Warning to photobucket users.

[The_bluester]

For anyone who is not aware of the current goings on.

Most people use photobucket purely as a repository of images to link to other pages, something that was always part of the reason for the sites existence, they explicitly approved it, made it easy to do and even provided pre-built links to pop into forum posts or web pages to do so.

A very quietly announced change in June means that only the top tier paid accounts will continue to be able to embed images. Very few people even get an email to say it has or will happen to them, it just happens, otherwise you have to follow a link in an unannounced blog post on the photobucket site to the "Changed" terms of service and find the relevant bit before your eyes glaze over.

Lower cost paid accounts "In good standing" will continue to be able to embed images until the end of next year, free accounts (The vast majority of the sites users) are having the scythe go through them now and what were previously embedded images on literally millions of web pages are now rapidly changing to the image demanding you "Update" your account to enable hotlinking.

If the site had not turned into such a steaming pile of rubbish, littered with embedded ads, pop up ads, pop under ads, browser hijacking ads and apparently even ads with virus/trojan payloads embedded in them you might consider it, except that the only "Plan" that will allow image embedding now costs over $500 AUD yearly, and only that of you pay it up front rather than monthly, when it costs even more.

Prepare for a tsunami of broken blogs, fixit and how to guides and forum build threads. In my case I can not be bothered finding a new host and rebuilding a race car development/build thread I have had going on another forum for a decade, I spent tonight downloading any images I was not sure I had a local copy of then deleting everything including my account.

Fair enough, they have to turn a dollar, but over $500 AUD a year for image hosting!

[OzEclipse]

I use dreamhost which is a full web hosting package. I pay USD110 per annum. They give you a nominal 450GB of server space but they also say that if you have a legitimate project that needs more and doesn't breach their guidelines they'll give you a much as you need. Guidelines are not very onerous as I recall. They restrict running any sort of streaming or downloading copyright breach site for music or movies or any sort of porn site. I can partition into ftp only server storage, email accounts, one domain registration comes with one included domain regitration, mine is http://joe-cali.com. I can register and host as many domains as I want. Very flexible.

Never had a problem with them. They have one click wordpress access or you can DIY which is what I do.

They had one security breach a few years ago. They reset every customer password and informed all customers within hours of the breach.

To Bluester, in general, cloud storage is not somewhere you put your one and only copy of an image. Cloud storage providers are notorious for this sort of thing. Hard drives are cheap.

Joe

[The_bluester]

I know that, very few of my images were stored only there, and no important ones. I, like most people used it more or less purely as a hosting site to get images on the web.

My gripe and that of potentially millions of other users is that they have made this change essentially unannounced and the fee demanded to restore the functionality that used to be free is offensively and prohibitively and unjustifiably high. It is also the same for all users, got half a dozen photos embedded in a forum thread or blog and want them to work again, $400usd a year. Got a "fixit" online with 50 photos, put up to help like minded enthusiasts of your favourite obscure widget, $400usd a year to make it work again. Got a thousand photos embedded on your business website? $400usd a year.

[glend]

I moved all of my stuff off Photobucket years ago and glad i did.

[skysurfer]

Get a VPS.

You can completely administer it yourself and make your own hosting.
Vultr.com already has packages from US$5 (A$7) a month, but there are several others.

And for just temporary pictures for forums, a free imgur.com account suffices.

[The_bluester]

Yep, I could (Either way, imgur or self administered hosting) though nothing at all stops the next image hosting mob doing the same, I would bet you that they are sitting back just watching to see how photobucket fares over the next year or so before deciding if they should follow suit.

To be honest, the main use I had for photobucket waere a couple of build threads on a forum for my race cars with maybe a hundred embedded photos over about a decade and a thousand or more posts in the thread by me and others. I can't be bothered with the work to sniff them all out one at a time (Remembering that none of them showed a picture any more so I would have to be logged in to PB and manually follow the pic link to work out individually which pic every "Dial of death" was) and rebuild the thread. Basically it won't happen, I have better things to do.

[skysurfer]

Indeed, all these cloud based services attract users with their "free" (which means full of ads) account and later on they are going to charge you. Not only image sites (even Astrobin does it, but that are more volunteers), but even Apple. iCloud prices when using more than 5GB have gone up, etc.
It is just a matter of time that Google Drive or MS Onedrive are charging.

"Free" does not exist in the ICT world.

[pgc hunter]

I've had enough of Photobucket's INSANE malware-like ad spam so signed up to imgur. Man, it is like being able to breath again.

That POS phobobucket can die right in the ass for all I care. :mad2::mad2::mad2:

[The_bluester]

Yep, I agree completely. The issue is that having built themselves up into a position where they are one of the largest image hosting sites, with people who will have more than a decade worth of images hosted there (Often specifically to embed on web pages or forums, something that the terms of service allowed and the site setup encouraged and made simple by placing pre built code for the purpose right next to the image, just copy and paste) they have gone the rent seeker route by demanding an extortionate sum for the service they used to encourage you to use for free.

They know they have millions of people over a barrel if they want their websites to work again, and that probably hundreds of thousands or millions will have to pay up rather than rebuild around the change. If only 1% of their "over 100 million Customers" (It used to say users on their website) pay up, that is 400 million dollars annually.



Likewise. I made the site easier to use (And a lot faster) by building a "Pi Hole" server that killed almost all of the ads, but after the extortion attempt, they can do the foofoo bird trick without me. I sincerely hope that is what they actually do, they deserve it for being so greedy about it.

I have not signed up to imgur, I just cant be stuffed with the work to fix a couple of racecar build threads on a forum that have taken a decade to get to where they are now.

[RAJAH235]

Mmmm...
Like a whole lot of others, I too have used their free service for many years.
I wonder how many will eventually pay up, just to host their images & not have to move them all to another "free" site?

MMMmmmmm?

[sil]

This is why I never got interested in cloud services for anything. I can host my own stuff myself, no extra costs, no fees, no dip**** in charge of MY data , just me. I was ok with paying for astrobin for other features I can't be bothered to rewrite on my own servers. I dont ever have the need to dump crap online for idiots to tell me how great my pics are. I'm not that insecure.