Photobucket Hosting Changes

sepiareverb

sepiareverb

genius and moron
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It seems that Photobucket, who I have used as a host for over ten years has suddenly decided to replace every image link with an ad unless I pay them $40 a month. I can't see spending that kind of money, and going back and re-uploading everything to my new Flickr and then re-linking ten years of posts is really daunting, so sorry. I've contacted customer "support" but they don't seem to give a feck. Hopefully the ad will be replaced by the images again at some point, it really seems sleazy. They have been getting more and more obnoxious with screen filling ads for questionable websites that require reloading the page to dismiss, so I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that they've leveraged a decade of hosted photographs by so many into free advertisers. My advice is to avoid them like the plague.
 
Sorry to hear this, Bob. I suppose it's the nature of the internet that nothing is permanent. Many older threads are already filled with empty image placeholders.
 
any apology should come from Photobucket. They are pretty much getting reamed, but it appears (so far) that they are not going to change their minds...
 
No apology necessary. Last time something like this happened to me, I decided to use Flickr for hosting forum and tumblr images, thinking it would be free and stable forever. But who knows what Verizon will do with it. If the worst happens, RFF threads will be empty indeed.

John
 
At some point Flicker was free and I added photos. Because I was a Yahoo customer or some other, I was promised a free pro account for life. A year later, I got a bill.

Moved on to Bucket.

I am done putting photos on the net.
 
I've been wondering if there is any means within the forum software to cache image links from when the lists are made or last edited? I too have seen many "missing" image links here and elsewhere, seems like this should have a workaround of some sort.

I do wish it was not hundreds if not two thousand Photobucket ads coming from me, especially now that they are such pr1cks about it. Perhaps a class action suit?...:)
 
That just happened to me Bob. So all images I have posted here are now missing/populated with whatever photobucket has replaced them with.

The process they used to get to this point was sleazy. They first started to pump my account with more and more pop ups, with the advice to pay extra to remove the ads. When I didn't bite, they sent me a note saying that I was in violation of their recently updated terms of service by linking my images to 3rd party websites. i.e. like this one.

It's alright, I don't need to post the pics. Everyone knows how amazing they are anyway.

;)
 
I just went there and grabbed a link which I seemed to able to do as per usual with no problems.

DSC_8173mc_zpsgbhpvzx8.jpg
 
Always knew you had the magic touch Keith! :)
- it does seem strange.

I raised the question of how to identify and remove orphan image links in thread posts a year or two ago and I think the answer was it's not possible to automate that. The safest option is to link to pics in the RFF gallery - but that's not always desirable or practicable.

Bob - no apology necessary, the digital age has its drawbacks!
 
So I guess that all those photographers who were using Photobucket to host their images are now not going to be using Photobucket for prints.
 
Have people stopped printing their images and creating photo books? Storage on the Internet may not be permanent. Best to keep your "negatives" on a hard drive -- but even these will deteriorate over time.
I use Smugmug as well as a hard drive. Don't like Smugmug's redesign very much but it's Ok for storage and for delivering images.
 
There are add-ons for some forum software that will take links and convert them to attachments. Not sure if this is available for vbulletin.

Some image links are obviously still working :)
 
I'm just guessing, but usually for a company to do such radical and in this case, unpleasant changes, there could have been a change in photobucket's management.
 
easyrider said:
Have people stopped printing their images and creating photo books? Storage on the Internet may not be permanent. Best to keep your "negatives" on a hard drive -- but even these will deteriorate over time.
I use Smugmug as well as a hard drive. Don't like Smugmug's redesign very much but it's Ok for storage and for delivering images.
Click to expand...

Sites like photobucket are just so I can goof around and post stuff on websites like this one.
My real shots are elsewhere and printed.
 
Ronald M said:
At some point Flicker was free and I added photos. Because I was a Yahoo customer or some other, I was promised a free pro account for life. A year later, I got a bill.

Moved on to Bucket.

I am done putting photos on the net.
Click to expand...
Flickr is still free and I'm still using it, they are a solid solution.

The only way to avoid this is to pony up and pay for hosting someplace. I would not be surprised if Flickr went this route down the road as well.
 
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