photo hosting site

[sunnybob]

Anybody know of a free photo site?
After more than a dozen years with photobucket i get an email today saying I cant put my pics into another forum unless I upgrade my membership.
$400 a year upgrade!

So thats gone. Apologies to anyone who wants see any pics i have posted because theyre not there any more.

 

[AndyT]

Ditto from me. A quick search shows many similar discussions on other forums, with a lot of very disgruntled users.

One site did have a suggestion that it could be a ransomware attack on PB rather than a suicidal approach to running a business, but that doesn't sound very likely.

I do still have all my pictures stored locally and could edit links in old posts to point to new locations, but there are too many to do this on all of my posts.

It's a really nasty move, instantly making this forum much less useful than it was before. I don't think PB has any future now.

 

[NazNomad]

I use this ... https://postimage.io

 

[sunnybob]

I think theyve got the hump because I use an ad blocker. i just clicked onto photobucket and the blocker listed 37 ads blocked.

I would have considered a very small fee, but thats plain stoopid.

I'll give it few days just in case they change their minds before going somewhere else.

 

[Rhyolith]

I use Flickr, never had a problem (link below).

Though that sounds like some kind of scam to me.

 

[sunnybob]

Ryolith, I've had 12 years of never a problem. before today.
maybe your next email will have something similar.


Just got further into their pricing system
$6 a month just to look at your pics.
$10 a month to look and to post links
$40 a month to be able to embed pictures in other web sites.
And they claim to be very competitively priced!

Thank you and goodbye photobucket.

 

[Doug B]

I think theyve got the hump because I use an ad blocker. i just clicked onto photobucket and the blocker listed 37 ads blocked.

I would have considered a very small fee, but thats plain stoopid.

I'll give it few days just in case they change their minds before going somewhere else.

I'm in the same boat re Photobucket but don't think it's to do with using ad blocker as I don't.

I have read it's to do with your bandwidth usage & not the amount of storage you've used, I also read this usage is reset each month so photos could reappear in July but I'm not holding my breath.


Edit,
What I find strange is on other forums my avatar isn't working but it is on here :-k

 

[Racers]

I used Photobucket and Flickr, Flickr is far far better and not crammed full of adverts.

I wish I never started using Photobucket!

Pete

 

[AndyT]

Ok, here are some practical steps which might help others.

I'd like to be able to put my shared pictures somewhere else, and edit my old posts to point to the new locations. I can't promise to do this for all the pictures - there are thousands - but I'm vain enough to want to do it for some of my detailed projects and I'd like to be able to do it on request if someone is looking for specific information which I've previously posted. I can't do this straight away, but want to safeguard my photos so I can when I am ready.

I think I have all my pictures backed up locally on the pc, but I also have a setting in my PB account which creates new, random filenames for images. (Why?!)

To make sure I can find pictures by the PB-scrambled link text in old posts, I am downloading all my PB Albums locally. You can do this from a PC by logging in to your PB account, going to the root level ("Your bucket"), selecting an album and then clicking on "Download Album" on the right hand side. This shows you an ad, then gives you a zip file with all your images in.

 

[Roughcut]

There's plenty of free cloud based options.
Microsoft OneDrive, Apple iCloud Drive etc.

 

[WoodMangler]

What I find strange is on other forums my avatar isn't working but it is on here :-k

Probably in your browser's cache.

 

[RogerP]

Just a test. Seems to me that PB is working same as it ever did.

 

[Racers]

Mine is still working, I guess I am not over the limit.

Pete

 

[AndyT]

Mine is still working, I guess I am not over the limit.

Pete

Although the image of a gauge suggests that each account has a limit, and you can see if you are close to it (as you can with storage limits) that is not actually the case.
The free account, like the cheaper paid for accounts, have a "limit" for "third-party embedding" of zero. Only their top-rate account now allows it. Small users don't now have the option of generating a little bit of traffic for free.

I think you will see the effect too, as their software update grinds round their users worldwide.

 

[Racers]

Dam, its going to make a big difference to this site as I won't be paying.

Its blackmail!

Pete

 

[Droogs]

It's not blackmail Pete, just US business practice. They have to make sure they cover their overheads in running the data centres. they have had a large downturn in revenue and are doing this to try to force heavy bandwidth users to cough up some cash . As mentioned above, Storage costs next to bugger all but traffic access is where the money is gushing out of them. As much as people berated and scorn MS they allow a decent amount of storage space and traffic access for free, so just start using a onedrive account

 

[wallace]

I got the same email I wouldn't care but my joomeo account has just been deactivated because I didn't use it enough.

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.

 

[memzey]

Happened to me too. This is bad. I wonder is PB will change their stance if loads of people sack them off?

 

[NazNomad]

Dam, its going to make a big difference to this site...

How? Do you mean it's going to make a big difference to you?

 

[Droogs]

I think Pete's comment is in regard to a lot of the build threads as a lot of them have images on PB. And as a reader of many of them, I would agree it may have a large impact, especially for many novice woodworkers following builds/projects who are using the pics to help them understand the terminology and methodology of working. I think the posters of the builds will be impacted to greater extent as in general thye post their projects/howto's not so much for gloating/boasting etc but due to them being genuinely willing to help others improve. As a result many I think will be spending a fair few hours trying to rehost and link their images. I don't envy them this task as it will be a right pain in the behooky