Streetfiles.org

Three years ago, we have been in trouble. We needed some support to keep Streetfiles up and running, due to massive growth of visitors the hosting costs raised. So we have been asking around here and there. But it seemed that nobody was really interested. So just like Wikipedia yesterday against SOPA, we took our website down for a day. Suddendly we had a meeting with the MTN guys here in Berlin. They said right away "Yes, we can". They renewed their commitment a year later and now again.

Thank you again for being such a loyal supporter giving us maximum freedom even for beeing a bit lazy latley.

photo by paff one

Some of you have noticed that the photo views are not accurate any more. That's not a bug, it's a feature. Instead of the exact number we now only display a range. If a photo has less than 30 views we display: "Less then 30 views". After that the counter increments in steps by 15 views. That means your views can always be divided by 15.

• So if you have 44 views, it will still show 30 views
• When you finally have 45 views, it will show 45 views
• When you have 46 views, it will show 45 views

We did this to relieve our database a bit. We are currently testing it, we know it's not perfect.

Where is Streetfiles heading to? Get to know some of our thoughts and submit your feedback.

The Streetfiles experiment is more than three years old now. We admit that we have been a little bit lazy on development lately. Our community is changing.

And to be honest we became a bit tierd of the daily routine here as well. The stories are reapting. We are missing some innovative stuff. It turns out that the graffiti we would love to see is not exactly what our audience likes. Our own editorial input is low. That's OK somehow, it's an experiment, power to the people. On the other hand this is supposed to be our personal fun project. Well, so how to go on?

Do nothing

No seriously, why not? Streetfiles is »cult«. Let's obtain all the hidden features, little bugs and hacks just the way they are. The whole web is changing, we stay just the same. Us devleopers can start another project, maybe a website where underwater photographers can meet each other and share photos for painted tits underwater photos?

Do something else

Maybe we should print a big Streetfiles book including all our favorite threads and photos? Or organize the biggest graffiti jam ever? Maybe we shut Streetfiles down so that you remember us just the way we have been, when we where still cool? Or we suck some money out this by displaying as many ads as possible to finance a little graffit trip for us?

Update

Leave most of it as it is and just do some more/less minor changes. Less efforts, less hassle, big enough impact to change some important things.

Relaunch

Reconsider everything. Return to zero. Start from scratch. Spent even more time on this vandal shit.

• HTML5 & CSS3 based responsice layout with propper mobile device support
• Mobile app to upload photos directly from the phone
• Social Network integration seamless integration of Facebook and others (well maybe not)
• Contests a monthly battle
• Reputation more fine grained user levels with different opertunities for different scores.
• More Editorial a kind of blog
• Videos ‹ never!

Your input here.

Yes we understand: Taking pictures of the action documents my crazy graffiti life style and is part of the game. Day light pictues on the next day are never the same. It's the atmosphere, stupid. Im am not "too hardcore".

Well, but they help the police to identify you. Twirling or pixelating your face might not be enough:

• You uncover the location where the action took place
• You might also give a hint when the action took place
• The clothes you wear on the photo can later be found when searching your home
• Your posture can also reveal your identity
• The owner of the original action shot photo is the suspect

We can't protect you from your own imprudence. Unlike the police we are not interested to know who you really are. Please just share some cool graffiti with us. Everything else you can share with your REAL friends.

But what about my girlfriends tits, they are also "too hardcore"? No, but we have a competitive photo rating system based on your activity. So for this, the photos must be somehow compareable. Photos with tits get more attracation because of the tits.

We just have Graffiti in focus (here).

Did we mentioned that Streetfiles turned 3 years old, yesterday on the 20th of july 2011?

Beside the frequently asked questions from our users (see also here) we get police inquiries from time to time. This open answer letter should help to speed up the process and avoid common misunderstandings on all sides:

photo by rave musik

We have a lot of work maintaining this website. One of the daily tasks is answering e-mails. Most questions get asked on a regular basis (three times a day). That's why we have set up a Frequently Asked Questions Page. Here is a collection of mails we probably will never answer (some maybe slightly edited and translated) :

i dont understand why you delete my photos?when there are a lot of another shit that are miss fuck off bastards i hate you!!!

I ma new on streetfiles.org

i want to bring one of your users to court, he is from the right-wing scene. how do we go on? will you give me his IP address and name?

I ask for unblocking my account. Is there such possibility? I ask for the response.

Who can view this photo? Everybody!!!

hi,streetfiles I have a probelm.I uplode two of my photo but it can't see from other people pls fix it.cuse I wait 20 hour to uplode but still dont have results.Thanks :)

yesterday i put some photos, and few of them were rejected, i dont know why.i check the link why maybe they were rejected, like, bad quality,watermark, hardcore action and other and i dont find any reason why you rejected.3 photos were published and 3 photos of silver piece on the bus were rejected, one wall, and two pieces from street machines..let me know whats the reason, cause lots of shit i see here, from kids, been published.

WHY U DONT ACCEPT MY PHOTOS? ARE THEY TOYSTYLE? ! LOOK AT THEM ! WHAT THE f...?!?? if i adding every 10 photos only 1 is accepted ! WTF!? give me a reason ! shitty page!

hi,I'm sorry but why can not I write a message in which sprashuyu his opinion about his picture, please Open the administrators access to my free report

hi,Sorry but I can not upload photos to your site What can I do?

hello! Unlock account please! please please please

how can i be an admin?

HEY guys, I uplouded photo once, deleted it after one minute because i wanted to upload it in bigger resolution and since that i cannot upload it again. thats a legal wall which im very proud of, with good photo and so on and i dont have any idea why it acts like that. help please !!

hi, please can you tell me why you did not upload my last throw-up foto? Please tell me why. I iam proud of it. Dont understand why. Cant be toy Style because you took weaker pieces before!!

hi,Good night! I need to rename my account, there are circumstances to do so. C Sincerely, thank you!

hello,can you say how to add photos anonymously

..what the hell on pass my works?At you here a heap of perfect garbage,Your criteria at selection of works-prejudiced shit.Peace=)

hi I am revolted by that that you have removed my photo. The given photo gets to one point on removal. what's the matter. Explain?

hi, i tried to upload a nice piece which i made today and you deleted it. i don't know why you did that because it wans't toy nobody was showed in action it was a nice photo there was nothing about sex drugs or voilence always when i want to upload one of my photos you delete it without a reason (I think) so please fix it and let me upload my pieces. peace from switzerland ;)

how can i delete a picture that i uploaded as anonymous

I have sent a mail before but I get only ignorance. I should make a legal complaint to this website. My picture is on this website without any permission.

hi, 10 min ago i want tu upload a foto which is shot after your rules for good fotos but you delet it please let me upload this foto from train line its in 12 mp qualitiy without drips and its no toy shit iam a bit sad about this decision

0.5 million by skeletor

We have just noticed that someone recently uploaded a photo, now we have five hundred thousand of them.

Cool. Thank you.

Berlin, 1st of April 2011, Official Press Release

Following the endless discussion about our ad banners we have finally decided to move ahead with Streetfiles and change our business model. From now on Streetfiles no longer depends on marketing budgets of big brands! We decided to move along on our own, the people themselves will pay for their platform. Streetfiles is now a subscription-based service.

What's new?

We still offer a free membership, but it is limited to 50 photos. When you upload photo 51 you will asked to upgrade to the PRO membership.

The all new Streetfiles PRO membership costs only 4,95 € per month (tax included) and has these great new features:

• Unlimited photo uploads
• Every photo will be accepted
• No ad banners at all (when you are logged in)
• 1 photo on start page / month! we will select one of your photos each month and display it prominently on the startpage

Payment can easily be done online. We accept all common payment methods such as money transfer, credit card & PayPal.

How to migrate

Of course you will have the choice: User accounts with already more than 50 photos will asked to update to the new PRO membership to access their photos.

We are really excited about this great step forward and are curious what you think about it.

Our member sonikone from turkey recently send us this beautiful infographic he made for Streetfiles. Each continent get's a piece of the cake. The size reflects (somehow) the number of photo uploads.

Europe

Germany has ten times more photo uploads than any other country. That's probably because Streetfiles comes from here. When we would even look closer we might see that most of the uploads from Germany come from Berlin. After that Poland, Russia and the Ukraine are the strongest countries. It seems to us, that in Western Europe Streetfiles is not so well known yet.

Asia

Turkey is the biggest player in the Streetfiles photo upload business, but we are actually not quite sure if Turkey should be filed in Asia? We are curious how China will develop here.

South and North America

It seems that we are barley unknown in the United States, maybe one can fly over and tell them that we are here? Or maybe they are just not interested in Graffiti any more?

Africa

Sadly: One can see a problem that they have other problems than graffiti, maybe smaller one is to get some more internet down there.

Resumee

Of course this is just a snapshot of the current situation, based on 470,000 uploaded photos. We would like to grow more on an international level and would love to see some more good stuff from the western capitals. We know that there must be more. Maybe you guys have ideas on how to spread the word?

Crazy: in about a month there will be half a million graff flics here!