Photobucket big changes

[pago cruiser]

For those using Photobucket....

I've been trying to post pics this am for an update on my STORM, and Photobucket has been all buggered. WTF?
Did a little searching, and it appears that they are in the middle of some big changes.
Unless you want to pay big bucks really soon ($100 or $400 annually), all your pics hosted on Photobucket (and seen in threads on every site on the internet) are very soon going to disappear from where you posted links to.

If you want only spend $100 annually, it appears you can provide a link to Photobucket, but no pics will be displayed on the site you post to.

$400 annually will pretty much give you what you have now.

Seems a shame to such a wealth of data... build threads, tech stuff, just cool pics... all gone. This will affect most forums on the internet. I used to get pissed when trying to find details on some arcane topic, find something in a forum, then find out the pics that actually showed the system were gone. Now imagine that being 100X worse.

This is not a joke. Check your Photobucket account for details.

DAM.

Edit: Big thread over on ADVRider on this.
http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/the-big-photobucket-hate-mergefest.1236609/

Edit 2: More from PC Mag:
https://www.pcmag.com/news/354711/photobucket-breaks-image-links-across-the-internet

Consensus: Photobucket has sh!t the bed. They have been hosting pics for sites since 2003. Estimated currently at 10 billion photos. Yea, billion, with a B.

Edit 3: Thousands, if not more of DIY forums just got forever fucked up. Imagine all the rebuild threads on all the forums that no longer work. A Decades worth of knowledge destroyed.

 

[5twins]

Yes, I found this out over the last couple days. I'm in the process of moving all my pics to another free site. No way I'm paying $400 a year for what was free last week and has been for years. I don't see them lasting much longer. I'm sure people are leaving in droves.

 

[littlebill31]

I noticed today, while searching a subject/question, many posts that used to have images now do not.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Just noticed this.

...DAM.

Yep, pretty much says it all.

A significant chunk of someone's life spent in uploading and organising.
Followed by even more personal investment in making the links in a forum.

Now held hostage.

A disturbing perversion of the "Ransomware" method.

Meet the new business model...

 

[bwthor]

I just really wish Photobucket could have at least did this and still let users click on the 3rd party hosting warning and get to the images on their sites. Show us some ads or something, but don't break the images. Now so many old forum posts are worthless. Fine if they want to charge for hosting images, that is their right, but there are quite a few forum posts that will never get fixed. There are lots of other hosting sites like Imgur, flickr and others, but at any time they could go down the same path.

 

[MaxPete]

Yup - I just noticed this change. What a shame - they'll likely go down over it I'm sure.

Must have gone to the same school of customer relations as most airlines....

 

[Gordon in nc]

I'm on the other side of the fence. I figured getting something for free wasn't going to be free forever so I changed to the cheapest account they had several years ago.

I pay less than $40 per year (pretty much average for a pay site) .......I donate more than that to this site per year. My account hasn't been effected (when I looked yesterday)

I have a little less than 2000 photos and I'm only at 12%of my storage.

From what I saw yesterday there are 4 different plans and I have the 20 plus....the cheapest.

I could be 100% wrong BUT....you don't have to pay $400 a year to keep your account going. That's the MOST EXPENSIVE with the LARGEST storage capacity account they have and for effect it's the amount that's being posted the most....from what I seen.

That said.......it's easy to go back and save all your photos....yes the links are gone but really folks.......did you expect to get something for free forever?

The business plan sucks but that's life on the Internet........Gordon in NC

Yep a lot of folks are going to run to another company......but you'll still have no guarantee it'll stay the same as it is today......forever.

 

[MaxPete]

True enough Gordon and FWIW, I don't disagree with the free stuff will end eventually premise of your post.

It does sound however that this has been handled rather badly, without notice or adequate explanations to long-time users.

....sort of like a United Airlines customer service department passenger "re-accommodation"...

 

[jetmechmarty]

I think the big issue is $399.99 for the hosting feature. Who is going to pay that?

 

[robinc]

Makes me wonder if Microsoft's One Drive and Google Photos will some day do the same thing and drop their smaller storage 'free accounts'?

My youngest son is a SEO, retention, click through rate, and a whole bunch of other terms I don't understand either expert. He tells me about the revenue generated by advertising on these sites. It's huge. But, greed will eventually kick in and the thought of the revenue that can be generated by a 'small' monthly user fee is just too tempting.

 

[xjwmx]

Sounded like one of those chain mail rumors but it's real (apparently).

Always let the forum board host your pictures. Over the years many, many, many hosting sites have gone kaput which should have been a warning.

Having said that, if you need free storage, often your isp gives you some free storage as part of their deal. Often as not, not advertised. I store videos and sound files for linking to that way.
In my case the address is like home.windstream.net/myusername/myfoldername/myfilename.jpg

 

[xjwmx]

I think the big issue is $399.99 for the hosting feature. Who is going to pay that?

It sounds like a last ditch try anything before they go out of business. But there might be some corporate users who would pay.

 

[TimeMachine]

Oh my gosh, what happened ? ( Input Option here !! ) I am a member who uses this site solely by my T-mobil Samsung phone. There is clearly an advantage when up loading pics by cell phone. It is very simple and on the spot ! I do not understand the software of this site as compared with a different site, say, "f650.com". That other site is different and I am not able to directly post a pic at all by cell phone. That other site is very "un used" by its own members ! Having the ability to easily post pics is very important for a forums character !! I enjoy the pics So much. If some of you XS650. members are now going to experience the greif of fees or complications with you PC's , I would encourage you to consider posting pics here with a "smart phone" ? Beer in mind (lol) that members using a smart phone , such as myself, do have to put in much effort to type in the context ! The buttons are just too damn hard to hit so correct speelling is a huge challenge. That is why I simply do not type much in threads ! Some of you type in pages & pages of valuable (or not) again lol.. Information and perspective ! Much appreciated ! By phone, It is just so easy to upload pics ! Here is my "photo bucket" just now .. home today again, in cell tower range

Good Luck , -RT

 

[5twins]

I was pretty fed up with them anyway. There were so many pop-up ads that it was difficult to use the site. I'm making the move to Imgur. Not one pop-up ad that I've seen so far but navigating through all your photos doesn't seem quite as easy. Photobucket used the basic computer file and folder tree to organize your photo collection. You could put sub-folders in folders. Imgur just uses an album set-up with no way to put sub-albums in main albums, at least not that I've found yet.

 

[retiredgentleman]

Yeah...................there's no such thing as "free" in this world. Internet sites, such as photo hosting, always draw people in by offering "free" for a while. Once they hook you, its just a matter of time before they find a way to extract money from you. They love to get people locked into monthly contracts. If you think you are still on a free photo hosting site, better think about that. Its just a matter of time before they will hold you hostage.

I have never used photo hosting sites. The only photos I have are stored on my computer, and on my back up hard drive. I know where my photos are, and I'm in control of them. Using storage in the "cloud"..........................not a hope in hell that I would ever do that.

 

[weekendrider]

Always let the forum board host your pictures.

I agree. Why go to the trouble of posting to another site, copying the code and pasting to your post when you can (with the forums software) simply click the upload image or file button. I stopped using photobucket a couple of years ago with the advancement of the forum software.

? For those that do utilize the service sites. Do you need a hosting site because you delete things from your own system?

 

[Gordon in nc]

Oldest photo in my bucket....took less than a minute to open the site, copy the url and post it to here. Just like it's been for me for years. I've never seen a pop up on PB....but I've been a paid subscriber for long enough I don't remember it when I used it for free.

1923 photos that are ALL linked to a thread somewhere. Now that said.....if they all got wiped off the internet today it wouldn't be a loss to anyone.

I would GLADLY ( I mean it) pay for somebody like 5twins to keep his account going. His photos (and others) are one of the reasons I consider this the best motorcycle site on the internet out of the 5 I hang out on.

YRMV......and I know they do......just not sure why?

Gordon in NC

I think I went to a posting site because back in the day my computer and the sites I was on wouldn't let you post a photo any other way???? But to be honest, I don't remember why. This stuff is STILL so new and ever changing. Hard for an old fart to keep up.

 

[jetmechmarty]

Yes. This site has a lot of bells and whistles. Thank you to those of you who make it happen. Most forums don't have these features, especially hosting photos.

 

[Gordon in nc]

That's true Marty.

Folks......I'll just say one more thing then I will back off and let you all blast PB.

When you walk away from PB and show up at your next hosting site......PLEASE take the time to actually READ the user agreement BEFORE you click "yes". Then you might not feel as betrayed as you do now. If you have time.......read what you agreed to when you went on PB.....they warned you.

I'm done........pitch forks, rope and torches!!!!!

Gordon in NC

 

[xjwmx]

Google Drive gives you a simple directory tree structure, iirc. I've only used it to transfer between devices but I think you can link publicly. It's free. Google App Engine was free for a long time at the basic level but now it seems paid only.