[cpg]

I relied on this "light" publishing for a few things and I'm quite pissed off. I did not notice any notification on this.

To me, this should be done very very visibly and with tons of warnings. I used it to communicate screenshots with details, etc. Now all links are broken and I'm SOL with no viable solution to changing those links from documents, bugs, etc., etc.

Very very very bad!

[onli]

Oh, they definitely notified their users. There were emails and warnings in the UI, it was very visible. Really, you can't blame Dropbox there.

However, one can still blame Dropbox for the change itself. I used this on several occasions, including hosting archives for academic publications. No way in hell I can change those links. Maybe that wasn't a wise choice, but at that time it looked like a good way: The link did not give a clue about my identity, making peer review easier, and DB being a well-funded and known internet company those links were surely meant to work forever, cool URLs don't change is something they had to know. Boy was I wrong.

[gk1]

I'm a Dropbox Plus user and I didn't see a single email or in-app message about this.

[nsm]

There was an email in mid December 2016, another one at the beginning of March 2017, and if I remember correctly, one even before that. I'm not even a Pro user.

[bigiain]

Confirming, I got mail on Dec 16 and Mar 03 notifying me of this. (Pro User, they renewed my account automatically on Dec 01, which annoyed me somewhat... "Here' we're taken your payment, but failed to mention to you we were announcing in two weeks the removal of the most useful bit to you from the service you're paying for! Have a nice day!"

[morganvachon]

> Maybe that wasn't a wise choice, but at that time it looked like a good way: The link did not give a clue about my identity, making peer review easier, and DB being a well-funded and known internet company those links were surely meant to work forever, cool URLs don't change is something they had to know. Boy was I wrong.

I also fell into the trap (back when I had an active Dropbox account) of using the Public folder and sharing links from there. At some point along the way, Dropbox started allowing one to share single files from any private folder without exposing the rest of the folder to the audience, and I started using that method instead. Still, even if I had stayed with Dropbox I probably would have some orphaned /Public links out there somewhere, thanks to this change.

I think we both could have avoided that trap by setting up a small storage VPS with a provider like Digital Ocean or Vultr and installing a document management system. It would still be fairly anonymous; a truly determined detective could find the owner but it would likely require a subpoena, which Dropbox would have been vulnerable to as well.

[onli]

> I think we both could have avoided that trap by setting up a small storage VPS with a provider like Digital Ocean or Vultr and installing a document management system.

That can break though. And admittedly, I didn't want to have costs for this, especially not re-occuring, being a student at the time. I could have asked my university/IT to take care of this, but that would have meant bureaucracy and a long waiting time, time I did not have.

I wasn't even an active DB user at that time anymore, having moved away when Condoleezza Rice joined. But the way they are handling this I only get more convinced that was the right choice. It is one thing removing functionality, it is another breaking links. At least they should have a way to manually share files, and let them have the exact same link they had before. But I guess that is only of interest for people with an interest in technology, a demographic DB is not interested in anymore.

[the_af]

Even worse: the new "shared links" do not work for hotlinking photos, which is the only use I had for them. I understand Dropbox may not like this kind of traffic, but it still sucks they removed the functionality.

[mynameisvlad]

Anecdotally speaking, also didn't get any notifications about this.

I have an email about the new ToS 12/28, and a research survey request on 12/11, plus the regular login emails I receive, but absolutely nothing about this over the last few months.

I also just checked, and my public folder has been downgraded to a regular one, so I am part of the post-2012 signups.

[whyenot]

> Oh, they definitely notified their users.

I am a Dropbox Plus user. I never received any emails. I just checked and the email address that dropbox has is correct. This change breaks the links to PDFs of some papers and posters that I presented at scientific meetings a few years ago. I didn't expect the links to last forever, but it's still a shame.

[cpg]

I do not see any emails from them. Maybe I read them over quickly and deleted them :-(

[Steeeve]

I'm not an active dropbox user, but I have had an account for quite some time. I just searched and I have no emails from dropbox about this change.

[zitterbewegung]

I have an email notification from Dropbox in December of last year saying this will be disabled.

[cpg]

Yes, I probably missed the notifications somehow.

They probably should have had some warning on the app itself when putting or sharing files from that folder.

It's a free service, so my bad for using it without a good backup, but I had used programs for a long long time that produce screenshots with one keystroke and copy the URL to the clipboard, saving time.

I figured this was relatively low overhead for them and a popular feature, so they would keep it. Lesson learned ..

[bigiain]

I got (and noticed the email), but putting notification in the app or website would have most likely gone completely unnoticed for me. The nice thing about Dropbox (for me) is that it vanishes completely to me. It's just another folder on my Macs that "magically" has the same stuff everywhere, and in my phone/tablets I pretty much exclusively use it's other-app-integration. I can't remember the last time I opened the Dropbox app or visited the site.

[ajmurmann]

I got the same email as the GP, but also saw a message on the web page. However, how frequently does anyone log in to the web page?

Disclaimer: I've been fed delicious lamb chops and duck at the DB office, so my view might be tainted.

Edit: I also received another email about it on March 1st

[khedoros1]

I got a notification about ToS change on Dec 21st, but it doesn't mention any features going away, mostly changes to which profile information will be displayed in various situations.

Looking over the past 6 months, I don't have anything else but "Hey, you added a new device to Dropbox!"

[hundchenkatze]

I received a notification 3 to 4 months ago and then a reminder about 2 weeks ago. Maybe a spam filter ate it. :(

[27182818284]

I was definitely notified at least once. I think I can recall two emails.

[fjarlq]

-edited to remove wrong info-

[bigiain]

Nope - only the business plan - my Pro Plan (which they rebilled two weeks before announcing this change) has also just broken all its public folder links...)