I have to agree. Two weeks notice? WTF, Google. The evil meter is dancing.
If you want people to trust you with their data, you should demonstrate more responsibility. And just because the hosting's been "free", doesn't mean you haven't made your pound of flesh off the advertising (speaking generally, at least).
Here's a thought: Shove it through YouTube. Heck, just keep the data around and convert and cache when an item is hit (those who really want it will wait out / return after the conversion). I suppose you need to be able to tie back to Video accounts for ownership, DMCA, etc. Still, there should be a better solution. And a couple of weeks' notice simply isn't fair. What if someone's tied up? On vacation? They're hosed.
Put it this way: Demonstrating yourself to be a source of "public" data loss, is rather bad PR.
They gave notice years ago that they were phasing it out. You haven't been able to upload anything in years. Frankly, I'm surprised it took them this long.
Well, then, I guess that compensates somewhat. Still, I'd suggest announcing the hard date 3 or more months in advance (I'd prefer 6). People become busy and complacent. And people may not quickly realize that a work they value has been abandoned by its original poster.
On the upside, they are "allowing" downloads. I guess I should acknowledge that as a serious positive.
I may have become sensitized by years of management that had similar attitudes towards changes. Push, push, push... until suddenly, we're abandoning this, NOW.
Different settings, but not entirely dissimilar feelings evoked.
If you want people to trust you with their data, you should demonstrate more responsibility. And just because the hosting's been "free", doesn't mean you haven't made your pound of flesh off the advertising (speaking generally, at least).
Here's a thought: Shove it through YouTube. Heck, just keep the data around and convert and cache when an item is hit (those who really want it will wait out / return after the conversion). I suppose you need to be able to tie back to Video accounts for ownership, DMCA, etc. Still, there should be a better solution. And a couple of weeks' notice simply isn't fair. What if someone's tied up? On vacation? They're hosed.
Put it this way: Demonstrating yourself to be a source of "public" data loss, is rather bad PR.