PBASE Announces Changes

PBASE announced recently that it was changing from a totally free site to a fee based system. I am not surprised.

Chuck "Slug" Neel, the Chapil Hill resident who is the owner and operator of the site, has finally accepted the fact that he can't continue to permit people to submit photos for free. As of December 2002 over 7 million photos from people all over the world are posted there. For a long time, Slug has had a request at the site suggesting that people voluntarily submit "contributions" to support the expenses of operating it, but as of about February 1, he's going to restrict access to those galleries that haven't paid up. I certainly can't blame him for this action, and over the weekend, I submitted a payment to cover the costs of the photos that I have posted there.

Slug's decision is another instance of the trend that I believe we'll see more of in the future. The days of free sites on the Internet is over. We'll soon begin talking about "the good old days" of the early years on the Internet.
- posted by Perry @ 6:35 AM