Warning - Don't use Photobucket for posting images

[grepper]

My apologies. 

I had used and recommended to members of this forum to use Photobucket for third party hosting of images in forum posts.  Photobucket used to be free.  Now Photobucket has changed their policies and are demanding payment.  If you don't pay, all previously linked to images in forum posts are blocked.

I have many posts in this forum that are now ruined.

Photobucket's excuse?  From their website:

"Moving forward, new and legacy free account users will NOT have third party hosting available."

Additionally, it appears that even if you were a paying member but let your account lapse and don't continue paying indefinitely, your linked to images will be blocked:

"If you were a Plus Account subscriber in good standing as of June 1, 2017,
you will continue to have all the privileges you have enjoyed including 3rd
Party Hosting until December 31, 2018 as long as you maintain your
subscription."

Here is an example of what Photobucket has done.  I remember making that post and it took a considerable amount of time and effort.  Now ruined by Photobucket.  I posted this more than two years ago.  Now Photobucket is demanding a ransom payment???  Ironically it is a post I made attempting to assist fellow members on how to post images:

https://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=2342.msg11402#msg11402

And check this out:

https://www.dpreview.com/news/6875746538/photobucket-breaks-billions-of-photos-online-upsets-millions-of-users

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q=photobucket+screwed&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=&as_occt=any&safe=images&as_filetype=&as_rights=

[Kavik]

Yup . Greedy b@[~*%>s
Part of me understands the reasoning....posting an image on a forum doesn't get advertising views the way it would if you linked to the image to view on their site, or sent users to browse the "bucket".... But at the same time, it's practically ransomware to the kind of people who put time and effort into many detailed and well documented posts/tutorials/etc

I have hundreds of photos on there, in dozens of folders, that I now need to sort through, organize, and store... Then find a new place to host them in case anyone asks for the pics to accompany any of my old posts on other sites.... It's not going to be an easy task.

I'm paraphrasing here, but another part of the reasoning was that as their user base has grown, it's costing them more then they ever expected.
Okay, that's understandable....but as a business you monitor your costs over time, and if it gets to that point you stop offering that service to new users, but you keep the agreement you had with existing members.
Something tells me this is going to have the opposite effect on their bottom line as what they're hoping for
(especially considering they can't even get their app to function properly, and even the control panel side of their site is so bloated with ads that it's barely been usable for the past couple of years)

Anyway, thanks for giving me a place to rant about something that's been bugging me for a while now.
But you, sir, are not the one who needs to be apologizing here...I don't think anyone of us, as users, saw this coming 

[Ken S]

Thanks for the warning, Grepper. I will post my thoughts on the forum photo thoughts topic.

Ken

[cbwx34]

I was hoping that photobucket would concede that it was a bad idea, and at least offer an alternative for previously hosted pics... but so far no go.

Personally, I think... for a company to make that big a jump (0 to $400)... there's probably a bigger issue behind it they're trying to survive.  Wouldn't surprise me if they go under.  So if you have pics you want... I'd download them sooner than later.  (Just my personal opinion).

[Ken S]

For the record:

I applaud Grepper for sharing what was a useful free service at the time, and for posting a warning when that provider changed its policy.

Ken

[grepper]

I too can understand creating a service and charging a fee to use it.  Nothing wrong with that.

Especially for a service that contains user created content, an actual product, what I find inexcusable is starting it for free and then later holding that content for a very expensive, ongoing ransom.  I would have no problem if Photobucket decided to start charging a fee for third party hosting links while allowing existing content, but to retroactively destroy user created content and data is reprehensible.  I see no difference between Photobucket's opprobrious actions and if, for example, Gmail suddenly decided to block access to users email unless they paid a huge, ongoing fee.

Photobucket is not entirely unsuccessful however.  The have succeeded in creating palpable animus toward their service and company across their user base.  I suspect they will find that from a business perspective their foray into monetizing their site by forcibly attempting to extract ransom will prove to be a fatal misadventure.

[Rem]

It's about the money ....   it's ALWAYS about the money !

[Kavik]

Grepper, I agree 100%. I wouldn't be angry if this was the plan going forward, and existing content was allowed to stay.

I hate wishing bad on anyone, but i do hope this does them in. They've been THE name in free image hosting for years, if this works for them you can bet every other service will follow suit

We've become so complacent when it comes to accepting ads for free services, and going along with micro-transactions in both free and paid content (think video games, buy the game for $60 then you still have to pay for in game content, eg: car packs, map packs, weapon upgrades, season passes)....at what point do consumers say it's enough?
Give me one, give me the other, do what you need to do to make your profit, that's fine.  But be reasonable about and stand by what you offered your customers when they chose your service/product

[jeffs55]

Test Photobucket link: http://s1220.photobucket.com/user/jeffs1955/media/IMG_2422.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0 I posted this at 1506 Eastern DST.

[Kavik]

Test Photobucket link: http://s1220.photobucket.com/user/jeffs1955/media/IMG_2422.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0 I posted this at 1506 Eastern DST.

I'm curious, what's the test?
Putting a link like that is still acceptable, as it sends people to the site, where they can be inundated with ads
Embedding the image is what's now banned, like this:

[Ken S]

If each of us who has posted photos with photobucket would spend a little time modifying his own posts, deleting the photobucket photos and replacing them using the firum attachment program, the problem would be much diminished.

Ken

[grepper]

I went to download my "bucket" (all images) so I could delete my Photobucket account and be done with them forever.  The download bucket feature does not work.  I contacted Photobucket and they said it's a known problem and the current solution is to individually view and then download each image!

I no longer trust Photobucket.  Who knows if it will even be there 30 days from now.  Are they working on setting it up so that there will be a fee to download your images? Is that why the download bucket feature no longer works?  Who knows.  I would suggest for anyone having valuable images stored there to do what it takes to download them and then bail on Photobucket.  That's what I'm doing.

[Kavik]

I think it's more likely it's just the same as half their other features that haven't worked right in years. Every time they try making an improvement they seem to break something

I'll tell us, someone could get rich right now creating an app that will "crawl" your whole photobucket account and created a zip file with all your content organized in the same folder structure

[Herman Trivilino]

I've heard that Imgur is a good alternative to P-bucket.