Advice on photobucket?

[Jacob]

I've been posting pics using the photobucket site and now am getting emails from them that I need to pay ($299/year which isn't an option) or I can no longer use their site to upload pics to this site. Has this happened to others? I liked uploading the links because it allowed more detail.

[David Hodgkins]

Jacob,

This issue is big news on the forums. The only solution is to find another 3rd party or use the forum's integrated picture galleries.

Since this has come up I've been contemplating rolling my own that everyone could use cross-site. Essentially my own 3rd party site. I actually already own a domain I upload to now, It would be a matter of building a UI for it.

[KDubU]

Yeah PB has changed their business model, no more free hosting. There are alternatives out there, e.g. Flickr, Imgur, Google+, etc. They all have pros and cons, you just need to see what best suits your needs. I am trying out Flickr for now.

[Jacob]

Thanks all...thought they were just picking on me?

[Papa]

I ran into the same thing and switched over to Flikr -- much better in my opinion as I don't get spammed with ads every time I go to the site.

[CraigS]

I will second Flickr. Very limited experience in just 2 days but seems fine so far. PB has been great for years except for their periodic outages for a few days at a time. Not sure how they think they can suddenly start charging $399/yr and keep customers.

[wareaglescott]

I posted over 500 photos in my build thread using the forums integrated galleries and they are all right there for me to access whenever I like and I never had an issue with it all for free. Why are people hesitant to use the forum gallery?

[srobinsonx2]

I posted over 500 photos in my build thread using the forums integrated galleries and they are all right there for me to access whenever I like and I never had an issue with it all for free. Why are people hesitant to use the forum gallery?

I'm with wareaglescott. I use the forum gallery and it works great.

[silver_pilate]

The forum gallery is great but lots of people post on multiple sites and like the portability. Be careful with some of the other sites like imgur as they have policies against 3rd party hosting/direct linking, though they aren't really enforcing it at this time.

Photobucket stinks big time. I've been on there for well over a decade with thousands of pics, and it's all useless now. They started AS a direct linking service and now suddenly back out. I understand charging but to go from $0-$400 overnight is robbery. And as a result, billions of pictures across the internet will be broken for years to come.
Nathan

[RoadRacer]

I'm with wareaglescott. I use the forum gallery and it works great.

+1 I just click the insert image button and upload from my drive (after resizing). But I only post here, not in both forums.

Man, this really sucks when looking at old threads. Those guys are getting a beating on the internet - perhaps they'll come up with a better option under the pressure..

[David Hodgkins]

Test:

[David Hodgkins]

Additional test:

A Pic from thefactoryfiveforum.com:



A pic from ffcars:

When this returns 2 images I'll have a working alternative

[David Hodgkins]

So it looks like if you use either of the forum's galleries you can cross-post.

I'm choosing to host here because I'm confidant that the links will last.

[Jacob]

Thanks David!!

[AC Bill]

Photobucket stinks big time. I've been on there for well over a decade with thousands of pics, and it's all useless now. They started AS a direct linking service and now suddenly back out. I understand charging but to go from $0-$400 overnight is robbery. And as a result, billions of pictures across the internet will be broken for years to come.
Nathan

It is a disgrace what they have done. It's basically a form of blackmail. It was sold to me as a free photo hosting site, from day one. Suddenly they prevent your pictures from being available, unless you pay them..?
I wonder if a lawyer would possibly have a class action lawsuit against them?