WinkFlash Steps in to Rescue ClubPhoto Pics

May 9, 2007 By Carol Mangis

WinkFlash, a photo site, has acquired the users' photo albums at ClubPhoto, a defunct competitor. Winkflash is making a good-faith effort to restore them to their proper owners.

I was a ClubPhoto customer--I liked that you could upload high-res files and order large prints--and had uploaded quite a few pictures to the site over the years.

I hadn't visited there for a while, though. A couple of weeks ago, I got an e-mail from an AppScout reader who told me the site was gone. I surfed over, and sure enough, ClubPhoto had disappeared. (Note to ex-ClubPhoto people: You could have been kinder to your customers. No, make that should have been.)

Recently, though, a new message appeared at the old ClubPhoto URL. WinkFlash, another photo site, has acquired ClubPhoto users' albums and is making a good-faith effort to restore them to their proper owners.

I shot them an e-mail, and got a call from Darrell Lucente, WinkFlash's owner. He told me his company had negotiated a deal with ClubPhoto before the site went away, but the site was taken down before he could get his offer out there. He was initially skeptical about whether he could actually restore the albums. WinkFlash bought ClubPhoto's servers and had to hack into them to get to the approximately 40 terabytes of data. So it's not guaranteeing each album will be restored--but so far, says Lucente, restoration is going smoothly.

In order to get your photos back, first go to http://www.clubphoto.com. A link there takes you to a login screen at WinkFlash; there, you sign in with your ClubPhoto username and password.

A message tells you restoration may take about 2 weeks. I just did this; I'll update the post when (and if) I get my albums back. I'll probably create some new albums at WinkFlash and try the printing service out, too.

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Winkflashlied - Dec 04, 2008
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I was so excited to hear that Winkflash was going to save my photos that I had saved with ClubPhoto for at least 3 years. I immediately emailed Winkflash to submit my name and provide my contact information. I never received any communication about my issue since. The only thing I receive are advertising email at least every month for what feels like 2 years now. They bought a mailing list, that is all. They have shown no intention whatsoever that they have any plans of providing the photos to the ClubPhoto customers. Don't believe their lies.
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