THANK YOU.

I want to keep this short and sweet: I have never uploaded a single image to zooomr. I signed up waaaaay back, when the Flickr/Yahoo merger was scaring diehards out of the Flickr service and to new alternatives.

Zooomr was one of those, and I was so excited. So I signed up for an account, just in case, and then promptly forgot about the site entirely. (I started self-hosting everything)

Now, a long long time later, I just realized that I’m still getting occasional emails from Zooomr, and today I logged in to delete my account…

…only I cannot.

Support, Kris, the whole entire thing is almost like a vaporware site. It’s all fluff and nothing in the guts.

It’s IMPOSSIBLE to delete my account entirely, and I was told to SUPPORT the site by going Pro! I don’t want to go Pro, I just want to GO.

LOL.

Sorry if this is way late and such, but I found this post highly ranked in google, and had to share my frustration.

EVERY SINGLE THING you said is right on the money.

Seriously, I am just going to create my own personal gallery on my website… that way I can have it the way I want.

The arrogance and stubbroness Kris has exhibited over the past several months of the “crisis” has been hugely frustrating. If he is to play in further role in the Web 2.0 world, it will to provide a parable of the perils of over-promising and under-delivering. I rather suspect the Japanese will tire of him quickly.

Let’s face it – before all of this is over – there’s a fair chance that our beloved photos will become the property of Japanese stock photo agencies, as Kris and Thomas scurry about for the funds to cover the air freight and the hosting costs. Then again, since they seem wholly unable to restore the images to any kind of availability, so perhaps they will be safe from pilfering after all.

Regardless, I would advise Kris to put down roots in Japan, as maintaining a distance of 8-12 time zones from the folks whose time he wasted is probably a good idea.

Some here have referred to Kris as a liar. While they have good reason to do so, I believe it to be more complex than that. I think Kris is one of those guys who doesn’t know his limitations. He promises things because he truly believes he can get them done in a timely fashion. Then he starts digging in, gets sidetracked, and we get Zooomr mobile instead of bug fixes or an update to Zipline instead of photo secuity. He’s wants to work on what’s fun, what interests him at the time, which is fine if you’re building something for yourself only, but is not ok if you’re “Universally the best way to share, search, store, sort and sell your photos online.”

I like Kris. He’s been in my house. We’ve emailed, texted, IM’d. He’s a bright kid. However, he needs someone to reel him in. Someone to keep him focused. Otherwise, his considerable talents will be wasted and his dreams will always be only that…dreams.

With all due respect Kris, when you say:

“I know it’s hard to see it now, after I Thomas Hawk and I have fought hard for photographers’ rights inside (and out) of the photo sharing community — not to mention opening up big competition…”

what exactly are you talking about?

How are Thomas Hawk and Zooomr fighting for photographer’s rights when:

A) there is no copyright info or right click/save as protections on Zooomr.

B) Thomas publicly states on his blog and many other blogs (Scoble, Arrington) that in regards to theft of copyrighted and CC protected imagery from online, is, “My response to this unauthorized use of my imagery? Who gives a shit? I certainly don’t….Our time on this earth is too short to get petty and spend hours worrying about people who might steal our imagery.”

This coming from a person who wanted to revolutionize stock photography by creating a photosharing/stock site for the hobbyist to sell work. Who doesn’t even use his real legal name in his business dealings. You want me to allow Zooomr to act as my middleman and advocate when your CEO/evangelist thinks it’s fine and dandy to steal photos?

I could stop there, but wait, there’s more!

C)While advocating the photographer’s right to shoot on public property, he has also been advocating the violation of other’s rights by insisting that photographers have a right to shoot on private property, too, specifically where they have been asked NOT to.

Personally I don’t want my name or images associated to him or his business. And when I asked both you and Thomas via Zooomr-mail, e-mail, text message, repeated zipline requests, help forum requests and posts on his blog to delete my photos and account, I didn’t hear a peep from you or him, and instead had to sit down and one by one, manually delete over 400 images.

How is this fighting for our rights? If I were you Kris, I’d apologize to the people that have stuck by you, return their money and call it a day.

-Lane