Photobucket and Others Restricting Service

[lieferung]

There are much better sites to use than photobucket

 

[SVTFreak]

The only issue I have with uploading is I do 99.9% of my BF on iPhone and can't make them smaller easily.

 

[Scott321]

Update: Per my earlier post, my workaround for Google Photos on a different website requires HTML code, which is not allowed here. I will keep trying, but I would suggest a different photo hosting site. Either way, the workaround I'm using is a little complicated and requires repeating for each and every picture (annoying enough on a desktop computer, I can't imagine doing it every time with a phone or tablet). Therefore, I would suggest finding another photo hosting site other than Google Photos for posting to forums.

I will update if I find any Google Photos workaround solutions that might be applicable.
Weird....

 

[WValtakis]

FWIW, I can still see your pic, Scott,

The Google links I updated to last night seem to be working still (at least for me), I'll put one here as a test.

~Chip

 

[Boxer .45]

So, this article indicates that there was indeed no warning. To my knowledge no warning was sent to me. I simply received an email - subject line "Some features on your account have been disabled" so I opened it.

Your account has been restricted for 3rd party hosting.
Don't worry, your photos are safe.
In order to restore 3rd Party Hosting,
please upgrade to our Plus 500 Membership.

Well, thank goodness my photos are safe! Can I offer you my firstborn and throw in my beloved spaniel?

I then checked my BF recent posts and it was ugly Photobucket where images had been.

Even a warning that said $399/year or your all your image posts turn into photobucket pumpkins at midnight and all your work in building context around your images over years is snuffed ... well many could/would not pay.

This figure is so totally contrary to building a paid subscription base. Do they want notoriety? Do they think it will shake up the world and that the world will pay? Are the targets actually their free users or the forums and blogs etc.? Something is horrendously whacky with this figure for third party hosting.

I believe that SharpByCoop stated that he pays $75/yr and is served well. Apologies and I stand to be corrected if otherwise.

My sense is that he endorses paying for fair service if I interpret his post correctly. Honestly, I don't think many truly believe that services come at zero cost. I don't.

But certainly 'traffic' has been Photobucket's previous agreement for payment from free members. Perhaps traffic is no longer hoisting the advertisers' flag? So, try telling free users in fairness that no longer will they allow third party hosting unless payment (let's talk reasonable here) is forthcoming from now on.

I think there is another shoe to drop here ... because the ask is bizarre, the withdrawal of images is staggering, the outcome will not see most current free users paying $399/yr to see their own images even within the context of their posts which took a huge amount of their passion, time and effort. Where is the respect for human time and endeavour in this?

Gosh, if I were to take a fly, I would think that Photobucket has been hacked in an effort to kill a competitor.

"Well, thank goodness my photos are safe! Can I offer you my firstborn and throw in my beloved spaniel?"


I can't tell you how hard you had me laughing here!!

 

[JB in SC]

I use Flickr and have no issues. I dumped Photobucket a couple of years ago.

 

[Arathol]

There are much better sites to use than photobucket

Yes but that is not really the point. For years many people and many forums have relied on PB to host a lot of stuff. Thousands of images in tutorials, posts documenting all kinds of things, knives, firearms collections, automobiles, road trips, vacations. So much has been lost due to corporate greed. I bet half the forums in existence lost a majority of the images archived on them over the years.

 

[Polynikes01]

Photostream -> Click on Pic --> 'Share Photo' (bottom right of screen, arrow pointing right) --> Copy/Paste BB Code --> Just leave text including and inside the two ['img'] brackets.

I hope this is easy to follow. If not, let me know, I have a good link from Spark somewhere...

Thanks brother

 

[lieferung]

You have a point, but there's really no reason for lamentation. The signs of this started showing years ago. The internet era is all about adaptation, there are plenty of sites that gladly filled the free photo hosting void and continue to this day. Clinging to photobucket is like clinging to VHS when DVDs came out. It's more the users fault for not adapting to change.

 

[VANCE]

i just got the kick in the pants from PB, i have over 5000 pics hosted there

 

[FOG2]

Well it pisses me off. I have unreplaceable photos there.

 

[Arathol]

Well it pisses me off. I have unreplaceable photos there.

They are still all there and accessible. Download all of them to your hard drive while you still can.

 

[Arathol]

You have a point, but there's really no reason for lamentation. The signs of this started showing years ago. The internet era is all about adaptation, there are plenty of sites that gladly filled the free photo hosting void and continue to this day. Clinging to photobucket is like clinging to VHS when DVDs came out. It's more the users fault for not adapting to change.

Yeah but many of the posted images that were lost had been there for a long time. This is not something that happened yesterday. All those images were hosted before there were all those other sites.

 

[Lone_Wolfe]

Yeah but many of the posted images that were lost had been there for a long time. This is not something that happened yesterday. All those images were hosted before there were all those other sites.

Not only that, they gave no warning. Up until yesterday, I had no idea they were going to pull this. Sure, they showed too many ads when I logged in, but that doesn't make it my fault that my posted pics are gone with no warning.

 

[lieferung]

Wait so are all your photos on your account gone, or you just can't share them anymore but they're still on your account? Because one if way worse than the other.

 

[jc57]

Wait so are all your photos on your account gone, or you just can't share them anymore but they're still on your account? Because one if way worse than the other.

You can still log in and see them and download them. You just can't post embedded images of them in forums any more using the [ IMG ] tags.

 

[Lone_Wolfe]

Wait so are all your photos on your account gone, or you just can't share them anymore but they're still on your account? Because one if way worse than the other.

All my posted pics are gone from the forum.

 

[Lone_Wolfe]

Noooooo! Lone_Wolfe got hit...truly a tragic loss of great pics

~Chip

Lone_Wolfe is not happy right now. #WolfePist

 

[Arathol]

All my posted pics are gone from the forum.

Actually the pictures are gone from PB too. I tried to look at some of the pictures on my account. I can see the thumbnail pics but the full size pics are no longer accessible unless I shell out $400 for a membership. Good thing I don't rely on it to store pictures. I use it for posting only and keep my pictures on a hard drive for accessibility.
You know what the worst part is? You can't even make a complaint. They have disabled the customer support link...what a bunch of pukes.

 

[Jammer Six]

What did you think they were doing? Storing your pictures? Donating their harddrive space? Creating world peace through photographs?

They're a business. They're supposed to make money. It's what they do.