Photobucket

Zohar

Just got notice it doesnt allow using their hosted service to link images unless you pay $400 per year. No thanks!

Any other alternative?

bronzemat

Why people still used photobucket is beyond me. I use postimage.io but for albums, many posters here seem to like https://collectivecoin.com/

worldcoinguy

That is unfortunate. I suspect they just shot themselves in the foot. How about Flickr?

EVillageProwler

I use a cloud service based in NYC called Digital Ocean. I pay $5/month for a very basic Linux node and I dump stuff on it. It will eventually host a web service, but for now I am too lazy to get my web site off the ground. But, you need to be a bit IT-savvy though.

Stork

Collectivecoin for coins (thank you Stacks for stepping on that one), and I'm looking around for the non-coin stuff. I set up a Flikr account at one point, but might try Imgur instead. Another one recommended on another (non-coin) website is Cloudinary. I'm just glad I switched to collectivecoin when I started taking (and posting) better pictures because I recognized the file size limits of photobucket pretty quickly (thank goodness).

The question is, are the old links getting broken? I mean, I haven't been the most prolific photo poster in the past but I have about 400 pix loaded on the bucket which means at least that many links out there. I don't think I could possibly find all the links but it sure would be nice if the old ones were kept active.

That said I'm not spending an atrocious amount to save them. Seriously a couple bucks a month and no ads, (and better service/storage/ etc) I'd consider it. But for their crappy service they seem to want a platinum premium price.

The sad thing is people uploaded higher res photos and now are finding out they weren't stored that way when they go to retrieve them. One of my dog people friends lost her hard drive and found out later that her photos had all been stored improperly/ruined by bucket. She thought it was a safe way to store her photos

Zohar

What surprised me is that there was no notice or an opportunity to migrate. Result, my entire collage on my custom sets ATS is composed of dead links.

Stork

I think that was their intent. No warning and people would feel like they HAD to sign up. A big fat money grab. I'm guessing they will be underestimating how absolutely p.o.'d this will make people. I'd rather have broken links that fall for that grab.

Iosephus

Apologies if this is a silly question (maybe I'm not understanding something here), but couldn't you just use the storage where your website is hosted?

GotTheBug

.

Zohar

@Iosephus said:
Apologies if this is a silly question (maybe I'm not understanding something here), but couldn't you just use the storage where your website is hosted?

I use photobucket for my custom sets on (HTML description). Website has images uplocated but display doesnt allow for linking as well on 3rd party.

Zohar

@Stork said:
I think that was their intent. No warning and people would feel like they HAD to sign up. A big fat money grab. I'm guessing they will be underestimating how absolutely p.o.'d this will make people. I'd rather have broken links that fall for that grab.

They lost me!

Iosephus

@Zohar said:

@Iosephus said:
Apologies if this is a silly question (maybe I'm not understanding something here), but couldn't you just use the storage where your website is hosted?

I use photobucket for my custom sets on (HTML description). Website has images uplocated but display doesnt allow for linking as well on 3rd party.

Can you set your host to allow display on 3rd party sites (or do you want to block that?) It just seems to me that it would be easier to keep and link all your files from one location, though I don't know how your site is set up.

Stork

I don't know about Zohar's host, but mine is one of those all-in-one/builder-included-for-the-coding-clueless types (Weebly) and IIRC from when I signed up using the cheap plan it was specifically not meant for large scale photo hosting to third parties, and doing so was either strongly not recommended or flat out against TOS for that plan.

I pay barely anything for it and all photos on it are uploaded for use one the site. I can link a few but to do so on a large scale would be a logistical nightmare in terms of setting up organization and would be seriously clunky to manage. I've tried it, and it can be done, but not in any kind of smooth fashion.

Which reminds me, I need to do some website updating!

silverpop

i use Flickr for my photos

ShadyDave

IMGUR is free and easy to use. No data limits and it is easy upload from your phone or computer. imgur.com

Silvereagle82

That sucks

Stork

@GotTheBug said:
I dumped Photobucket the moment I realized that you can post pictures directly from your computer.

Edited

True for this site (thank you PCGS!), but not others.

The background is low, res...but how appropriate for how PB saved photos.

terribleredmonster

It's entirely possible, even probable, that I don't properly understand what is being discussed in this thread, but I just linked images hosted by Photobucket on this very site tonight:

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/983812/does-anyone-collect-marbles-tournament-medals#latest

The images show up when I view the post. Should I expect a problem with that post? Lastly, if I have misunderstood the topic at issue in this thread and you happen to feel so inclined, would someone mind explaining to me how I've gotten it wrong?

Stork

Mine didn't disappear right away, but did eventually. Some people were adding photos with the HTML link instead of the IMG one. However my siggie pix were HTML and those broke last week. I checked a couple of old threads and those are broken now too.

Maybe it's a start date thing or a traffic thing, but either they made a mistake and overlooked you, or eventually they will get to your account.

I'm not going to pay a rather extortionist level of money to fix the now broken links. But I'm leaving my account alone for now...things may change.

Who knows, PB may get bought out, put under new management, and made decent again.

If nothing else I suspect other photo hosts will look at this as a lesson on what not to do. And no matter who is the host I would not consider this sort of service as part of my backups.

Zohar

@Stork said:

If nothing else I suspect other photo hosts will look at this as a lesson on what not to do. And no matter who is the host I would not consider this sort of service as part of my backups.

Agree

YQQ

Have use PB for years and have not seen any broken links ....Yet.
when all this kaffaffel became known, I started to download all my files. one after the other to a spare HD. I am half done.
must admit the DWNLD speed is extremely slow and totally slower to a stop sometimes. I am sure they do this intentionally to discourage us.
when all files are downloaded, there will be no renewal of any kind at any price, even free with PB .
greed and not caring got the better of them.

Solution:
1 buy a 1TB external HD. about $ 100. they are small, like a cell phone or smaller and store all your images in respective files there.
2 avoid forums and venues where you can not upload directly.

brg5658

My photobucket linked images are still working fine, but just as a "CYA" I have downloaded all of my directories as back-up. Though, I also always keep back-ups on my computer at home (and another copy on an external drive).

Stork

@brg5658 Double check your file sizes. PB is not known for keeping high resolutions so your originals on your computer might be your best bet and it might not even be worth downloading if you have the originals.

@YQQ unfortunately that doesn't help existing threads using the old links (and mine are now broken, though it took a week or so for them to get around to my account--I noticed it when my siggy went dead), and sadly does no good with regard to my dog related forum, or for people who use a third party for vending sites etc.

In my dreams all my forums/social sites will upgrade to unlimited file size uploading to keep it all easy, unfortunately it's not the case. In fact, this my only forum that allows it properly. Which is great for here, but let's face it, CU is not the only place worthy of attention. It's almost always in my top 3 of online haunts, but it's not the only one

brg5658

@Stork said:
@brg5658 Double check your file sizes. PB is not known for keeping high resolutions so your originals on your computer might be your best bet and it might not even be worth downloading if you have the originals.

@YQQ unfortunately that doesn't help existing threads using the old links (and mine are now broken, though it took a week or so for them to get around to my account--I noticed it when my siggy went dead), and sadly does no good with regard to my dog related forum, or for people who use a third party for vending sites etc.

In my dreams all my forums/social sites will upgrade to unlimited file size uploading to keep it all easy, unfortunately it's not the case. In fact, this my only forum that allows it properly. Which is great for here, but let's face it, CU is not the only place worthy of attention. It's almost always in my top 3 of online haunts, but it's not the only one

I only downloaded them because they are organized in files based on year purchased. I don't intend to use the images downloaded from photobucket for anything of import.

YQQ

For those of you who might be loosing files , but they are still located on PB.
I tried to continue downloading the rest of my files via the DL button.
PB SW detected this I assume because everything came to a crawling speed and then to a halt.
However, everything else seem to work just fine. and the ads keep coming even though I am a paid NO ADS account.
I am paid up to November this year. IMO, they are not fulfilling their part of a contract.

But I did find a way around the download button.
open your image, right-click, save image as -.... and save it to a prepared file on your PC. it will save the images in a nice large size.
Obviously this will only help those of you who exclusively relied on the PC storage fto get your pix back.. at least you get some workable image back to your HD.
For whatever it matters or not, I use ACDC photo software to achieve this. works fine.
good luck with that.

terribleredmonster

I guess I've always used image hosting services like Photobucket differently from a lot of folks, or so this thread is teaching me. Every image I've ever uploaded to a site like Photobucket came from one of my hard drives to begin with, and continued to live there regardless.

I suppose the difference stems from the fact that I only upload to sites like Photobucket in order to share an image directly, in real time. Aside from that I only use them for ebay - so once the item in the image is sold I either delete the image from the internet or forget about it entirely.

Add to this that I never upload images directly from any mobile device, instead connecting that device to my PC and administering them from there (I'm a bit of a weird kind of Luddite, I suppose).

It hadn't occurred to me before this thread, but it looks like I use certain web based services differently than a lot of other people,