GLOBAL PETITION AT CHANGE.ORG TO KEEP PANORAMIO COMMUNITY ALIVE

[Draken]

The founders of Panoramio have started a petition to keep the Panoramio Community Alive at Change.org:

http://www.change.org/p/google-google-keep-the-panoramio-community-alive

[Pierre M.]

Heu
don't work

[Pierre M.]

Sorry Draken !
now work and petiton signed

Pierre

[starMAN]

@Draken

Thanks for the message!

It has done. I am forwarding your message to all pano-friends/members.

Best wishes... and may the Force be with us.

[Giancarlo Ticozzi]

Many thanks Draken, I knew and already joined, even with a modest contribution, in the hope that everything will be resolved to the fullest, because Panoramio now part of each of us. 

Best wishes from Biella, Italy. Giancarlo

http://www.change.org/p/google-google-keep-the-panoramio-community-alive

[Draken]

Some people are writing their own arguments and reasons. I think it is very important to express your opinions, thus the message becomes even stronger.

[fred089]

I appreciate every effort to convince Google to keep Panoramio alive. On the other hand, Google is an multi-billion Dollar enterprise which already showed more than once that they don't care much about what the Panoramio users or others are saying. I'm afraid that they won't care about a petition which was signed by 10.000 or even 100.000 individuals. I already see some photo comments appearing where people claim "we can save Panoramio". Let's face it, Google management made up its mind and they will execute this no matter what. Instead the founders of Panoramio should think about starting a new website for geo-tagged photographs which has the functionality to comment photos, add favs, show photos on a map, ... . Also a contest whould be nice where one can win an USB-memory stick with 2GB capacity or such. They should then offer some script which allows to read a kml-file and import the contend it is pointing to (similar as GE).

[unnippillai]

Panoramio is a Site, where people from all Countries of the world join together and make friendship though their photos and comments on them... It promotes Internatioanal Friendship immensely and hence it is very important that it should continue at any cost ....I hope Panoramio will continue for ever...Thank you

[Spellweaver]

Yeah, but keeping panoramio alive makes only sense if they start working on it again. During the last 1-2 years there was practically no progress on the project... :-(

[Peter NO VIEWS]

First things First; 1182 have signed. Keep up the good work!

[Tomros - undecided now]

I completely agree with Fred. I signed the petition in the false hope many have, but I know Panoramio is doomed. 

No reason to flog a wounded horse. 

The original idea to start a new site was much better, but you probably have to forget about large exposure on Earth and Map, unless someone challenge Google on that front. I know that David killed Goliath with a small stone, but that happens only once in a while.

----------------------------------------

A photo contest with the chance to win a key ring or plastic spoon would be nice....;-)

[Draken]

Does it mean neither of you is viralising the petition? 

[Peter NO VIEWS]

Doomed perhaps... but we don't go under without a fight.... 1570 have signed...

[~Marlene~ No Views!]

I continue to spread the word, but have you seen this Wikipedia list of DISCONTINUED GOOGLE PRODUCTS? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products#Discontinued_products_and_services

I tend to agree with Tomas that a new website is a better idea!

[Christos Theodorou]

Dear friends,

So, the 1st day of the petition is closed some minutes before and we have at 22:00’ - Athens time : 1.967 supporters. Not bad, but we must know that the following days results maybe will loose dynamic. Only on this week-end perhaps, I believe that we can a significant increase, because many friends enter at the site from Friday to Sunday. More members must spread messages for the petition. I have a form of message posted into my first photo, in languages that I speak or understand, that you can copy and paste basically on popular photos, or at the pictures you like. Even a simple message in english is enough I believe, but some people they asked me to put it also in their language. If you want to translate it in another language that you know well, you can do it.

About Fred and Tom's opinion, perhaps they have right, but we must try, for a biggest result. It's a good weapon to our arguments.

We keep walking ...  :-)

Kind regards and have a good night from Greece,

Christos

[Adam Elmquist]

I have signed the petition too, but as I do see with Map View it is supposed to be mobile friendly.  From what the announcement says being non mobile friendly platform is part of the reason for the termination of Panoramio.  I have asked some times in the past in the forums to have mobile friendly features.  It has gotten better now but still not a streamlined process.  A few years ago it was a real pain to reply to someone's comments or to send a message while on mobile device which is even a Google Android device.  Most of the time I had to use my mobile note taking app to jot down what I wanted to say to person.  I would have to wait until I got back home to my laptop to reply or send a message.  It wasn't worst thing for day to day usage but when on vacation my responses would be backed up for days because it was virtually impossible to comment or send message back to the person from a mobile device.

I've made suggestions in the past to have an official native app that would of hopefully solved that issue.

Even today trying to use the view on map link on my Google Nexus Phone Android version 4.4.4 running mobile Chrome 37.0.2062.117 is still hard to navigate.  I've used the view on map link to show a few people of a certain spot where I took a photo found out it can take minutes to navigate to my photo when using it home only takes seconds..

If Youtube never evolved today to be mobile friendly we wouldn't probably be using Youtube the way we know it, like it is today.  Don't get me wrong I still love using Panoramio at home but should be a bit better at the mobile level.  Looking at Panoramio photos via Google Earth Mobile App works really good but Panoramio site itself doesn't.

[The Man in the Maze™]

..so lets think to alternative A, B, and C......then............A (Panoramio is kept alive and possibly kicking back), B (Foundation of new web site,I like the sound of it....) and C (before A and / or B happen where do we congregate all of us???  Is there any place on the net where at the moment it is possible to be in touch with our Panora-friends???  Any suggestions???

I would love to remain in touch with all of you guys!!!

[Hans Sterkendries]

> Sarcasm mode on

we all have a Google+ account. I hear that's almost as good as Facebook.

> Sarcasm mode off

Op woensdag 24 september 2014 23:07:28 UTC+2 schreef The Man in the Maze™:

[Tomros - undecided now]

no view counts today. punishment?

only paradoxically (or not) Google Maps.

[Tomros - undecided now]

Let say, the petition gets 10,000 signatures.

Is there a legal 'thing', which would force Google to reverse its decision?

Are shareholders going to vote on this?

Google

NASDAQ: GOOG - Sep 24 6:39 PM ET

587.996.86 (1.18%)

After-hours: 587.990.00 (0.00%)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I have never viralised anything in my long life! 

at least not knowingly. I do not know what that means.

[© Tom Cooper not going to Views]

The idea is like a pyramid letter...I send out 5 copies, and each of the recipients send out 5 copies, and each of them send out 5 copies, nobody sent more than 5 copies, but 156 got the message.

I have shared the petition to my...this is ironic...my Google+ stream, and the "Panoramio (unofficial)" community on Google+.

Then I used the Random Gallery Viewer to share with about 20 Panoramians who:

1) Have what I consider reasonable quality photos in their gallery, and

2) Have posted photos in the last two days (i.e. active users) and

3) Did not already have something obvious about the petition in their comment stream.

BTW, that Panoramio community on Google+ is just about dead.  That's because Panoramio users (like everybody else) have already decided against Google+.

Tom

On Wednesday, September 24, 2014 7:19:06 PM UTC-5, Tomros - undecided now wrote:

I have never viralised anything in my long life! 

at least not knowingly. I do not know what that means.

On Wednesday, September 24, 2014 10:03:40 AM UTC-4, Draken wrote:

[Peter NO VIEWS]

I dusted of my FB account a few weeks ago to keep in touch with my son. From the 80 or so friends most of them are from Panoramio. Those friends I got only during the last 2 weeks or so. 

The petition site tells me that I got 6 people to sign. But I got many replies from people that already had signed. That means that there is PA community on FB,  ironicly. 

The distribution was very fast compared to sending PM on PA.

[~Marlene~ No Views!]

I've gotten 18 notices that people I contacted have signed, Peter, and on Facebook I even got my friends and relatives to sign because they love Panoramio! I don't know where the total stands right now, but this week-end is crucial. People will lose interest after that.

[Peter NO VIEWS]

IMO people should stop uploading new pictures too. We can't go on doing our normal things if nothing has happened.

[Hans Sterkendries]

Op donderdag 25 september 2014 02:19:06 UTC+2 schreef Tomros - undecided now:

Is there a legal 'thing', which would force Google to reverse its decision?

Tom, I don't think there is a legal way of forcing Google to reverse this decision. Not with a petition, no matter how much signatures you get.

However, I do wonder if there isn't a legal way of forcing them to preserve our information and I mean all our information. In the transfer to Google+ a lot of information would be lost. If the "easy transfer tool" is anything like Google Take-Out part of the titels would be lost and a large percentage of the geo-information, as well as tags, comments, snap to-positions, probably also descriptions...

I believe the Google Take-Out was launched because Google was "committed" to preserving our information. Anyone up for some research? 

Yes, one can argue that you can only take out of Panoramio/Google what you have put in but we have put in a lot more than pictures...

Op donderdag 25 september 2014 02:19:06 UTC+2 schreef Tomros - undecided now:

Are shareholders going to vote on this?

Short answer: no. This is not a strategical decision. We can try to bring it up to the Board of Directors (https://investor.google.com/corporate/guidelines.html#toc-communications) but I'm not sure it will be very helpful.

However, looking into Google's Corporate Governance I came accross a Code of Conduct that applies to all Google employees.

https://investor.google.com/corporate/code-of-conduct.html

The way I see it, article 1 of that code (Serve Our Users) is heavily being  ignored. I will speak for myself but my trust (section 1) in Google is broken, I don't think the new product (basically Google+ based) is very useful (section 2), and there's a HUGE lack of responsiveness (section 4)

Therefore we might appeal to section 5: every Google employee must react when they feel "our users aren’t being well-served" Does anyone know someone at Google that might take this message higher up the chain?

Op donderdag 25 september 2014 02:19:06 UTC+2 schreef Tomros - undecided now:

Is there a legal 'thing', which would force Google to reverse its decision?

Are shareholders going to vote on this?

Google

NASDAQ: GOOG - Sep 24 6:39 PM ET

587.996.86 (1.18%)

After-hours: 587.990.00 (0.00%)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I have never viralised anything in my long life! 

at least not knowingly. I do not know what that means.

On Wednesday, September 24, 2014 10:03:40 AM UTC-4, Draken wrote:

[Hans Sterkendries]

Peter, I hate to disagree with you. I have chosen to continue to upload BUT express my disagreement in other ways (on this forum, through the petition, in my profile information, on Google+, in private communications...). 

The reason why I continue to upload is because I want to show that this website still has its purpose and value. I don't want to give them a reason to pronounce Panoramio dead and make Views come off as a logic reaction....

I can't help but think the lack of responsiveness towards all the bugs this lastest year was a way of paving the way to Google+/Views and I refuse to cave in!

Op donderdag 25 september 2014 11:08:43 UTC+2 schreef Peter NO VIEWS:

[Aperturix]

I've signed the petition and posted links to the petition under several of my photos and in my profile. I think it's an easy way to spread the word.

[Draken]

Let's not overlook Private Messages.

[CGabi]

Friendlies greetings,

Panoramio all members and fans around the world!

 Another reason to sign the online petition:

          ,,Google: Keep The Panoramio Community Alive’’

 The respect for two panoramisti HUMANS !!!

PEOPLE who do not worship to ,,The god: money, money, money and consumption’’!

 ,,RobStamp NoToViews’’ software created for National photo contests (DNV, CSP and CFP) and International photo contests (SPC, NPC, VMC and TTT) with no financial  pretensions!

See Panoramio Games  and forum  Games & competitions.

 Wim Janssen free hosting on its servers, these competitions. See Panoramio Games.

A nice day all!

 PS: I posted the text in Romanian language, for the direct translation in the native language.

To prevent interpretations.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

Un salut amical,

tuturor membrilor si fanilor PANORAMIO din intreaga lume!

 Inca un motiv pentru a semna petitia online,

            ,,Google: Keep The Panoramio Community Alive’’

 Respectul pentru doi panoramisti OAMENI!!!

OAMENI care nu se inchina la ,,Zeul: bani, bani, bani  si consum!''.

 ,,RobStamp NoToViews’’ a creat software pentru ,,Concursuri foto nationale(DNV, CSP si CFP)’’ si ,,Concursuri foto international(SPC, NPC, VMC si TTT)’’ fara pretentii financiare!

 Vezi   Panoramio Games si subforumul ,, Games & competitions’’

 -Wim Janssen care gazduieste pe serverele sale, gratis, aceste concursuri. Vezi   Panoramio Games.

O zi buna tuturor!

 PS: Am postat textul si in limba romana, pentru traducere directa in limba natala.

Pentru evitarea interpretarilor.

 

[Peter NO VIEWS]

Means are pehaps different, the goal is the same....

Yes for value and purpose; therefore I don't delete my profile and pictures...

[© Tom Cooper not going to Views]

As of 8:25 AM (U.S. Central time - Minneapolis/Chicago), the count was up to 2687.  We might be gaining a little momentum.

 

Tom

[Draken]

The messages in Slavic languages are beginning to appear. I am still expecting some from Corea, Vietnam, Japan and China. 

Private messages should now concentrate on Asian Languages.

[junk0128]

Several Japanese have already written the message in English. 

Probably, I think that it will increase from now on. 

2014年9月25日木曜日 22時39分33秒 UTC+9 Draken:

[Draken]

Well done junk0128!!

[laurence_cox]

I have also signed the petition and checked whether messages about this appear on the home pages of my favourite Panoramio photographers. If they don't then I have sent them a message as a comment to one of their photos that I like with a link to the petition and the group. I also have uploaded a new picture to the group with the appropriate text to replace the picture I used as a placeholder when I joined the group.

[Peter NO VIEWS]

Publication; http://www.cnet.com/news/panoramio-founders-try-persuading-google-not-to-kill-site/

[Tomros - undecided now]

Few years ago the city changed swimming pool hours and public schedule. People started using the pool less.

After a year or so, the city bureaucrats said  that the pool is underused, can't justify the maintenance cost and closed it.

[Tomros - undecided now]

I was thinking of Rob and Wim and wonder if they would attempt to open own web site.....

I will be the first to join.

[Tomros - undecided now]

thanks for digging....

On Thursday, September 25, 2014 6:11:01 AM UTC-4, Hans Sterkendries wrote:

Op donderdag 25 september 2014 02:19:06 UTC+2 schreef Tomros - undecided now:

Is there a legal 'thing', which would force Google to reverse its decision?

Tom, I don't think there is a legal way of forcing Google to reverse this decision. Not with a petition, no matter how much signatures you get.

[RoarX]

We have reached 3113!

[Ivonna Nowicka]

me, too!

[Ivonna Nowicka]

Draken, you are great! I love your spirit and it gives spirit to others, too. Let's be David, as you said

in

[Sousa-Dan]

Em terça-feira, 23 de setembro de 2014 19h39min47s UTC+2, Draken escreveu:

The founders of Panoramio have started a petition to keep the Panoramio Community Alive at Change.org:

http://www.change.org/p/google-google-keep-the-panoramio-community-alive

Em terça-feira, 23 de setembro de 2014 19h39min47s UTC+2, Draken escreveu:

The founders of Panoramio have started a petition to keep the Panoramio Community Alive at Change.org:

http://www.change.org/p/google-google-keep-the-panoramio-community-alive

I leave here my call for this meeting place and Dissemination of photography, among longtime friends, Should be kept with a lot of activity and never finish, it would be very bad, the end of Dear Panoramio, so many good things have Offered to users
Please, let's fight together for the (Panoramio) to remain very active and ever
I subscribe with much honor this petition
The Panoramio never finishes
Panoramio for ever

 http://www.change.org/p/google-larry-and-sergey-google-keep-the-panoramio-community-alive?share_id=EwHCGoepvG&utm_campaign=share_button_action_box&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition

[~Marlene~ No Views!]

I have spent 3 long days of my life promoting this petition, over 500 messages left on user pages or by private message. I have pleaded on Facebook and made the link available on my user page & contributed money. With all of this, according to the notifications I have received from Change.org, less than 30 people have responded to my pleas! I now find people seem annoyed to receive this message, and from my stats the last 2 days, seem to be avoiding Panoramio altogether. It seems to me the writing is on the wall. I never had any real hope that Google would decide to keep this site open based on 10,000 signatures… their past maneuvering to Google+ means this has been in the works for a long time. I am losing interest in beating a dead horse! Any new ideas?

On Thursday, September 25, 2014 3:28:31 PM UTC-5, RoarX wrote:

We have reached 3113!

On Tuesday, September 23, 2014 7:39:47 PM UTC+2, Draken wrote:

[Ivonna Nowicka]

Dear Draken, Dear Panoramio Community,

I will share:

- a comparison
- information about my efforts to spread the information of Google's morbid plans
- 2 questions
and for the dessert
- a suggestion

Introduction

Like so many other Panoramians - I thought Panoramio would last pretty much forever. Just until the Milky Way is hit by the Andromeda Gallaxy and the two merge into one...

For me, Panoramio is a tribute to the beauty and variety of natural and man made places on Earth in the early 21th century.

That is why I have written in the "Write something about you" option in the Settings on my site:
"ONCE UPON A TIME ON PLANET EARTH".

The world without Panoramio won't be the same.

The comparison

What Google is doing with our Panoramio (it never felt it was its Panoramio) can be likened to what happened to Polish textile factories in the city of Lodz in in the 1990s. Italian companies came and bought them, supposedly to help them out. The real aim, though, was to get rid of unwanted rivals. In due time the Polish factories were closed and Italian textiles could flood Poland. Simple.

We live in the age of predatory capitalism.

In the past, people from the East block had to defend themselves against totalitarian regimes, nowadays the people of all the world are forced to defend themselves against totalitarian companies. Wonder, which one is worse...

The information

I have updated Wikipedia in Polish, English, German, Persian and Russian, putting in information about the recent developments since Sept. 16 (when Google announced its unilateral plans to move us to some Junk-pic site). The French Wiki already had this information.
I hope my updated are accepted, soon.

Questions

Question 1.

Does Google have the right to delete all our comments, at all? There was this court case where a man from Spain demanded old information about him be deleted from Google browser and Google didn't want to do it but was forced to by the court. One has the option of requesting from Google in a special form that something be deleted...

So Google itself assumed that information in the net should remain there. Isn't it acting against its own concepts, wanting to delete our comments?

Question 2.

When a Panoramio user deletes his/her account - do the pictures disappear from Google maps, too?

If so, and if many Panoramians do delete their accounts and migrate somewhere else, should G. go on with its plans,
then loosing many millions of pictures from Google Maps and other Google services would be a blow to Google, would it?

The suggestion

Do you think we could mobilise and organise a demonstration in real space, somewhere? In front of Google headquarters in Zurich
or in some other place which could at least symbolically be related to Google and/or Panoramio.
This would inspire media coverage.
And media coverage is good and could become troublesome for G.

Love to you all,

Ivonna
 

http://www.change.org/p/google-google-keep-the-panoramio-community-alive

[Peter NO VIEWS]

Yes, it has been many hours of work til now. In fact we have been sending PM since the 17th. Not every one is sending feedback, but the feedback I got was only favorable. I would like a bit more momentum than 1 vote every minute or so. Any idea is welcome, we still are tuned in.....

kl. 22:33:16 UTC+2 fredag 26. september 2014 skrev ~Marlene~ No Views! følgende:

I have spent 3 long days of my life promoting this petition, over 500 messages left on user pages or by private message. I have pleaded on Facebook and made the link available on my user page & contributed money. With all of this, according to the notifications I have received from Change.org, less than 30 people have responded to my pleas! I now find people seem annoyed to receive this message, and from my stats the last 2 days, seem to be avoiding Panoramio altogether. It seems to me the writing is on the wall. I never had any real hope that Google would decide to keep this site open… their past maneuvering to Google+ means this has been in the works for a long time. But what I would like to know is does this low number of petitioners mean there will be no "New Panoramio" from the original developers? I am losing interest in beating a dead horse! But 

On Thursday, September 25, 2014 3:28:31 PM UTC-5, RoarX wrote:

[hvbemmel]

question 1 + 2:

See the Google terms of service

Modifying and Terminating our Services
We are constantly changing and improving our Services. We may add or remove functionalities or features and we may suspend or stop a Service altogether.
You can stop using our Services at any time, although we would be sorry to see you go. Google may also stop providing Services to you or add or create new limits to our Services at any time.
We believe that you own your data, and preserving your access to such data is important. If we discontinue a Service, where reasonably possible, we will give you reasonable advance notice and a chance to remove information from that Service.

According to the PA terms of service, they top the Google TOS, data will be gone when you remove your contents. That meas your photos will be removed from GE and GM, that can take some time, (up to 2 months for GE ), but the data will disappear.

Comments are not your property, you have no copyright there, because most of the comments are not yours but from others. You can argue about the caption (description), but I wouldn´t go to court on that one.   

[hvbemmel]

Just pasted the link in the fora for Greek, Arabic and Vietnamese, who had no posts after the announcement of the migration. 

[Stuart (Bugger Views)]

Happy 16th Birthday Google----- why not celebrate b y not dumping Panoramio...??????

[Draken]

Hello Ivonna

Once again thank you for your words and for participating.

Since hvbemmel has answered your questions, let me add something about your suggestion.

The Google Maps/Panoramio Team officially consists only of three people and they are in Mountain View, California.

A pacific demonstration could be held at any Google Headquarter around the world.

There has already been some media coverage, but of course not live.

Thank you for all your efforts to spread the news and draw more and more people to the campaign.

Stay well

El viernes, 26 de septiembre de 2014 17:47:56 UTC-3, Ivonna Nowicka escribió:

Dear Draken, Dear Panoramio Community,

I will share:

The suggestion

Do you think we could mobilise and organise a demonstration in real space, somewhere? In front of Google headquarters in Zurich
or in some other place which could at least symbolically be related to Google and/or Panoramio.
This would inspire media coverage.
And media coverage is good and could become troublesome for G.

[Ivonna Nowicka]

Thank you hvbemmel!

That makes it clear.

Conclusion:
Now we know that IF the majority of us deleted our accounts (which we obviously don't want to do)
this WOULD be a blow to Google! Good to know that we have such a tool, just in case...

[vladanscekic- NO Views !]

 

Almost 3,500 signatures, please contact journalists / media / bloggers

Sep 26, 2014 — Dear all, Thanks for your amazing support. Now it is time to be in the media. If you have some spare time, please contact technology journalists, bloggers, twitter...

 Maybe : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/    not bad idea?

[Nicola Manini]

I signed the petition yesterday.

I wish to add a message to the google team: of course Panoramio as is now does not look good on mobile phones.
To a smart software engineer it would take a couple of days to figure out a mobile style that serves the same pictures so that they look nice to the mobile world.
It could even be Views or Views-derived. All the pictures, geolocalization data etc for Panoramio are there already: there is no need to discontinue Panoramio, just change the way it is served to mobile phones!
And most importantly the community is alive: keep it up!

[hvbemmel]

For those interested, an article from a German Computer company. http://highlight-pc.de/panoramio-gruender-wollen-schliessung-durch-google-verhindern/, 

I shared the link on my G+ together with

http://www.change.org/p/google-google-keep-the-panoramio-community-alive.

[vladanscekic- NO Views !]

For now we have  4791 members who sign the petition , and it is still far from  enough .... Yesterday I begin  with my group "Serbian village"  (over 990 members) and start to send private message to each one of members and I done with over 600 messages last night.   I will continue tonight until I send a message to all .There are lot of groups in Panoramio with a lot of members, for example the most popular group "The best of my country"  have 29645 members, "Best beaches in the world"- "save the planet earth" -24007 members, "Вода ,Вода..,Water ,water...."-22817 members etc..... and I think that is  a good base and just enough to complete our petition.  So do not give up and do not loose a hope , we all have a lot of job!  

 http://www.panoramio.com/group/33721  The best of my country

http://www.panoramio.com/group/13609   Best beaches in the world - "save the planet earth" 

http://www.panoramio.com/group/62706   Вода ,Вода..,Water ,water...

[laurence_cox]

I have looked at all the groups that I am a member of and where there is not already a posting letting people know about Google's action and the petition, I have posted one. Many of these groups are small but I hope to reach people who have specialised interests.

On Sunday, 28 September 2014 18:44:04 UTC+1, vladanscekic- NO Views ! wrote:

For now we have  4791 members who sign the petition , and it is still far from  enough .... Yesterday I begin  with my group "Serbian village"  (over 990 members) and start to send private message to each one of members and I done with over 600 messages last night.   I will continue tonight until I send a message to all .There are lot of groups in Panoramio with a lot of members, for example the most popular group "The best of my country"  have 29645 members, "Best bitches in the world"- "save the planet earth" -24007 members, "Вода ,Вода..,Water ,water...."-22817 members etc..... and I think that is  a good base and just enough to complete our petition.  So do not give up and do not loose a hope , we all have a lot of job!  

 http://www.panoramio.com/group/33721  The best of my country

http://www.panoramio.com/group/13609   Best bitches in the world - "save the planet earth" 

[Adam Elmquist]

I have posted a link to the petition and these forums about Panoramio's future on http://www.panoramio.com/group/trains

[Draken]

5000 signatures. Half way. 

Let's not stop at 10.000.

[Ivonna Nowicka]

Great!

I've been waiting for this result, too : )

[hvbemmel]

German users have sent many letters to the press. Some of them are very busy writing comments with the link, using certain parts in GE, clicking photos and comment, using www.panoramio.com/userfeed* to find active and new users, they leave messages in their groups. and then of course FB and G+

Just some ideas to promote the petition, spread the word

*(needs a rss reader /extension  like inoreader.com , feedly.com, bloglines.com etc ) 

http://www.change.org/p/google-google-keep-the-panoramio-community-alive

[LutzP]

with a couple of million users 5.000 in a week is not good enough, we need far more public visibility! Who is working the media? What else can we do. I volunteer!

Greetings, Lutz

[Daniela Brocca]

 In Change .org i found an old petition about the comments in youtube with more than 250.000 votes. it doesn't  seems they answered to the petition, nothing changed. And we are at 5000.

[Draken]

That's encouraging and motivating!!

[hvbemmel]

Daniela 

They certainly changed the connection to G+ due to complaints / petition, Youtube has more the 1.000.000.000 unique users every month. In that light 5000, even if it would stay at that number, is much more then 250.000. say 4 milion unique PA users a month (it´s less I´m sure) makes 0,125% at Panoramio against 0,025% at Youtube.

You just raised my hope.! :-)

[vladanscekic- NO Views !]

An article from our member Petrović Dejan posted on Serbian website "It street ":  http://www.itstreet.org/articles.php?id=145

[~Marlene~ No Views!]

Today I managed to get 15 more signatures from my Facebook friends, so my total contribution is up to 50! I also contacted a friend whose son is the online editor of digitalcameraworld.com out of the UK in hopes that he can put our story out there somewhere. I'll let you know if anything comes of that!

[Diane - No Views]

A Russian and an Iranian Pano friend are contacting as many members in their countries as they can.  

[Lloyd Weeber]

There appears to be no intention to keep Panoramio Groups going in View.

Dumb idea.  The potential for doing things that could make money from Groups doesn't seem to have been considered by Google!

[ranssom]

The majority of users in Greece are aware of the issue. There is almost nothing written in the greek forum because most of the users prefer the international forum.

[Sixten Imgs]

1) How about contacting the camera industry/manufacturers or their organizations? Maybe by the founders of Panoramio? I think that would be news already in itself. 

The camera firms could be jointly interested in hearing how the Google is "planning" things nowadays (read: messing things badly and totally) in the world of photography. And how poorly Google really appears to understand this hobby of millions and millions of camera enthusiasts. Photography is not any more just taking the photos alone and hiding them inside a shoe box without saying hardly anything to anyone. Photography has turned more and more into communication. If Google does not understand this probably some others will...?

The people inside the camera industry and business probably know how to speak the same language with Google. And maybe they could help Google to understand much better the meaning of the world-wide customer feedback and good reputation. Many firms have a little bit longer history in these things than the Google+Views–Panoramio+Geo+Maps team...

I can imagine the media might be very interested in "the Panoramio case" immediately if the camera industry would say something, or somehow even took part (?), and even the firms  together (?), in the petition (Change.org site address below...)

In my opinion the camera industry should be willingly supporting Panoramio, because this is a truly unique and amazing photo site that so far has been containing...

• millions of DECENT PHOTOGRAPHS by responsible photographers (and a working reviewing system so far, the one many other "photo"graphy sites do not seem to have)
• positive, friendly and supporting COMMUNITY with worldwide connections, even every-day friendship via photography
• countless USER GROUPS OF PHOTOGRAPHERS inspiring people to use their cameras and see things from new, different angles and so developing and expanding their photography hobby

• the FORUM that has been sharing knowledge, ideas, fun and inspiration to photographers (and without the excessive feeling of marketing and thus: especially well).

2) This second one is partially a joke but contains a message also:

How about contacting the Google Translator team too? Maybe they could ask also what is this Photos+Mess team aiming at?

At least thinking of my own experiences the Panoramio must be one of sites from where the Google gets quite a lot customers for its translating service!  I wonder how many people around the world  actually use the Google Translate system both when commenting the photographs with the community and when reading the comments the other people have written to them. 

Doesn't that show something too?

[© Tom Cooper not going to Views]

So I dropped another 25 or so notes on accounts that appeared to not know about the shutdown (and had posted photos in the past couple of days).  Unfortunately, it wasn't until I was done that I realized in my message that I had misspelled "Panramio". :-(((

 

Tom

[Adam Elmquist]

Thank you Tom for helping no worries on the misspell I'm surely one for that. Anyways I have posted to almost every group I'm in about the shutdown. Seems like a lot of members posted to Panoramio only once or twice forgot about it, which is ashame. I don't want to see Panoramio go but could use a bit of help in mobile department. The constructive relationships here in the Pano community have helped to become a better photographer, which I am thankful for.

[Søren Terp]

HELP REACHING THE SILENT MAJORITY

 

As I am writing this, more than 6000 people have signed the petition to keep Panoramio alive. This is impressive, given that, in my estimate, only some 1000 to 2000 users are highly active, commenting on other peoples photos and participating in the forum. However, given that Panoramio has more than 8 million registered users, I believe that we need to have well beyond 10,000 signees to make an impression.

The challenge is that the vast majority of the 8 mill+ users are relatively inactive, don't regularly read the forum and don't give or receive comments to photos. Consequently 99.9% of all users are unaware of the plans to close Panoramio and of the petition. If we wish to boost the petition well beyond the current numbers, we need to reach this silent and blissfully unaware majority.

I therefore suggest that we start a campaign by sending 'private messages' to this silent majority. I have already started, and if you want to participate, the procedure is as below:

1. You send me a message that you wish to participate in the Reach the Silent Majority Campaign

2. I send you a range of one hundred user numbers, say 8,000,001 to 8,000,100. I keep a record of which number ranges are taken, so that we avoid double dipping. Have a bit of patience, it may be 24 hours before I have time to send the numbers.

3. You send messages to the 100 users, encouraging them to sign the petition. A few will probably reply to you with a thanks for the hint and informing that they have now signed. The rest you will never hear from, but some of these will also have signed, after receiving your message. Thus you have significantly contributed to the petition and hopefully also to the chances for the survival of Panoramio.

4. If you are really energetic and passionate, you send me a request for further 100 numbers 8-)

I hope that you and many more will join. I really think this is the most efficient method of spreading the word and getting more of our fellow Panoramians to show their support.

Regards,

Søren Terp

[Draken]

Soren

It was me who opened this thread so your words (PM) "You may or may not wish to support this initiative - and seemingly you don't - your choice." are really way off target.

[Sleipnir's Master]

http://www.panoramio.com/group/13609   Best bitches in the world - "save the planet earth"  I chuckled a little too hard at this.
English is not your first so It's not your fault but that's funny :) Beaches.

On Sunday, September 28, 2014 6:44:04 PM UTC+1, vladanscekic- NO Views ! wrote:

[vladanscekic- NO Views !]

 

http://www.panoramio.com/group/13609   Best bitches in the world - "save the planet earth"  I chuckled a little too hard at this.
English is not your first so It's not your fault but that's funny :) Beaches.

He he,  what a mistake, I did  not notice:)) Thank you,it's corrected now:)

[deanhebert]

Sign. Over 6000 strong.

[hvbemmel]

Some info to clarify the next (German) article.

Germany has a few commercial television broadcasters (all have more then one net). Above that there are two non-commercial networks, paid through a form of tax and Commercial. one of them is the ARD, a combination of all broadcasters from the several states forming Germany.

on the 29th of September there was an article about Orkut that´s going on black and the Google policy of "Google´s ruthless product policy". There also they are talking about a possible end for G+ and, in the last sentence, the announcement about the end of Panoramio.

[~Marlene~ No Views!]

This may already have been mentioned here somewhere, but I was just informed that our Iranian friends cannot access the petition for signing. That's a lot of people whose voices will not be heard! Can they organize themselves in some other way to show their support, possibly on PA?

[JohnnySixtyLove]

Am Mittwoch, 1. Oktober 2014 07:26:19 UTC+2 schrieb hvbemmel:

Some info to clarify the next (German) article.

Germany has a few commercial television broadcasters (all have more then one net). Above that there are two non-commercial networks, paid through a form of tax and Commercial. one of them is the ARD, a combination of all broadcasters from the several states forming Germany.

On the 29th of September there was an article about Orkut that´s going on black and the Google policy of "Google´s ruthless product policy". There also they are talking about a possible end for G+ and, in the last sentence, the announcement about the end of Panoramio.

 

The founders of Panoramio have started a petition to keep the Panoramio Community Alive at Change.org:

http://www.change.org/p/google-google-keep-the-panoramio-community-alive

 

Thanks hvbemmel for this information. I would like to supplement it. The ARD is one of the two non-commercial networks. The other is called ZDF.   

The mentioned message has been published by ZDF. Here is the link: "Google's ruthless Product Policy" (available only in German).

[Adam Elmquist]

Pending Shutdown and Petition to keep Panoramio alive.  Could it be possible to give a system wide message to all users of the Pending Shutdown with a link to the Petition.  As some other members have stated Panoramio membership is over 8 million but only very little active users.  As one of the top 30 contributors I am getting messages comments that I am keep deleting I feel I am being spammed.  I have already put messages in almost every group I'm in.  As a matter of fact Panoramio system locked me out from sending anymore messages to groups.  I know the cause is great, but I feel if Panoramio has a system status message system that can email all Panoramio members that maybe a better a approach.

[Peter NO VIEWS]

Adam, you posted a lot of pictures on PA and have therefore lots of visitors. If messages are posted under your pictures it is not only for you. But also for the visitors that follow. This is an effective way of spreading the petition. Sorry you feel spammed.

[Adam Elmquist]

I kept one comment, deleted the rest, sorry..   An automatic system email message that can blast out to all joined Panoramio members would be really effective too.

[Draken]

Adam

Question 1: Who has the emailing list of all Panoramio Users?

–The Panoramio Team.

Question 2: Do you think they are willing to send all those email messages?

[© Tom Cooper not going to Views]

My expectation would be for the team to send out that email blast telling everyone how wonderful Views is and how easy the transition tool is to use.

 

Tom C.

[Adam Elmquist]

There has to be one, two, or hopefully more of the team members on our side for not shutting down.  Please says yes  :-)

[© Tom Cooper not going to Views]

Even if they were, that doesn't mean they would put their jobs in jeopardy to "misuse" company resources.  Sending an unauthorized mass emailing in some industries can lead to criminal prosecution.

 

I don't care what they can do, I would never ask them to take those kinds of risks for Panoramio.

 

Tom

[Ivonna Nowicka]

7004 signatures!!!

On Tuesday, 23 September 2014 19:39:47 UTC+2, Draken wrote:

[Adam Elmquist]

Fantastic..!

[Tomas K☼h☼ut]

Adam... :-)

Even if some of Panoramio team members are mentally on "Support Panoramio!" side... don't forget: They are also members of Maps and Views teams. Things has changed since Panoramio team from Zurich was replaced with larger team from Mountain Valley, shared among more GEO projects.

Current team members are not founders, Panoramio is not their child (it does not mean necessary they don't like Panoramio) . They were appointed to these projects by contract. And contract is: Migrate and merge decaying Panoramio community into brand new service Views (service with slightly different business goals and thus having different implementation, design, infrastructure and community).

All they have to do is to follow management decisions, not to oppose them!

[Tomas K☼h☼ut]

So far - so good...

[Adam Elmquist]

See Tomas I'm two sided I really wont mind the change from what the message read that Map Views will be mobile friendly I actually welcome change as long as some of our groups and communities are kept.  I did say earlier in the forums I welcome the change it upset some people here in the forums, how could an active Panoramio user say that.  To help keep both sides happy I did sign the petition to help keep what we know, but I am looking for improvements especially to mobile platforms.

[© Tom Cooper not going to Views]

Adam Elmquist: "I actually welcome change as long as some of our groups and communities are kept."

 

I can tell you how many of our groups are going to be kept: 0

I can't tell you about communities - I am not sure what that means in the context of Panoramio.  But i'll bet it's very similar to the number of groups.

 

Even Draken, who started this thread, is OK with Views if it can meet the right conditions.  But there's not much hope of that happening.

 

Tom

[Draken]

Provided Views resembles Panoramio as much as it could (which I seriously doubt the Team are willing to make it happen), yes, I don't object to it. Even though my priority now is to put across a clear message: the users like Panoramio as it is (of course, with the proper maintenance –not the derelict form we now have as a result of the neglect of the Team– and perhaps with the addition of new mobile apps for those who use those devices) and oppose Views.

[Ivonna Nowicka]

List of Google offices around the world (as of November 2013)

http://www.google.com/intl/en/about/company/facts/locations/

if anyone would like to hold a nice pro-Panoramio poster, there, or write in flowers on the pavement "Panoramio" - and then trample on these flowers to show what Google is about to do to us - filming the scene, of course; or organize some other nice peaceful happening - especially and only for our dear new overcreative and overinnovative Google : )

On Saturday, 27 September 2014 12:07:42 UTC+2, Draken wrote:

Hello Ivonna

Once again thank you for your words and for participating.

Since hvbemmel has answered your questions, let me add something about your suggestion.

The Google Maps/Panoramio Team officially consists only of three people and they are in Mountain View, California.

A pacific demonstration could be held at any Google Headquarter around the world.

There has already been some media coverage, but of course not live.

Thank you for all your efforts to spread the news and draw more and more people to the campaign.

Stay well

El viernes, 26 de septiembre de 2014 17:47:56 UTC-3, Ivonna Nowicka escribió:

Dear Draken, Dear Panoramio Community,

I will share:
The suggestion

Do you think we could mobilise and organise a demonstration in real space, somewhere? In front of Google headquarters in Zurich
or in some other place which could at least symbolically be related to Google and/or Panoramio.
This would inspire media coverage.
And media coverage is good and could become troublesome for G.

Love to you all,

Ivonna
 

http://www.change.org/p/google-google-keep-the-panoramio-community-alive

[françois PARIS]

Ne touchez as à l’existence de Panoramio. C'est une liberté d'expression internationale incontournable. François PARIS

[O Trasno]

If Panoramio dissappears, would our photos dissappear from G. Earth too?

[Tomas K☼h☼ut]

From explanation of Brian McClendon:

If you choose, your photos that remain on Panoramio un-migrated will continue to be seen on Google Earth and Google Maps (far beyond the migration) if they are associated with a Google account.

[hvbemmel]

Notice the "(far beyond the migration)". Far beyond is not a time meassure. Things that are on a timeline in two months can take a year and things that are on the timeline in a year can disappear two months later. 

Photos are almost not visible on GM since a year, new ones are even not visible on the Panoramio map, so that promise already doesn´t count. How long will GE remain, they can not put that one in G+, so I´m sceptical on that one too.  

[dhanasekarangm]

http://www.heute.de/produktpolitik-bei-google-ein-kommen-und-gehen-35186258.html

The Article in German available in the link quoted,  fairly translates thus  :

ARTIKEL Allein in den letzten vier Jahren hat Google gut 40 Projekte eingestampft, jüngstes Beispiel ist das soziale Netzwerk Orkut. Das wurde von Google im Januar 2004 vorgestellt und landet nun am 30. September auf dem Google-Friedhof. Orkut ist hierzulande kaum bekannt, spielt aber in Brasilien und Indien eine große Rolle. Dort gelang Google etwas, was der Konzern im Rest der Welt bislang vergeblich versucht: ein soziales Netzwerk zu etablieren, das Facebook in die Schranken weisen kann. Orkut, woanders die Facebook-Alternative Jetzt haben die Millionen von Orkut-Anwendern zwei Jahre Zeit, ihre kompletten Daten aus Orkut lokal zu speichern, was bei einem sozialen Netzwerk allerdings nur mäßig sinnvoll ist. Als Alternative zu Orkut bietet Google sein jüngstes - und bislang erfolgreichstes Angebot in Sachen sozialer Netzwerke - an: Google Plus. Den erhofften Schub neuer, möglichst aktiver Nutzer kann Google Plus gut gebrauchen. Zwar liegt man bei den reinen Nutzerzahlen mit Facebook gleichauf, aber das heißt nicht viel, landet doch jeder, der ein Google-Konto eröffnet - ganz gleich, ob für Mail, Google Docs oder Youtube - fast automatisch auch bei Google Plus. Relevanter sind da schon die Zahlen der aktiven Nutzer pro Monat. Hier ist Facebook mit rund 1,3 Milliarden Nutzern die unangefochtene Nummer eins, Google Plus folgt im Ranking mit gut 300 Millionen auf Platz drei, dicht gefolgt von LinkedIn (277 Millionen) und Twitter (255 Millionen). Geht auch bald Google Plus den Bach runter? Bleibt die Frage, ob Google Plus ein längeres Leben beschieden sein wird als den übrigen glücklosen Versuchen Googles. Vieles spricht dafür, schließlich ist Google Plus für das Unternehmen inzwischen viel zu wichtig geworden, als dass man es kurzerhand wieder einstellen könnte. Doch ob Plus wie Orkut das für digitale Dinge fast biblische Alter von zehn Jahren erreicht, ist durchaus nicht ausgemacht. Sollte Google einmal feststellen, dass Plus hinter den Erwartungen zurückbleibt und sehr viel mehr kostet, als es an Daten einbringt, wird auch dieses Angebot den Weg ins digitale Nirvana antreten. Als nächstes wird Google übrigens seinen Fotodienst Panoramio einstellen.

ARTICLE In just the last four years, Google has pulped more than 40 projects, the most recent example is the social network Orkut. This was introduced by Google in January 2004 and now ends on 30 September at the Google cemetery. Orkut is still largely unknown, but plays a major role in Brazil and India. There, Google managed something that the Group has so far tried in vain in the rest of the world to establish a social network that may have Facebook in their place. To orkut, somewhere else the Facebook an alternative Now the millions of Orkut users will have two years to save their complete data from Orkut locally, but this is only moderately useful in a social network. As an alternative to Orkut Google offers his latest - and most successful offer in terms of social networks - in: Google Plus. The expected boost new active users as possible can use Google Plus good. Although it lies with the pure number of users with Facebook on par, but that does not mean much, but everyone who opened a Google Account ends up - no matter whether for Gmail, Google Docs or Youtube - almost automatically from Google Plus. The relevant are attendance at numbers of active users per month. Here is Facebook, with around 1.3 billion users, the undisputed number one, Google Plus follows in the rankings with a good 300 million in third place, closely followed by LinkedIn (277 million) and Twitter (255 million). Is also soon Google Plus down the drain? The question remains whether Google Plus will be granted a longer life than the other hapless Try Google. There is much evidence, finally Google has become much too important that you unceremoniously could set it once again asset for the company. But if like Orkut Plus reached the digital matters almost scriptural age of ten years, is by no means agreed. Google should find one that Plus falls short of expectations and a lot more costs, than it brings in data, this deal will make its way into the digital nirvana. Next, Google is the way to adjust its photo service Panoramio.

 There seem to be some grammatical omission or commission - the reader has to understand the translated text to the context !