Fotki Traffic Limit

I have used Fotki for almost 2 years now as my photo gallery site and photo hosting to link to forums and blogs. In these 2 years, I have been mostly happy with Fotki. I thought their service was good, the site has been quite stable and the price for unlimited storage premium account is fair.

However, in the past 2 days, I have suddenly struck by a bitter experience. Due to the popularity of my recent posts on the new Canon 40D, which helped to reach top post and one of the top blogs status at WordPress.com, my blog has been getting lots of hits and traffic. Unfortunately, it made me realized that Fotki has a daily traffic limit. Fotki would lock your account for the day if you have gone past the daily traffic limit and would only unlock your account the next day.

Obviously, this has caused a lot of trouble for me as I have to move all the photos on my 40D posts to other hosting site (in fact, I have moved them to WordPress for the moment). However, even though I have moved all the photos on my 40D posts to WordPress, I still hit over the traffic limit again at Fotki today, probably because of the popularity of my 40D posts have helped to attract visitors to see my other blog posts too and most of these posts have photos hosted at Fotki.

Now, if only I had known in the first place that Fotki has a daily traffic limit, then I would have planned things differently. When I joined Fotki almost 2 years ago, I read through their terms of service and other informations on their premium account and I did not see any mention of traffic limit anywhere. In fact, I have always told my friends that Fotki was a really great service as they did not have limit on either storage or bandwidth.

Well, now I know at least the bandwidth part is not true. I have sent a email to Fotki to protest about my situation and is awaiting their reply. I have done a Google search for “Fotki daily limit” and found that Fotki do have daily limit mentioned somewhere inside their help pages. but Fotki help pages unfortunately looks like a 10,00 page legal contract and the part on daily traffic limit is deeply buried inside item 13.7.1.

I think Fotki should clearly state the daily traffic limit on their information page about premium account and on the terms of service page. Who in the right mind would go through all the help pages and to go to item 13.7.1 before they can find details about daily traffic limit?

I am awaiting Fotki to reply to me now. If they are unwilling to solve this problem for me, I may have to strongly consider moving my photo hosting and gallery site completely to another company.

16 thoughts on “Fotki Traffic Limit”

roland, consider using flickr as a service, that way you don’t have that problem (as far as i know at least flickr has no bandwidth limitation and only has an upload limit of 2gb/month) and link from the wp site to the flickr pics. it works just fine for me and should solve your problem (see http://www.cyclingwithoutborders.org as an example).

best, markus

Hi Markus,

Thanks for the suggestion. If I cannot resolve the situation with Fotki, then Flickc will definitely be one the choices for my future photo hosting.

However, I would prefer not to have to do that as I have over 7GB of photos stored at Fotki and it would be a lot of work to transfer all the photos to another hosting site.

Try Smugmug. No storage limit, no traffic limit – a site for photographers as opposed to snapshot sharing.

Hi Roland,

Thank-you so much for the information, and thanks to the others mentioning options.

Please let us know which host you choose.

I think the “contract” issue is very problematical, and is an indication of the disregard that SO many companies (especially online) show to their customers.

I think that when changes are made in the terms of service, an email should be sent to the customers on a double-opt in “legitimate-reception” basis, with a short description of at least the area in the contract which has been affected.

Instead, they expect us to “periodically” read their TOS and I think when sites write as much as they do, it’s insane and unreasonable to think people can waste that much time at site after site.

I would think that most “issues” will have been well-covered in the initial contract, so updates should be few and far between. When consideration for their clients surfaces better, they won’t get the bad Pubklic Relations (PR) like Fotoki has now brought on itself. I will not consider them.

Thanks, again, and please come visit my blog at:
http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com as “Everyone knows someone who needs this information!” (TM)

Best to all — Em

Pingback: Canon EOS 40D Review « The World According to Roland

I agree with Marcus, I think you should consider using Flickr…I use it, and I never had problems with it! ^_^

smugmug has traffic limit, although no storage and no upload limit. I have smugmug.

Hi Resource,

I read on smugsmug web page that they don’t have traffic limit. Have they changed their policy or they are also hiding the truth somewhere deep like Fotki?

Let’s me correct my statement, there is no traffic limit on smugmug. I have a code which can save you $5 bpVvkWeZdm1wU

Hi Norman,

Thanks for the clarification. If If do decide to switch photo hosting to smugsmug, that code would sure come in handy.

I’ve actually never even heard of Fotki. I’ll have to check it out. I use PhotoBucket, but really don’t have many photos or many traffic, so I’ve never run into problems as grand as yours!

Congrats on your post getting so much traffic, though!

Hi Roland,

I’m Fotki co-founder and COO, and was very surprised to read this. What’s the name of the customer service rep that you talked to at Fotki? – Please let me know and that person will be “disciplined”. While putting taking limitations off of someone’s account is not automated (before we had that, in the past we had users generate so much traffic that it would cost them significant amounts had these been hosted an an ISP), it’s a fairly easy procedure – here are examples of users that have UNLIMITED traffic at Fotki:

http://fotki.com/rorywhite
http://fotki.com/mdrewnik
http://fotki.com/raynediana
http://fotki.com/Rainbo05
http://fotki.com/donkeed
etc…….

We just have to protect ourselves from unlimited use when it comes to traffic. Our difference from Flickr is that we are not owned by Yahoo who can underwrite anything and from Smugmug is that we have millions of users vs. 300K+. By the way, both Flickr and Smugmug are solid sites and I won’t say anything bad about them, but besides the numerous advantages of Fotki, your moving your photos away is not such a great idea.

So:
1. Any limitations have been TAKEN OFF of your account.
2. Sorry about the frustration that tardiness of one of our employees caused you. If you require to be compensated for that – please contact me directly, and we will do so.
3. Please stay at Fotki 🙂

Cheers,
igor

Hi Igor,

Thanks for the reply. I am glad you have read my blog and decided to lift the traffic limit on my account.

I have no wish for any compensation. I would just like you to understand my problems and frustration. So long as Fotki can solve the problem for me, I will be glad to stay at Fotki.

I am glad that this matter can be resolved amicably.

Roland, glad to hear that and thank you for using us! We are working to automate that and thus cause no more issues like this.

All the best wishes and – see you on Fotki 🙂
ig.

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing your experiences. I’ve been playing around with Gallery2 myself but, being a designer rather than a programmer, I prefer to let someone else deal with the technicalities and opted for a separate online account at SmugMug. Have you checked it out? Best online photo hosting/sharing service I’ve found – best of all it’s ad-free, fast, reliable, flexible and secure, and offers massive capacity (filesize, resolution, bandwidth). You can read more about my experiences in my post at http://photofantastic.wordpress.com/2008/02/21/online-photo-sharing-sites/

Thanks again, Max 😉

The thing we need to remember about Fotki is their amazing print prices. I use it specifically for that so my family and friends can buy what pictures they want really cheap. Smugmug is 3 times the cost for Fotki’s 9 cent 4×6. So great prices with unlimited storage is good enought for me. Flickr has too much adverising, worth 30 bucks on Fotki for no ads.

Markus

3 September, 2007 at 8:11 pm Reply

roland, consider using flickr as a service, that way you don’t have that problem (as far as i know at least flickr has no bandwidth limitation and only has an upload limit of 2gb/month) and link from the wp site to the flickr pics. it works just fine for me and should solve your problem (see http://www.cyclingwithoutborders.org as an example).

best, markus
Roland Lim

3 September, 2007 at 8:43 pm Reply

Hi Markus,

Thanks for the suggestion. If I cannot resolve the situation with Fotki, then Flickc will definitely be one the choices for my future photo hosting.

However, I would prefer not to have to do that as I have over 7GB of photos stored at Fotki and it would be a lot of work to transfer all the photos to another hosting site.
Rich

3 September, 2007 at 9:47 pm Reply

Try Smugmug. No storage limit, no traffic limit – a site for photographers as opposed to snapshot sharing.
em

3 September, 2007 at 10:58 pm Reply

Hi Roland,

Thank-you so much for the information, and thanks to the others mentioning options.

Please let us know which host you choose.

I think the “contract” issue is very problematical, and is an indication of the disregard that SO many companies (especially online) show to their customers.

I think that when changes are made in the terms of service, an email should be sent to the customers on a double-opt in “legitimate-reception” basis, with a short description of at least the area in the contract which has been affected.

Instead, they expect us to “periodically” read their TOS and I think when sites write as much as they do, it’s insane and unreasonable to think people can waste that much time at site after site.

I would think that most “issues” will have been well-covered in the initial contract, so updates should be few and far between. When consideration for their clients surfaces better, they won’t get the bad Pubklic Relations (PR) like Fotoki has now brought on itself. I will not consider them.

Thanks, again, and please come visit my blog at:
http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com as “Everyone knows someone who needs this information!” (TM)

Best to all — Em
Pingback: Canon EOS 40D Review « The World According to Roland
erikafiore

4 September, 2007 at 5:10 am Reply

I agree with Marcus, I think you should consider using Flickr…I use it, and I never had problems with it! ^_^
Resource

4 September, 2007 at 6:10 am Reply

smugmug has traffic limit, although no storage and no upload limit. I have smugmug.
Roland Lim

4 September, 2007 at 7:38 am Reply

Hi Resource,

I read on smugsmug web page that they don’t have traffic limit. Have they changed their policy or they are also hiding the truth somewhere deep like Fotki?
Norman

4 September, 2007 at 8:52 am Reply

Let’s me correct my statement, there is no traffic limit on smugmug. I have a code which can save you $5 bpVvkWeZdm1wU
Roland Lim

4 September, 2007 at 4:08 pm Reply

Hi Norman,

Thanks for the clarification. If If do decide to switch photo hosting to smugsmug, that code would sure come in handy.
startingtoday

5 September, 2007 at 3:57 am Reply

I’ve actually never even heard of Fotki. I’ll have to check it out. I use PhotoBucket, but really don’t have many photos or many traffic, so I’ve never run into problems as grand as yours!

Congrats on your post getting so much traffic, though!
Igor

11 September, 2007 at 3:22 am Reply

Hi Roland,

I’m Fotki co-founder and COO, and was very surprised to read this. What’s the name of the customer service rep that you talked to at Fotki? – Please let me know and that person will be “disciplined”. While putting taking limitations off of someone’s account is not automated (before we had that, in the past we had users generate so much traffic that it would cost them significant amounts had these been hosted an an ISP), it’s a fairly easy procedure – here are examples of users that have UNLIMITED traffic at Fotki:

http://fotki.com/rorywhite
http://fotki.com/mdrewnik
http://fotki.com/raynediana
http://fotki.com/Rainbo05
http://fotki.com/donkeed
etc…….

We just have to protect ourselves from unlimited use when it comes to traffic. Our difference from Flickr is that we are not owned by Yahoo who can underwrite anything and from Smugmug is that we have millions of users vs. 300K+. By the way, both Flickr and Smugmug are solid sites and I won’t say anything bad about them, but besides the numerous advantages of Fotki, your moving your photos away is not such a great idea.

So:
1. Any limitations have been TAKEN OFF of your account.
2. Sorry about the frustration that tardiness of one of our employees caused you. If you require to be compensated for that – please contact me directly, and we will do so.
3. Please stay at Fotki 🙂

Cheers,
igor
Roland Lim

11 September, 2007 at 11:50 am Reply

Hi Igor,

Thanks for the reply. I am glad you have read my blog and decided to lift the traffic limit on my account.

I have no wish for any compensation. I would just like you to understand my problems and frustration. So long as Fotki can solve the problem for me, I will be glad to stay at Fotki.

I am glad that this matter can be resolved amicably.
igor

17 September, 2007 at 11:26 am Reply

Roland, glad to hear that and thank you for using us! We are working to automate that and thus cause no more issues like this.

All the best wishes and – see you on Fotki 🙂
ig.
photofantastic

23 February, 2008 at 12:33 am Reply

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing your experiences. I’ve been playing around with Gallery2 myself but, being a designer rather than a programmer, I prefer to let someone else deal with the technicalities and opted for a separate online account at SmugMug. Have you checked it out? Best online photo hosting/sharing service I’ve found – best of all it’s ad-free, fast, reliable, flexible and secure, and offers massive capacity (filesize, resolution, bandwidth). You can read more about my experiences in my post at http://photofantastic.wordpress.com/2008/02/21/online-photo-sharing-sites/

Thanks again, Max 😉
Thordog

23 February, 2008 at 12:45 pm Reply

The thing we need to remember about Fotki is their amazing print prices. I use it specifically for that so my family and friends can buy what pictures they want really cheap. Smugmug is 3 times the cost for Fotki’s 9 cent 4×6. So great prices with unlimited storage is good enought for me. Flickr has too much adverising, worth 30 bucks on Fotki for no ads.