They are not gone. Here's a quick explanation and an answer..
Last year, our old pictures server "Webshots," was sold to a company called "Smile." The Smile owners decided that, to see the pictures people like me had in the server they'd just purchased, that visitors need to PAY to have access to those picture sets.
There was no way I was going for that. Even though I paid for premium service with Webshots (we have thousands of pictures), our pictures have always been free for viewing, and I plan to keep it that way.
So I made the decision to move all of our pictures away from this "Smile" company which I now consider a ripoff. Right now, I am in the process of transferring all of our original pictures to Flickr, the photo service owned and operated by Yahoo. Although I am also paying for premium service with Flickr, too (again, the large number of photos), the process of reloading each set of pictures with their stories, is time-consuming. I have a goal of having pictures re-loaded at 6 month intervals.
I always considered Flickr to be a reputable company, but I did like the feature Webshots offered, where the number of visitors to picture sets was counted. I was able to use that information to find out what was popular, what people wanted to see more of, and trends in the photography business.
Please be patient as we make the transition to keep your Douglass-Riverview pictures always free and always available.
I will periodically keep you posted on the progress of transfer. They'll be in slideshow form, with the chance to pull up each individual picture for viewing.
In the meantime, I recommend DO NOT sign up for Smile, despite the prompting. I consider Smile a ripoff for now charging for a popular service that was very successful when it was free.
Thanks for your understanding!
Calvin, your Douglass Webmaster
