Sharing your photos on the forum

[Debby - LB]

For users of Photobucket I found out something this week that I didn't know (wish I still didn't) ... I started reading and now I see discussion all over the internet as photos are being removed.
If you'll go to your Photobucket account look up at the top and you'll see the words WE HAVE UPDATED OUR TERMS OF SERVICE in a blue background with a link to Learn More. This was updated on June 28th, 2017.
Heads up - there is new mandatory pricing concerning hotlinking / embedding which they have now classified as 3rd party hositng.

Here is the page where it explains that: http://support.photobucket.com/hc/en-us/articles/115009597607-What-is-3rd-party-hosting-

What a LOT of people depended on for years is now no longer free. You can NO Longer use their service by using their provided URL to show your photos - without purchasing a plan. Those of you who used their free accounts who happen to be a part of the thousands of photos on this site.... you/we will no longer be able see them.

As for the new pricing.....Their Plus 100 plan will allow you to add a link to your photos, it is 99.99 per year.

The 1st pricing tier to include hotlinking - embedding is their Plus 500 plan and it is to me exorbitant at $400. per year... especially considering for well over 10 years now, Photobucket made its name by supplying members of Bulletin Boards and Forums a way to share their photos and videos by storing them on their servers and then they provided a URL to embed photos on forums, bulletin boards, blogs, ebay, and web pages via imbed links and html tags, etc.

There is NO option on either plan to pay by the month so that people could at least purchase a month and move their images out of there if they cannot afford it. Moving them would still be detrmental to all the forums the photos are shown on though since the links will all be broken. I do understand this business's reasoning since 75% of their overhead comes from non paying members - But, I think there should have been more consideration granted for legacy members.

There are members here that passed away years ago and still have old accounts with photos that will now dissappear. There is going to be a LOT of history lost to everyone on many forums, blogs, and bulletin boards due to this move.

For storage spaces that allow hotlinking/embedding I've had a few people recommend TinyPic.com and Flickr.com. If anyone has used these and can recommend them, or any others, please let us know.

** editing to say that TinyPic would work to be able to show your photos BUT it's not a service you can depend on to store your photos as it only keeps them temporarily. From the feedback I've gotten this last week I wouldn't recommend it as an option at all.

Peace and Love to all.

 

[paintponylvr]

Hi Deb!

Thank you for letting us know. I do a lot with photo bucket but have been grumbling a lot lately too, as there are more and more ads that slow everything down. I don't know if $400 (for 3rd party hosting - which is what i guess I do a lot of?) is competitive or not. It's simply not in our budget at this time. Already a lot of my photobucket pics stored on my laptop and on one external storage unit (NOT ALL, lost the computer/disks the originals were stored on when storage unit was broken into/stolen and computer itself crashed). Everything digital or provided by another owner/family member/friend via email is gone from before 2010 if it wasn't on PhotoBucket &/or Picasa... I have not put all photos up or if requested have removed some.

Google made major changes in the last couple of years (they had Picasa Photo Albums and it ended, combined with Google Photos. Lost lots of "stuff" that used to be able to do with Picasa -LOVED them- simply can't do that with Google Photos. Maybe shouldn't complain - still no charge/free at this time).

In looking at TinyPic.com - they are owned by PhotoBucket, Inc, so I'm not sure that I want to take the time to put all my PhotoBucket pics there only to have that one change, too.

I remember once upon a time, I looked at Flickr.com, but haven't looked at them lately, so will go take a look in the next few days. Unlike Google, PhotoBucket hasn't given a time frame when this will happen? Maybe I'm missing something?

 

[Debby - LB]

Hi, Paula, I'm so sorry you lost your older photos, that is so sad. I lost some once and still regret the loss as a few were truly unreplaceable.

I wouldn't move any of my photos to tinypic, best I can remember that service only stores them temporarily.

As far as deadlines go the members of free services are already being contacted to upgrade. http://photobucket.com/p500/ And free member photos that are posted on forums, bulletin boards, and blogs are already only showing banners with a error and notice to upgrade instead of the photo.

The only members who can still use a URL to embed a photo are those who were paid members with them on June 1st 2017..But only until 12-30-2018 then those renew at the new pricing.
See below: (I copied this from their site like this, I'm not shouting lol)
ANY PAYING MEMBER WHOSE PLUS ACCOUNT WAS IN GOOD STANDING AS OF JUNE 1, 2017, SHALL CONTINUE TO RECEIVE ALL THE PHOTOBUCKET SERVICES THAT WERE AVAILABLE TO HIM/HER ON SUCH DATE, INCLUDING IMAGE LINKING AND 3RD PARTY IMAGE HOSTING, UNTIL DECEMBER 31, 2018 AS LONG THEY MAINTAIN THEIR CURRENT PLUS ACCOUNT SUBSCRIPTION OR A HIGHER LEVEL PLUS ACCOUNT SUBSCRIPTION DURING SUCH PERIOD OF TIME.

** As far as something that I myself could recommend, I've had a Smugmug account for many years and I do highly recommend them.

About 3 years ago I downgraded my Smugmug plan to the power plan and it is still perfect for me. Some of you may be interested in Smugmug IF you are looking for a photo storage site that provides links, html, and bbc codes to allow posting of your photos on other sites. The plan I use is $60. per year which to me is VERY reasonable. There is a cheaper plan also, as well as higher ones with more options. Their plans are offered monthly too but cost a little more.

I'll add the URL of a couple of my photos that are stored there -

My main intent here was to let everone know why they'll eventually notice a lot of photos missing in posts, and to reach out to all who had this free image hosting account to let them know what's going on.