Posting photos... beware of Photobucket

[Mike Stranks]

Just a word to the wise that Photobucket has now adopted a 'pay to share' policy so photos shared on websites and forums have to be paid for.

(You may discover that photos in this thread that were hosted via Photobucket have disappeared to be replaced by a 'you need to pay for this' logo.)

I've grown increasingly dissatisfied with Photobucket over the last year anyway and have now switched to http://imgur.com/

Used them for my latest review here.

[Forum Admin]

Thanks for the alert Mike.

Looks like the opening image in the 02R User Review has fallen foul of this Photobucket ransom demand:
https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=55293&p=521421#p496003

[Martin Walker]

Ah thanks Mike - I've been seeing quite a few of those error images popping up on my Internet travels across various web sites, and now I know the reason

Martin

[zenguitar]

Looks like I need to win the lottery so I can employ someone to fix my Project Ukelele thread. It has dozens of pics all hosted on Photobucket.

I can understand that they need to change their business model going forward, but it is pretty crass of them to wilfully damage so many users retrospectively. They have guaranteed two things by their actions; the first is that if I do have to use a paid provider it will definitely NOT be Photobucket, and the second is that they have made me feel ashamed to have recommended them so many times here in the SOS forums.

And if anyone wants to send Photobucket a link to this post; feel free to do so. I took up their offer in good faith, didn't abuse it, and now they have rendered something I invested a lot of time and effort in meaningless. Disregarding the day or two it would take me me to upload the images to a new service, it would take weeks to go through every post in the thread, edit all the links, and double check to avoid errors.



Andy

[Kwackman]

Looks like I need to win the lottery so I can employ someone to fix my Project Ukelele thread. It has dozens of pics all hosted on Photobucket.:

There's a lot of anger on other forums too. A couple of bike ones I belong to had many threads showing rebuilds of bikes & engines, and they're now almost useless . That Photobucket picture which appears now instead of the photos must be the most displayed image on the net!
Someone called it "ransomware" which might be a bit over dramatic, but it's not a million miles from what many users feel.
My account being deleted isn't going to cause any nightmares at their board meeting, but I suspect many accounts have gone and those businesses who paid the money just to keep their photos on line are looking for alternatives for next year. I didn't use them that much, but might have considered paying a small fee if they had have been less aggressive with their tactics. Like Andy, if I need to pay for this sort of facility it will be with someone else.
It's an interesting business move.

[BJG145]

I can understand that they need to change their business model going forward, but it is pretty crass of them to wilfully damage so many users retrospectively.

Yeah, crass is an understatement - they deserve to go out of business for pulling this stunt. I've never used it myself, but I'd be pretty annoyed if every graphic I'd posted to a forum over the years suddenly went offline.

[Mike Stranks]

Over at GS they've put a new 'banner' up on the forum home-page warning of this....

Alarm bells started to ring for me about a year ago. Photobucket on-line performance/interaction was getting worse and worse and then suddenly I get a message saying that optimum performance was guaranteed for those who paid. Suspicions of 'slug-it' (ie deliberately slowing) software sprang to mind. It was then that I started looking for alternatives...

I s'pose we could start an interesting discussion on how many times similar things have happened in the cyber-world and is the 'free' model that we've all grown accustomed to really unsustainable if the providers can't get enough advertising to cover the burgeoning costs of popularity. But that is irrelevant to those who've been snookered by this action. Would it not have been possible for PB to have applied this 'from this date forward' or am I being naive?

[Jumpeyspyder]

I used photobucket for all my forum images too.

I'm not sure it's possible for non admin users to edit old posts on this forum to change the image locations.

I'll need to look at a new ways of hosting images for the future!

[zenguitar]

I'm not sure it's possible for non admin users to edit old posts on this forum to change the image locations.

Yep, you would need someone with Mod powers to go into each post to edit the links. You would need to let us know what post to edit, which link to replace, and the new link in it's place.

Andy

[Martin Walker]

I'm not sure it's possible for non admin users to edit old posts on this forum to change the image locations.

Yep, you would need someone with Mod powers to go into each post to edit the links. You would need to let us know what post to edit, which link to replace, and the new link in it's place.

And possibly a list of suitable bribes as an encouragement

Now I didn't say that, obviously

Martin

[jamedia.uk]

Yep, you would need someone with Mod powers to go into each post to edit the links. You would need to let us know what post to edit, which link to replace, and the new link in it's place.
Andy

That will give you something to do over the week end

I think leaving it with the "unavailable photo bucket image" will remind people of the pitfalls when it comes to using images you don't actually own or are not hosting yourself.
And of course of Photo bucket's new business model.

The internet is littered with broken links to files, web pages, systems and clouds that are no longer there or simply things that have moved just enough to change the link.

[BJG145]

I think leaving it with the "unavailable photo bucket image" will remind people of the pitfalls when it comes to using images you don't actually own or are not hosting yourself.

Weell, have to say I've always hosted any image I've posted to a forum in a folder on my own domain...



(Except that one anyway.)

[Martin Walker]

Hi BJG145!

Same here, or of course on this latest forum software you can upload graphic files directly to your post, so it's largely an academic/legacy problem

Still highly annoying though, and has been suggested elsewhere, is almost certain to result in Photobucket dying a rapid death for their impudence!

Martin

[ConcertinaChap]

Photobucket is not quite alone in this. Dropbox used to offer the same functionality with photos but they've now withdrawn it (since the beginning of the year for most, from next month for people with paid accounts like me). At least they gave a longish warning period, but all those photos in old posts of mine will be going as of 1st September. [sigh]

CC

[Wonks]

I ditched Dropbox a few weeks ago. I don't mind paying for services, but only in proportion to the amount I use them. Dropbox simply charges too much a month for the occasional times I use it, plus it still took away the linking facility it previously had.