Well, photobucket changed hands or changed hosting policies or something, it's epidemic all over the internet, forums especially, since almost everyone used it. Frankly it was inevitable. None of the free hosting options are going to have longevity, they only offer that to try and drum up business in the first place.
It's pretty cheap to host your images on your own "website" however. I don't have a website, but I have a domain and hosting that costs me very little (less than BF membership), with no fear of my images disappearing. Overall, site hosting just gets cheaper every year, just like domain registration and maintenance, and in many cases it's stone simple to administrate.
Sign up for a cheap website hosting service, even if you don't use your own domain, and you upload your photos there (that way nobody owns them but you, many of the free hosting companies, and places like facebook, etc. *OWN* your content that you upload, and can use them for any purposes they please), and simply link them here. It's faster, no size restrictions, and persistent.