Retiring Digital Grin (DGrin) on February 13th

giberti

Hello D-Grin community! I'm cross posting this message to ensure everyone has a chance to see it

@giberti said:
Hello D-Grin community!

I’d like to let you all know SmugMug has made the decision to retire Digital Grin (aka DGrin).

Photography online is alive and well: New capture techniques, technology, and increased access across the globe continue to drive our craft. While our forum may be closing, the opportunities to guide and shape the conversation around photography have never been bigger.

As you probably know, SmugMug acquired Flickr in 2018. As one of the first social networks, Flickr has a vibrant, engaged community. We're building a group there just for Digital Grin members, and it's free to join. We'd love to see you there to help us continue the conversation.

https://www.flickr.com/groups/dgrin/

Here's how the roadmap looks for the D-Grin forums:

Today:

• Let the existing community know about the plan
• Stop approving new members

February 1 (or there abouts)

• Restrict new posts

February 13 (or there abouts)

• Turn off the site and redirect the domain

Thank you for being part of this community and making it the special place it’s been.

Erik

David_S85

Erik, where will the forum redirect to?

dereksurfs

I don't see any support forum options on Flickr, just picture sharing which is not the same thing. That is, unless this URL is redirected to Flickr with similar categories for support, etc...

David_S85

@dereksurfs said:
I don't see any support forum options on Flickr, just picture sharing which is not the same thing. That is, unless this URL is redirected to Flickr with similar categories for support, etc...

No SM support at Flickr that I know of. Smugmug is directing folks to the Flickr / Dgrin photo sharing group. I see you are already there.
https://www.flickr.com/groups/dgrin/members/

As far as a community forum to continue photo sharing, discussions, hundreds of threads, etc., you will find that nearly every Dgrin active member in the past couple of years is now posting at:
https://focus-on-photography-forum.net/

Note the important "-forum" at the end of the URL. There is another forum with a similar name where we are not at. Hope to see you there!

denisegoldberg

@dereksurfs said:
I don't see any support forum options on Flickr, just picture sharing which is not the same thing. That is, unless this URL is redirected to Flickr with similar categories for support, etc...

SmugMug has not provided support through this forum in a while. They can be contacted directly at:
https://www.smugmughelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/18212445326996-Contact-a-SmugMug-Support-Hero#

For users helping other users, it's possible the Flickr forum will be helpful - but that depends on the activity level there.

dereksurfs

It's just really bad timing since SmugMug just sent me this terrible news about no longer supporting Google photos. While I understand its not their fault, it really sucks since I have relied on this service for years and its worked great. Now I'm at a big loss trying figure out what to do next. I need a place to discuss options, workarounds, etc... which this forum has been excellent for. Maybe there is another place I can begin a thread to discuss. I don't think Flickr or a generic photography forum is going to have much insight or knowledge about SmugMug specific issues like this. Some of you have been helping other members on here for years. Now all of that community just goes away for good, I guess. Thanks for your years of help and volunteer support on here!!

Hi Derek
We’ve learned that Google Photos is implementing some changes soon that will, to put it plainly, cause our Google Photos uploader to stop working.
To ensure the best experience for you, we’ve decided to sunset this tool before those changes go into effect. The Google Photos uploader for SmugMug will be deactivated effective March 30, 2025.
If you want to use this functionality to back up any current images from Google Photos to SmugMug, please do so before this date.
We appreciate your understanding. Thanks as always for using SmugMug.
- The SmugMug Team

dereksurfs

@David_S85 said:

@dereksurfs said:
I don't see any support forum options on Flickr, just picture sharing which is not the same thing. That is, unless this URL is redirected to Flickr with similar categories for support, etc...

No SM support at Flickr that I know of. Smugmug is directing folks to the Flickr / Dgrin photo sharing group. I see you are already there.
https://www.flickr.com/groups/dgrin/members/

As far as a community forum to continue photo sharing, discussions, hundreds of threads, etc., you will find that nearly every Dgrin active member in the past couple of years is now posting at:
https://focus-on-photography-forum.net/

Note the important "-forum" at the end of the URL. There is another forum with a similar name where we are not at. Hope to see you there!

I think what SmugMug is missing is the community support we had on here that is not just about sharing photos of your favorite bird, cat, bridge, etc... We actually helped each other solve SmugMug issues. And there are/were some great experts on here who helped out other members tremendously. It was an amazing community and big loss for those who need help beyond the standard line we get from contacting customer support. It seems like the original SmugMug culture is changing quite a bit which may be good in some ways and not so much in others. It leaves me wondering what really happened to get here. Is it just about the cutting costs?

David_S85

Hey Derek, if you're still there, I just approved you over at FoPf. You're good to go. Please perhaps say hello in the Welcome thread. You might have to hang in for a day or maybe respond to someone else's post first because of spam fighting systems we have in place, but do please introduce yourself as a Dgrin Refugee. And... Welcome there. Yay!