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Sorry for sending so many replies, but I really see some false statements made here. Westin, you write: "a surfer that comes, clicks a few galleries, and 'does his bizness' ... Seems to be doing nothing but burning everyone's bandwidth (both gallery poster, and TGP owner) "
I have over 1 million of these people on my site every single day. People that get tons of free stuff (80 links, 20 pics on average, that's 1600 pics per day, over half a million free pictures per year for free), including every topic imaginable (part from the unethic ones), then where the hell does this money come from I'm making?
Facts people, that's what counts. How did pay-sites make money? Previews. And play search-engines. Then link-sites came, I linked to preview-area's of paysites in the early days. They loved it. I loved it. My visitors loved it. Then affiliate programs came. Paysites loved it. They gave banners to people who built galleries that got people (by giving it away for free) and they got their signups. It has never been different since day one. The ONLY thing that changed is that people nowadays are whacked and slammed back and forth between consoled, dialers and entrapping blind links that they want to keep away from clicking on any banners. I talk to a lot of people, not only webmasters, and these are the things they tell me!
Fighting people 'cause their product is cheaper than yours isn't very smart... They make money, otherwise they wouldn't be able to operate at all. And if they're loosing money I'm pretty sure the "problem" will solve itself pretty soon 'cause they'll simply go out of business. Are free hosts a problem for companies that want to make money off paying customers? I'm pretty sure ligntning would be pretty pissed off if there were attempts from the paid hosts to shut him down just because he's cheaper...
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