CPF Sold - Under New Management

that is my point

that is a change.

the new owner is appropriating images onto the CPF server, so he can deny access to non signed in members. The original image link address I post is being moved to a proprietary CPF database.

In the past, all the images I posted were available to be seen by people who are not signed in…

This is nutty on their part (and expensive)
To me its not a membership ender but to each their own.

It’s definitely a change but if you use the image tags does it still show full size? I have my own image hosting so I never upload to any forum site.

no
that is my point
I do not upload my images to the CPF server
I only link to images on my imgur photohosting site

CPF now changes the photo link to their own private host. They are literally downloading the image from imgur, placing it on their own host, and deleting the link to the original imgur source.

in the past this was optional, we could choose to upload to the CPF server, or not. It is no longer optional, instead it happens automatically now.

What if you have a copyright notice on your pic? :smiling_imp:

Oh damn, gotcha. I’ve never visited while not logged in.

I sent the new CPF owner, name Jelly, a PM with a link to that thread. I let him know I felt Hogo was abusing his moderator status.

Jelly did not reply, but he gave a thumb up acknowledgement to my PM. And the thread has been deleted.

So, Im impressed with the new owner, in this regard.

Then your pic will be CPF moderated (deleted and you’ll likely get a warning or banned :smiley: )

That is very considerate of you, Jon. :beer:

thanks :wink:

another change:

Today I posted in a sales thread. The Edit and Delete buttons have disappeared, I cannot modify a post in a sales thread.

this is part of the rationale for that:

I posted in an LED forum discussion thread. The Edit and Delete buttons are still available.

Personally I strongly dislike when forums require registration for images or worst yet, links. If its a forum where I plan on participating somewhat regularly then it’s a lesser issue but otherwise it means I have to create yet another account and also remember to login just to see the images. Ugh.

Geez. I cannot believe they go that far. If anything it seems like allowing external images would be desirable since it would mean less storage used and load for your server.

also true

otoh
if they want to create a sales database that can be monetized,
then the steps they are taking to own the images, and prevent user content deletion,

makes total $ense.

BTW does it happen with other image hosts too? Also what if you attempt to obfuscate the link or make it non-clickable?

there are pros and cons to obfuscation
I can link to an album on my photo host… but that only puts a link, not an image, inline… people dont prioritize clicking links

otoh
if a site, like CPF, or also Reddit, wants to upload the image I post to their own server, I could see that as helpful to me also… it means my image just got cloned, and stored in a separate server than my image host

so, if my image host stops working, there is another copy elsewhere

not that I think I need to own images I post… actually, by posting them, Im making them free for the taking… Im under no illusions that my photos are so special that I need to monetize them…

so, I usually browse CPF with an adblocker
I turned it off, and yikes! mucho Ads

One is from Newsmax, with a poll about Biden
Im surprised to see CPF becoming so overtly political…

I turned my adblocker back on

Don’t think I’ve ever turned off any of the adblockers I have used over the last 12 years or so. :smiley:

At least one is always on.

Opera’s native adblocker is a real lifesaver. Or at least bandwidth-saver.

I personally prefer CPF but the new layout doesn’t allow me to edit the Flashlight Royalty thread and the list of record lights. :cry:

CPF is what it is and even before it began dying on the vine in late 2017 and before they got their software back on track before then, one could see that things were slowing down.

I never had a problem with their mods, but then I’m not really a dickhead, so I have that going for me?

Boutique lights began waning at that time and people here on BLF began to mod cheaper lights, since they had the gumption and expertise to do so, so the progression was set in motion.

I don’t personally mod lights, but I love reading about people who do.

Nothing lasts forever.

Chris

Horrible forum, so many rules, unless you say “Wow, lovely light” you’re in trouble. Dare to criticise Surefire, and you’re toast. She struck me as a tyrant. Clearly she made a lot of money from advertisers, and didn’t want anyone to impact the income stream eg by making negative comments about favoured brands. Comments about “cheap Chinese junk” were fine.

He was the reason I left. Horrible man.

It’s a shame because some of the reviews are very high quality, albeit a tad OCD. Informative, well written, with good measurements. And some of the comments were extremely well informed. I don’t have issues with someone saying “that’s junk” as I’m an intelligent adult, and I can reach my own view based on the totality of comments and reviews.