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I still have a free Dropbox account but I'm not buying. I had 16GB permanent at some point (and up to 50GB temporarily for various promotions) but at some poin

I still have a free Dropbox account but I'm not buying. I had 16GB permanent at some point (and up to 50GB temporarily for various promotions) but at some point they cut my account to 10 for no good reason at acted dumb when I asked them about it. Microsoft gave me 5GB extra for uploading photos and shortly afterwards reduced it, forcing me to delete them, luckily I had them backed up elsewhere. Google Photos have started trying to monetize what they promised for free to (kind of expected, but with Google they could also have decided to shutter it). On one hand: we cannot expect companies to give things away for free. On the other hand: when they've given things away for free unforced it doesn't make them look good when they take away what they gave away. I now go with hetzner.com or something similar. It is paid and while that doesn't guarantee that they won't do something stupid at least they haven't a massive history of doing stupid things unforced.

dylan604 6y ago
Companies throughout history have used the promotional idea of giving something away for free or drastically reduced rates for a new something in order to attract attention. Even drug dealers are known for "the first one's free" type of setup. Storage units have "first month free", cable companies "sign up now for 3 months at $49/mo for 6 months" kind of stuff. It wasn't until sleazy startups and SaaS types come along that do things like "free and always will be" *until we realize we were not good business people and can't run a business like that. Everything else has been regulated up the wazoo, but for some reason tech has been able to avoid these regulations OR flat out ignored them under the guise of "disrupting" the markets.
- bredren 6y ago
  Washington Post and NY Times digital subscriptions do the same thing. If you subscribe to either, you can try cancelling and they’ll restore the reasonable price.
ashtonkem 6y ago
I’ve just started moving big files into S3/Glacier/B2 (Backblaze API compatible S3 competitor). If you know how to use these tools, they’re far more long term reliable than any Dropbox like service in terms of offering and pricing.

dylan604 6y ago

Companies throughout history have used the promotional idea of giving something away for free or drastically reduced rates for a new something in order to attract attention. Even drug dealers are known for "the first one's free" type of setup. Storage units have "first month free", cable companies "sign up now for 3 months at $49/mo for 6 months" kind of stuff. It wasn't until sleazy startups and SaaS types come along that do things like "free and always will be" *until we realize we were not good business people and can't run a business like that. Everything else has been regulated up the wazoo, but for some reason tech has been able to avoid these regulations OR flat out ignored them under the guise of "disrupting" the markets.

bredren 6y ago
Washington Post and NY Times digital subscriptions do the same thing. If you subscribe to either, you can try cancelling and they’ll restore the reasonable price.

ashtonkem 6y ago

I’ve just started moving big files into S3/Glacier/B2 (Backblaze API compatible S3 competitor). If you know how to use these tools, they’re far more long term reliable than any Dropbox like service in terms of offering and pricing.