Since we’re always looking for new ways to increase the resources we offer and improve our service, we immediately wondered how this could be useful to our community. We decided pretty quickly that moving QuickShare over to a new host with big goals and no track record would be a gamble and decided against it. That brought us to our next idea: Why not launch a similar site, offering a file hosting and sharing service on this new network, while clearly explaining to everyone what it’s based on and being transparent about the fact that it’s new, untried and untested. By doing so, we can offer a significantly more powerful service to our users for as long as we can while simultaneously testing this new host to see if they can live up to their claims.

So… we decided to put up Databin. The interface of the site is a significant improvement over QuickShare and it’s the way we have been planning to move QuickShare ahead. Also, we’ve made the file upload limit 150MB.

Please feel free to give it a try but please keep in mind that it’s pretty much a test concept based on a service provider that isn’t older than a few weeks. Please don’t use this as a backup service, and please note that QuickShare and Databin will not be held responsible for any loss or damage of data caused directly or indirectly.

Now that I have the disclaimer out the way, please enjoy

The QuickShare Team

We are aware of the Seacom development and like many of you out there, we read every news article on the topic with bated breath, hoping to mine a little more hope out of the development. Having said that, it’s also more than likely that it will take a while before the cheaper bandwidth starts trickling down to us.

It’s extremely important to us that we maintain a high level of integrity with our users and that people who rely on QuickShare for backups or people who have given links to files in their CVs (and similar scenarios) can always access their data. After giving it a lot of thought, we have decided to do the following:

Our Temporary Solution

• We have disabled new uploads on all accounts while we continue to look for new ways to sustain QuickShare. Users will still have access to all the data that they currently have on the site.

Our Plans for the Future

• As the cost of bandwidth becomes more manageable, we will open up full functionality on the site again.
• As things progress even further, we plan to offer bigger (free) storage space and eventually introduce paid accounts to accommodate those who want greater storage and flexibility.

Other Thoughts

We ask for the support of all our users during this time. To give you an idea, even though we get our bandwidth and infrastructure at the most competitive prices available, our bills are quickly approaching the R10,000 per month mark. As mentioned earlier, this comes out of our own pocket and offers no return at this point. We have done everything we can to keep things going.

We knew this might happen, but we’re passionate about the idea and wanted to give it our best shot.  We will be back and when we come back, we’ll be better, stronger and faster than ever.

We will be updating users from time to time using our newsletter option. To stay informed with developments on our side please make sure you’re subscribed to the newsletter in the My Account (requires user to be logged in) section of QuickShare.

Bye for now…
The QuickShare Team