Change in PhotoBucket Policy
 

Which may (or may not) affect this forum in a positive way... :)

I got this in an email/newsletter from m1911.org...

One more issue we like to draw your attention to. Photobucket, the image hosting company, has suddenly decided to block images uploaded in their site, from showing in forums, blogs etc. As a result, your images stored in their site will no longer show in our threads. This issue affects also our E-zine site, our images in the various articles no longer show. Photobuckets stopped sharing images on June 30th and wants his members to get a $400 plan, if they want their pictures to show. This is rather crazy, especially considering that Photobucket's original "raison d' être" was exactly that, to allow you to share your images stored in their servers in other sites.

We are trying to figure out what to do with this issue, but in the mean time, please do not be alarmed if pictures do not show in the discussion threads or our E-zine.

We've already seen some of the effects of this here, in the For sale sub-forum (pic attached). It does not seem to have been publicized much by PhotoBucket, oddly. :rolleyes:

S$$$w photoBucket. :evilgrin:

Very bad choice by PB, I believe it will backfire hard.

Never used PB, so I don't worry about it.

We've been telling folks for years NOT to use PB or other "outside" host.
Even before this dumb policy, the pictures would disappear.

I just now received the following email from PhotoBucket...

Your account has been restricted for excessive usage and 3rd party hosting. In order to restore 3rd Party Hosting, please upgrade to the Plus500 Membership Plan. WE NOTICED THAT YOU HAVE BEEN USING PHOTOBUCKET FOR 3RD PARTY HOSTING*

PLEASE UPGRADE TO A PLUS 500 PLAN.

Our Terms of Service does not allow 3rd party hosting with your current account level.
UPGRADE NOW *What is 3rd Party Hosting?

Photobucket defines 3rd party hosting as the action of embedding an image or photo onto another website. For example, using the <img> tag to embed or display a JPEG image from your Photobucket account on another website such as a forum, Etsy, eBay auction listings, a blog, etc. is definitively 3rd party hosting.
Why Photobucket?

Photobucket is the global destination for linking and 3rd party hosting. In Photobucket’s 14-year history, the Company amassed over 100 million registered users, over 15 billion images stored, 2 million daily uploads and 10 billion photos accessed monthly.
Easy to Use – Upload a photo from any device and copy the embed code with one click to host a photo with no development or technical knowledge required
Competitive, fixed pricing Offers the only unlimited 3rd party hosting plan (Commercial and Personal Use)
Are my pictures still safe?

Yes! All your photos are still available by logging into your Photobucket Account. Photobucket has only restricted the ability to view your photos on 3rd party sites.
Can I download my Photos?

Absolutely, at any time. It is an easy four step process:
Step 1. Login to your Photobucket Account
Step 2. Navigate to your library page
Step 3. View a photo and click the download button
Step 4. The picture will be saved to your computer


My pictures are being used on websites??? Not by me! :eek:

Rich,
sounds like they just want to "frighten" as many folks as possible into paying more for their picture hosting- but then I'm always suspicious and even a little cynical. ;)

Some sites, like the CMP forum do not self-host pictures so a 3rd party is needed. Not sure why that wouldn't be 2nd party actually.... anyway, I quit using photo bucket and use imgur when needed.

1'st party: You looking at your pics on Photobuckets www
2'nd party: Someone else looking at your pics on Photobuckets www.
3'rd party: Someone else looking at your pics by link on another www than Photobucket.

1 and 2 are still good bur $400/year for number 3 is to steep and they will bleed loads of customers.
I dont get it because thay have lots of adds on their side so it cant be a money problem. Well it can but thats caled greed.

If they keep up the chananigan i will delete my pics there and ask them to delete ny account.

www.ingur.com is a bit different to use but works great and fast (and no adds!)

I paid them about $15 (per year) to go ad free about 6 months ago before the new rules. So far the new rules have not affected my 3rd party hosting ability. Time will tell. $15 per year is reasonable.

This should make it obvious how expensive it can be for someone (John Dunkle) to host this complete site and AD free too...

Not really.

I received a follow-up email from M1911.org this morning, concerning PhotoBucket -

July has come and gone, and we are now in August. Still, the mess created by Photobucket is not over.

The latest news is that:

- Photobucket still insists that you pay $400 per year, if you want to be able to link to your pictures from other sites.

- They also have escalated the issues of users trying to download their pictures from Photobucket servers. So far, I have been unable to use the "Download album" function. Photobucket's support acknowledges the issue, but has not yet done anything to fix it. I know this issue worked fine, the first days after their "3rd party hosting" announcement, so I am pretty sure they've turned it of, so that people can't get their pictures back from Photobucket servers. The only way to download your pictures is to do it, one by one!

- It is now also impossible to download your videos, or even see them. I tried to see some of the videos I've uploaded to Photobucket, by visiting their site, and I get the message that "The owner has either deleted or renamed this". Needless to say, I have done neither, and again Photobucket's support acknowledges the issue, but has not yet solved it.

In other words, you can kiss your pictures and videos good-bye, if you do not have backups of what you have uploaded in Photobucket's site.

The funny thing is that someone in Photobucket has created all this mess, while it was entirely possible for them to avoid it and still to make money out of it. How? Simple! Photobucket says they have 100,000,000 users. If instead of asking for $400 per user per year, they have asked for $10 per user per year, most of their members would be only to happy to pay this small fee, to have their pictures shown in other sites, just like they always did. By asking for $400 per user per year, I am sure they won't have enough members paying for that (at least that's what is looks it's happening, as we are talking). Now, if Photobucket were to charge $10 a year for that option, they would have collected one BILLION US DOLLARS a year. By charging $400 a year, they need to find 2,500,000 members to pay that extorsion fee!! Somehow I do not see that happening. So somebody definitely didn't to his match correctly.

I haven't tried to download my pictures on PB, most are 15+ years old and no longer relevant or interesting, even to me. :p

But the point is well taken: $400 a year is ridiculous. :rolleyes:

I had a hard time downloading mine early on, ended up getting them one morning around 3. I suspected heavy traffic during the day, not so much when everybody is sleeping.

I'd say that's right. I suspect that most of their users won't have $400/year to spend on something like that, so all they have accomplished is to lose users and create an opportunity for other sites. Some people will probably pay up the first time just to get their pictures back, but after that there won't be many paying users. Stupid move.

Here's an excellent example of PhotoBuckets' idiot policy and member's neglecting to post pics on LugerForum... :mad:

I did a Search for 'Naval Artillery' and this came up... :soapbox:

Google for "Photobucket Embedded Image Fix"

There are plugins for Chrome and Firefox.

In another forum, we always used www.tinypic.com. No registration required. Have not used it for years, but just tried it, it still works. After uploading, they assign a http link, just for example

http://oi65.tinypic.com/11qqqtv.jpg
http://oi64.tinypic.com/a0fm07.jpg

Video also works. No registration required.

I don't understand the advantage of using an outside sever to host your personal photos. I just keep mine on the computer and periodically back them up on a thumb drive. If someone needs to see one of my photos, I just download it from the computer. Seems simpler to me. But what do I know.

Like I and probably a lot/most people do. I used Photobucket only few times.

The use of Photobucket is/WAS to load pictures to link in posts on forums(fora).
Not all forums have a gallery available and sometimes you might want to link the same picture to more than one forum, and having only one repository made it easy.
For that Photobucket was good.

The plugin allows you to see pictures on old threads that were ruined by Photobucket new policy.

Unfortunately it will probably not last long, but till then...