view the galleries…this actually distinguised Phanfare from other galleries and made it more desirable than other online photosharing galleries. Also, because users actually may have segmented groups of friends/family (girlfriends, family, co-workers, etc.), users will not want every single contact in their group to have access to every single gallery or to be notified every single time photos are uploaded. If my mother is in my group of family and friends, that’s great for viewing photos of her grandson. However, I might not want her notified that I’ve uploaded photos from my girlfriend’s bachelorette party…and vice versa. After having paid for two Phanfare 1.0 accounts merely 3 months ago, it kind of feels like bate and switch now that the most compelling reasons I signed up will cease to exist. I implore you to consider your business users as an ADDITIONAL market to your target family/friends audience. This is a valuable segment of users, and I hope that you are savvy enough to figure out out to accomodate both markets.
I too use phanfare for business. I don’t understand why you isolate your business users. You have one of the best systems for showing our artwork to our customers. I would be more than willing to pay more for such services than I currently do, as other sites can’t match the features 1.0 provides. Why not offer a raise your prices for the business users if it is a profit decision? I’m sure many other business users would agree. Of course I am glad your prices have been so low but even I thought you were undercharging for such features unmatched by other sites.
It is your business and you have the absolute right to do with it what you want.
That said, you have always seemed to exhibit a tendency towards the philosophy of “it’s my way or the highway.” Last year you instituted changes across the board that you could have given people the abilitly to opt in on if they chose. You didn’t have that much confidence to do that. Choice was not an option and for me it created much work changing nearly 200 albums.
This time, you have again made changes that you could have let people opt in on. You say you want to take your business in another direction and are not interested in people who’s needs don’t match your vision. Great. I wish you much luck with the new Phanfare.
What you have to be careful of is that you don’t get a reputation of being a “my way or the highway” kind of business. People who still use Phanfare or are considering using the service have to be asking themselves “what if I’m the guy they don’t want for their next incarnation.”
I have to say that I agree with Risa, Angela, Joylena & Al. I am very disappointed in the changes you are making. I use your site to share albums with family & friends, but I also use it for my photography business. I also don’t invite every family member & friend to view every photo album. I’m afraid your site will no longer meet my needs & I will have to move on… unless you reconsider & also include the rest of your clients in your “vision.”
This new Phanfare change has completely defeated my purpose of choosing your service over others. I used this website so that everyone that I wanted to view my pictures did not have to have account. I’m in my 20s so almost anyone in my generation will have no problem creating another account to keep up with. However, it is the older ones in my family that I wanted to accommodate for so this used to be the perfect solution. This change has taken me back to step one with sharing my photos with my family, a step that you help me skip by using your service. Now each will need their own accounts in order to access my pictures.
And another good thing was being able to just show anyone a group of photos or even a video. I will be no longer be able to shoot a quick e-mail with a link to the photo album.
There were so many conveniences that were lost with the change from 1.0.
Please consider adding back part of the 1.0 features so that users have an option of using these. The family/friends feature is great but only if it will be used.
Well, having thoroughly reviewed the changes I have to say that 1) I understand and respect the need for Phanfare to retool in order to grow; and 2) I am disappointed with the choices Phanfare has made to accomplish this.
Like others posting here, the notion that my friends and family now have to sign in, or dig for a lost password, or dig for that old e-mail I used to originally invite them, removes the number one value I found in Phanfare. The fact that my Dad could forward my URL on to his 30 family members, without me having to invite each one, is lost. Or my 96-year-old grandma, who simply wants to click around, and is never going to archive an e-mail or request a lost password.
In addition, I really liked controlling the user experience at the top level, assigning which images my invitees see. Unfortunately, now that they each have their own dashboards which are populated with images randomly pulled from my albums, that control is lost.
Finally, what happened to my friendly, personable phanfare URL. It’s gone. Very, very sad. I liked it, and no other photo sharing site offered that personalization.
So these are three key items that were major differentiators from all the other services out there, and now that they’re gone, you have ask yourself why pay at all? The service went from being a very open platform for the user to define the experience to a Phanfare-directed experience.
I am not ready to give up on Phanfare yet, and again I understand the need to grow the business. But I wonder whether Phanfare 2.0 really ever understood what made Phanfare 1.0 so attractive in the first place, and whether the value for the money (vs. free) is still there.
I think there is still a window of opportunity in the 2.0 launch to resurrect some of the 1.0 value; I hope you do.
I am also disappointed with the changes, because I feel like basically you’re just like all the other annoying photo-sharing websites that require people to sign up and then endlessly SPAM them with updates and random email. I loved the idea of just letting anyone see my pictures by sending them a link and a password, especially like someone else mentioned, my older relatives. I also have many relatives in Europe, who will not be able to (or want to) follow instructions in English, making them set up an account. I would have been willing to pay more for the old service rather than pimping out my friends to grow your “network.” It was one of the main reasons I chose Phanfare over all the other photo-sharing websites out there. I can’t tell you how many accounts I’ve had to set up at snapfish, kodak, wallgreens, shutterfly, etc. etc. to view random people’s pictures - it’s just plain obnoxious. I’m shopping around to see what else is out there now, which makes me sad, because I thought Phanfare was perfect before.
Oh one more thing… I wish you had chosen to make major changes like Yahoo! and other services, which allow users some time to upgrade and get used to the changes and then CHOOSE to upgrade when it’s convenient to them, rather than forcing everyone to do it on your schedule. You happened to upgrade the day after my daughter’s first birthday party, when I had sent an email to a BUNCH of people to view my pictures - only to have them all encounter a message that the website was unavailable, and then forcing them to sign up.
I am VERY dissapointed with the new requirement that viewers have to “sign up” to view pictures. Not requiring people to sign up in order to see photos of mine was the VERY REASON I chose Phanfare in the first place. I chose to pay for a monthly service instead of a free one to avoid that hassle for my friends and family. In fact, I have received invitations to view photos from other people and have often chosen not to view the pictures simply to avoid having to create yet another online account somewhere and leave myself open to more and more unwelcome junk mail.
I pay monthly for Phanfare but just gave a year subscription as a gift to Phanfare to a family member. I am embarrassed that she will now be subject to the same intrusive marketing techniques that I was trying to avoid in the first place. I will be shopping the marketplace for an alternative.
Thank you for hearing my issues. I hope you will consider a way to address these issues and others raised in this blog in the near future. Perhaps members who want to make their viewers sign up could pay a lower monthly fee and those who want to protect the privacy of their viewers could pay a small premium, so to speak. I would gladly pay $1 or $2 more a month for that option. Just an idea.
I’m bummed. I have not and do not plan to use Phanfare for business purposes - only sharing wtih family and friends. Now that will be much more difficult with the new changes. Let me tell you how I came to Phanfare.
One day I was sitting at my computer and received an eamil from a friend regarding a friend of hers whom I had met a few times. The exciting news - WOW - a new baby - take a look! I was instantly sent to a great personal site full ofpictures of the happy new family. My next thought was - Awesome site! I immediately signed up and sent my unique URL to family and friends. Family and friends then sent it on to more family and friends. During which, several people signed up as members becasue they too loved the ease in which they could view my pictures when they wanted.
The thought of now having to send out new emails, ensure everyone keeps their email and password and knowing that it cannot be forwarded on to others is lack of judgement and business sense on your part. Had the site been this way before, I never would have been able to see the new baby in the family nor would I have been exposed to Phanfare. I believe this change - which you boast as a good change - will not allow for you to grow the base as you suspect. Forcing people to have a membership and not allowing users to forward links to sites will slow the circulation.
I’m disappointed but since I have several free years left (based on referrals from people who joined after being FORWARDED a link to my site) I’ll stick around for that. In the meantime, I’d be interested in learning why you think you’re now any different from shutterfly or Kodak Gallery. Aside from the banner ads that are not that big of a deal - the negative was always having to log in.
New slogan - “Sharing just got harder on Phanfare”
Phanfare 2.0 will be HORRIBLE.
The only reason I chose Phanfare was for its simplicity - so people can see our pics around the world w/o having to signup
Please give people an option to have a network as well as just host pictures!
I am new with these, however it is great, and remarkable!
For me, Photos sharing and networking, it is very helpful for most people to stay in touch to each other.
Guys, please leave the option of the upgrade optional, im also in a generational gap between the ones that can use the computer and the ones that dont. Signing up will just kill the reason i joined phanfare 3 years ago, my database is big enough to start looking around for a service for putting everything again… please dont leave the homework for your old clients to start looking for another place. Im also willing to pay a premium to leave everything the way it is.
We also joined phanfare precisely because our family members did not have to obtain an account to view our pictures and videos. I liked that we could add a password and limit the access, but that we could easily make the pictures of our son available to family. I join the others who are very disappointed with the direction that 2.0 has taken phanfare. It does have some nice features, but overall, defeats the purpose of why I joined. I joined the site because another family member had sent me the link to his site and I thought it would be a great way to provide my family with updated pics of my son after he was born. I gladly paid the $6.95/month for this service. I am tempted to move to a new site, but I haven’t found one that does the old version of phanfare did. I hope that the founders will consider that they do have an audience interested in the old product and will reconsider their growth strategies.
I echo the comments against the upgrade to 2.0 version. The upgrade changes what was unique about phanfare.
1. the unique url which was perfect for my business need
2. No need to ask people to sign up to view my album
3. Ability to order picture from a number of sources
I too would rather pay a little more for the 1.0 version than switch to 2.0. I am extremely dissappointed. You just switched what was unique about your brand and made it one of many offering a similar product. Perhaps the business was not growing as fast not because the product was no good, I think your product was excellent, but because people did not know it was available. Maybe to grow the “1.0″ business, you could partner with applications that offer web sites for business that would benefit mutually from bundling your product.
Please reconsider - I think you are making a mistake.
Before you throw out the baby with the bathwater, I would like to share some additional comments.
1. Did you ever poll your users to see what % of your users use the 1.0 version for business or personal, 2) did you ask why they joined phanfare vs. another service?, 3. What features do they like best. Maybe you already did this, maybe you will find that your changes are not in line with what your customers want. Polling is cheap (you have all our e-mail addresses) and can give you tremendous feedback!
2. Perhaps you discovered a niche with small business. As you know, this is the fastest growth segment in our economy. Perhaps this is your differentiation factor. Perhaps you need to target business associations, club owners, golf course owners, photographers, etc. - to tout the benefits of your product. Perhaps, Microsoft Business would offer to bundle or buy your services for their web software application. I don’t belive they offer the capability.
3. In an area with so many players, maybe you have the “Splenda” of the photo sharing services. Find an unique niche in a crowded field - for Splenda it was sweetners.
I would suggest keeping the business owners on 1.0 until June, maybe you will find a solution by then. Maybe there should be a Phanfare Business Service - open to anyone who likes the current format - I am sure you could come up with a better name.
thanks for listening.
Phanfare was my choice for posting pictures and videos of our family band business. A HUGE part of the reason why I chose Phanfare was because I wnated to pay my own way, not selling my music and images to whatever advertising and information gathering scheme the website owner decided they liked.
I barely used my phanfare account while I was making sure that it delivered what I liked. Easy access. No attractive and easy path to pornography, violence, revolution, singles site, gambling sites, mortal kombat video experience, etc.
From the drift of the other business owners I see what is coming. I need to pay a programmer to do what phanfare was doing for me. Come see my reasonable high quality video. Come see my photots. Come listen to my music. Rest assured that I will not offend the senses, ethics or morals of your family. Neither will my partners (the folks at Phanfare.)
It seems like the comments are very consistent and universally negative about the idea of requiring people to sign in. I also don’t wish to require people to sign in to certain albums, although I can see how requiring a sign in for other albums might enable security features. I suppose I will have to see how it works before I make a final decision.
Smugmug would seem to be your nearest equivalent and biggest competitor. It would seem that this move will differentiate you from them, but at the cost of making you more like all the other services.
No one trusts anyone not to eventually spam those they can for the same reason the founding fathers expected people to abuse power if they could. They opted for a system of checks and balances that made abuse of power unprofitable. Perhaps you can dream up some easily understandable system that assures people that viewing a set of pictures is worth the trouble and risk of signing up.
In today’s world, ethical people value other people’s time. I don’t want to submit my friends to spam or to unwanted notifications about albums they might not be interested in seeing.
Why hasn’t Phanfare responded to any of the concerns raised by the comments? The comments are numerous and very consistent. Phanfare made these unpopular changes to improve its chances of staying in business… is it working? Or did you close up shop and simply happen to leave the electricity on.
If Phanfare does not change back to 1.0 I will remove myself from their service. This was a bad business idea. Now phanfare is like the other web account. BOO TO YOU PHANFARE!!!
Sorry for the long delay in responding to these comments. I know that for businesses and certain consumers with public sites this change is a non-starter and you think we are nuts. We feel this focuses us down better on the needs of one core audience. In the past, we were pulled in several different directions. Pros wanted to have us store RAW files. Consumers wanted more styles!
We don’t have the resources to support 1.0 and 2.0 and we don’t think it is a good idea to try. We are firmly committed to moving forward with this new strategy.
Overall, Phanfare 2.0 has been received very well. In the first four weeks, we have more registerted users on 2.0 than we had on 1.0 in 4 years. Families like the collaboration and the privacy and don’t much care about anonymous viewers or registration requirements.
We make this change from a position of relative strength. We are providing free DVDs of content to those who want to leave, keeping the 1.0 system up until june, and provided prorated refunds in June.
If you want anonymous feedback, flickr is a better choice. If you want to run a white labeled site undery our own domain, try smugmug. But for your more private and personal photosharing and videosharing, try Phanfare 2.0. We think it is pretty good.
I have to say I liked it better when my friends and family were automatically logged in the first time.
Yep, another disappointed user here. I liked the fact that I could CHOOSE to make my site/galleries private if I so desired. Why make it mandatory? Unless it’s just to gather email addresses of which will then be inundated with spam invites to join. There’s NO choice - either join or you can’t see the pictures. Oh well, you can’t please them all, so I guess I’ll be collecting my prorated refund.
Another disgruntled user here. As to the comment of more registered users with the new program….how is this determined? I have many different e-mail addresses that existing users have used to invite to view their albums after the upgrade. So if I have 3 e-mail addresses that have been used for invites, am I now 3 registered users? Since I have an existing account, I have signed up for nothing and no one used the e-mail I have registered with my account, so am I 4 registered users (the one associated with my account & the 3 others that received invites)?
My only comment is that I think it should be optional to sign in–anyone should be able to view the site if it is unblocked. Also only seeing 1 album at a time seems silly–why have them all there if you cant see them? I dont mind the change but it does seem that this is going to be complicated. Cant you make it an option to join or to open up to all who want to see? You could incorporate this into phanfare2.0 I think if you really see the need to change.
I just have a couple of questions. Today is the first I’ve heard of the switch to 2.0 and that was only by accident when I went into the home page to look something up for someone. I set up an album in January 2008 but it must have been before the change. Were emails sent out to 1.0 customers notifying us of this change? I didn’t see one. It isn’t clear how we move over to 2.0….is it an automatic as of June? or can we do it now to see what the changes are. It seems as though many of the 1.0 users have based on their comments above. It appears to require a download of the new version. Instructions on the transition posted somewhere on the home page or our indivdual accounts would be very helpful. Of course, I was just talking to our swim team board about using phanfare to share the summer swim season photos with all 400 of our swim families. It would be a link from our swim team home page. Now I am not sure if this will work if they can only see one album at a time….I would want them to see the whole season of albums. Andrew I hope you or one of your support guys will answer some of my questions. That was one of my favorite features of the previous phanfare. Direct interaction with the owners/decision makers. I plan to stick it out but hope I can make it work as I did before. Also, can someone tell me if the 2.0 will have the ability to set up folders so we can store multiple-related ablums in a category (as in the typical windows application). For instance, I take pictures of my kids sporting event….it would be nice to have one folder for say Spring Baseball 2008 on whicih viewers can click and then get a drop down of all that season’s available slide shows (1 for each game). Does this make sense? maybe it’s out there and I never figured out how to do it. I’d appreciate any feedback I can get and look forward to any comments.
This stinks, I am quitting. The only reason I used you guys is BECAUSE my friends and family didn’t have to hassel with sign ups to see my photos.
Wrong move.
I just had a chance to use version 1 for a short while beofre you released version 2. I like the way Phanfare works both for me as an amature photographer and for my freinds and family when they want to view my albums but not being able to share my album with people that are not registered is really a problem. I just came back from a family event. Some of the people there were my close relatives and I can register them as my family. Many others were from the family of my brother/sister in law and such. I cannot and I do not want all of them as my family members in Fanfare. Still, I like them to see my pictures.
I must say again that I like Phanfare a lot and plan to use it as my only web album, but I as long as I can not share my work with non-members I will be looking for another solution. PLEASE make it possiblefor peaple to log in as guests. I am sure that you will get more memebers when all these people see your site.
Thanks
Giora Schwarz
This is a great web album tool! Perhaps it can make video photo albums also?
Andrew, as a business owner who works both with small businesses and Fortune 50 companies, I can appreciate your challenges. I currently use your album for personal photos. Let me provide a simple list for you to consider:
- It is NOT at all clear what 2.0 will require and provide, and not provide - I learned the most by reading blog comments.
- Forcing a signin is just silly - that makes you guys like everyone else. Why not charge MORE for someone who just wants to use it like 1.0 is now? I can tell you, I would be willing to pay more - no question.
- There seems to be this issue (can not tell from your email) that everyone gets notified about every album change? I load a lot of photos up and do not want everyone to get emails 3 times a day… or even once a day or week!
You should allow us to control that portion at least OR just post the changes to thier “home page” like Plaxo, without an email.
- Kodak, HP and the rest of the bunch are all trying to do what you are and have all failed. I do not even LOOK at the photos my mom posts on York, because it is too much of a pain to find the damn passwords… My brother uses another site… what a pain…
- If you are going to really win this game, or even stay in it, then you are going to need to win new customers- since clearly you will loose many like me (at this point - still hopeful) - I purchased BECAUSE you did not require a sign in. That was my NUMBER ONE reason for purchasing. Ease of use being #2. When you remove both of those, I have no compelling reason to continue with the service.
Let me add that Plaxo and other existing programs already allow photo sharing that is “not that customizable”. I am under no illusions as to who owns Plaxo or what “could happen” with them. However of the contacts I have in my contacts database, 2/3 are ALREADY in Plaxo!! So why would I not just use them instead of your system? They allow me to at least separate things into friends and business. I do think your system is simpler to use, but if no one views it, then it is not that useful!
- An additional question is about searching the site. From a safety, security, and privacy standpoint, I would hope that my content is still not being googled, and that there is an option to hide that.
Summarizing:
- Consider charging more for folks who do not want to use the network - will this account for some of your losses
- Consider adding a program that combines people’s network and referrals with the higher cost (Charge $100 a year or $150, but small discount that IF I have a few network referrals- so you still incent people like me to add a few people)
- Consider integrating at least with someone else like google or plaxo to allow people to not need to create yet ANOTHER sign in… IF you decide to force this
- You are going to have to add control on albums and emails… you can not just blast everything to everyone… that is silly…
- Ask yourself “what if all my customers left, what would I do then?”
*pardon any typos/grammar, I typed this quickly*
Thanks,
- Jake
I chose phanfare to show case my photos because of easy access and no need to sign in. If visitors to my site are forced otherwise, you will leave me no alternative but to return back to imagetogo
Wow!
This entire process is just bizarre, and I have to say that I echo the sentiments of the majority of responses.
After my child was born, my wife wanted me to find a simple, secure site that could host the great memories of our little one. Something we could share with family and friends in a simple way, like our own personal web address.
I did the research, I spent time searching for the perfect site. Not the kind of time I spent searching for the car seat, but something that felt familial, and that’s what I really wanted too.
Come to find out, there was this nice little company called Phanfare that could do all that my wife wanted. I was money, I was the man, I found the perfect place to host our memories.
I like the others have family who have friends they want to share these photos with. It’s always been so simple. Here’s the address, enter this password and you can see my pictures. Again, like others have stated, I loved the fact that you DIDN’T have to sign up for anything. In this day and age where everything is so obtrusive, Phanfare actually felt like it was your friend and it wouldn’t let you down. It wouldn’t bug you unless they had something important to tell you or wanted your feedback. They cared about you and wanted to take good care of you.
Now this… I just received the e-mail signifying “big changes” two days ago. Evidently I’m down the list of those being notified of the change. At first I was excited… “oh cool, they are doing an upgrade” … then I read more. “They what?” And, “you have to do what to view my photos?”
I’m not sure what to do. I want to support the friend that treated me so well, but it feels like he simply sold out to make the BIG BUCKS. Part of me understands, I want the BIG BUCKS too… but it doesn’t seem right that the mom and pop shop that you loved to support is becoming, or appears to be trying to become, the Home Depot.
The biggest concern is the virality of this whole process. My parents call me all the time (and I really don’t mind) asking computer questions. This was something they never had to call about. Click, view and smile and then they would send an e-mail saying how much they loved the new “moments.”
The process will now seem to involve much more instruction, much more time that many people don’t want to give, especially if they have to give another dang e-mail address to someone they aren’t sure of, no matter how cool I tell them they are.
By now, it seems like the change is imminent. Somehow I hope the crusade for simplicity continues. It’s up for debate whether I will continue.
Best of luck.
This change just sucks. I spent a lot of time researching a photo sharing site. And Phanfare had everything I was looking for. Now they are getting rid of the features that were most important to me. I made a commitment to Phanfare. I got the life time subscription. Now they are bailing on me. I am not just disappointed that I have to start my search all over again. I am disappointed that they are turning their backs on their first customers. I feel betrayed.
“Overall, Phanfare 2.0 has been received very well. In the first four weeks, we have more registerted users on 2.0 than we had on 1.0 in 4 years.” DUH!!!! These aren’t “new users” they are just people trying to see galleries the used to be able to see without signing in. BTW Where are all the people that are receiving 2.0 “VERY WELL”??????? Don’t see many posting on here!!!!
I live in California, but my parents don’t speak english. Up to now, Phanfare had been great. My mother used to call me about the wonderful new pictures. It was all very easy for her.
Now she had to set up 2 accounts with my brother’s help, I had send twice as many invites, and still she is not confident she can do it by herself. Phanfare 1.0 was awsome, but 2.0 is horrible for the older generation. How could you do something like that?
I’m moving out. Unfortunately.
We have been using Phanfare for over a year and loved the simplicity. We are very bummed about the changes but so it goes. I am wondering if anyone can recommend good image hosting sites that include all the features we had come to know and love about Phanfare? (i.e. no sign in required, audio and video, options, rss feeds.) We would certainly be willing to pay for this service from another provider but I have yet to come across another site/company that offers all of these. Thnx for any leads…
try smugmug. not quite the same as phanfare, but they don’t seem to need to change their business model: see January 2008 article on smugmug from BusinessWeek, “An Idea That Really Clicked”
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_03/b4067202218875.htm
there are other services out there, but most/all seem to require visitor sign-in/registration. others don’t support video (yet…). if readers know of other services that are comparable to the old phanfare, please chime in.
I too am very disappointed about your changes. The simplicity is gone. You’ve succumbed to the masses and are trying to re-create the wheel. If we all wanted a photo version of Facebook or MySpace, we would have asked for it.
I was using Phanfare for both business and family. The new features work for neither. I will have to take my photos and business elsewhere.
Thanks for the last 3 years. They were fun.
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Lots of sad and unhappy people, it’s all been said, now is anyone listening.
I was a loyal customer for around 3 years, got a few people to sign up, some even for lifetime. Now I’m bitter that you decided to make it look like you have deleted my photos, and you can magically restore them if I paid for a site that I don’t even want to use.
The deal breaker is making people sign up to view my photos. I could sell them AMWAY better than making someone signup here.
When you go out of business, maybe you might realize that cutting off memberships from paying customers might have been a bad idea. If I was a stock owner, I would sell the stocks out of the sheer stupidity and disgust of the decisions made.
“But for your more private and personal photosharing and videosharing, try Phanfare 2.0. We think it is pretty good.” No. Actually 2.0 sucks. As Andrew E. says, try flicker. They suck less than 2.0.
Just saw my new Phanfare page- I hate it. in fact it SUCKS.
If I wanted a stupid social networking site, I would have paid for one. I want my money back so I can go buy a year membership to smugmug.com
you ripped me off, and stole my TIME
“web 2.0″ what are you? Dundler Mifflin?
This was the worst business decision I have ever seen a company make. I have been uploading photos, music, and slideshows to phanfare since 2005 because it was simple to use and my family and friends from all around the world could see what we were up to.
If I wanted my family and friends to connect in a social network I would invite them to join facebook or myspace.
If you’re smart business people, you will listen to what your customers are all saying and allow US YOUR PAYING CUSTOMERS to return to the old system.
You guys let a lot of people down with this one.
Jeremy Enke
I agree with many of the posters here. I signed up for Phanfare so that my friends and family didn’t have to sign up to view my pictures. If I wanted social networking, I would have posted my pictures on Facebook.
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