Photobucket breaking images with 'ransom' demand

[Russ]

Looks like it's time to find another image host.

Photobucket has angered users after quietly introducing changes which have left many online sellers and promoters with "ransom" notes instead of linked images on their websites.

Without warning, the image hosting service's Terms of Service have now been changed to disable third-party sharing and embedding features unless users are willing to pay for the service.

While some image hosting providers use this model successfully, Photobucket has been accused of "blackmailing" users by not informing them of the changes. In addition, users have taken to both Twitter and Facebook to vent their fury at the charge now being sought by the company, which is an annual fee of $399 for "third-party hosting."

http://www.zdnet.com/article/photobucke ... om-demand/

So all your photobucket images you have linked to in the forum now have this message pop up instead.


Doing some experimenting, it seems if you login to your own Photobucket account, it removes this. However, for those not logged in, this is what they see.

[Sumner]

When I see links to pictures at Photobucket I rarely go look at them. They are very slow to load for me, not sure that is the universal situation.

Most people have some storage that comes with whoever is providing their service. Consider learning how to store pictures there if you have that option and how to link to them.

Also you can pay to have your own site now for not a lot. I have to do that for my site and have most of it on an old provider that charges me considerable a year but now also have anything new on a different hosting site that isn't near as expensive. I might move it all there at some point.

Also take the time to learn how to edit and resize your pictures so they load faster here and don't take up so much data space where ever you decide to store them for Internet viewing. I do all of my picture editing with...

https://www.getpaint.net/download.html

.... paint.net which is free (I send a donation every so often though). You can crop and also resize pictures quickly with it plus edit in a thousand other ways. I usually use 'resize' and go to 80dpi and a picture width of between 6.5 and 8.5 inches.

It is easy and fast to use,

Sumner

============================
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Trips to Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[K9Kampers]

When I see links to pictures at Photobucket I rarely go look at them. They are very slow to load for me, not sure that is the universal situation.

Same here, slow to load and annoying adds.

[sailboatmike]

I gave up on photobucket links long ago after all the ads and y=taking forever to load.

Hey here is an idea, lets give a really bad, slow service, fill it with ads and then charge people to use it, now there is a business model with disaster in mind

[Herschel]

Does anyone use Shutterfly for third party hosting? Don't even know if it would work because I have to sign in to my account at Shutterfly to have access, but I do a lot of digital scrapbooking with Shutterfly and have tons of pics there.

[vizwhiz]

I use the Onedrive service that comes with my msn hotmail/outlook/live account, as sumner suggested. It's quirky to find the right link that will show the thumbnail photo in here, but it works for me.

[Neo]

They really are a bunch of Tossers.
Just downloaded all my albums. Would like find alternative picture hosting ... Any suggestions?

I have a Flickr account but I struggle to use the site or the Android app ... must be me

All the best.
Neo

[taylormade]

Holy cow, what an appropriately timed thread! Photobucket has also disallowed the use of Adblockers when visiting their site to look at others pics. I didn't realize it because I typically just go there to link my pics and, for whatever reason, they allow you to use Adblockers when viewing your own stuff.

I recently went to get a closer look at someone else's picture and was notified that I had to turn off Adblock + in order to do so. "Ok" I thought, how bad can Photobucket be? WHOA!! It's absolutely unusable with it turned off. It took literally 20 seconds to load the page and when it did, I had to close two pop ups to even be able to see it. There were ads over 80% of the page... it's laughable. I don't know how anyone uses it like that.

I turned AB+ back on, hit refresh and watched the number of blocked ads soar past 50 before I even clicked on a single image or directory. After I clicked on my MacGregor subfolder that number hit 75. Unreal. I'll be moving my gallery asap.

[Mac26S-95]

I use imgur.com You have to make your imgur post "public" for people on the internet (like here) to be able to see it, but it's simple once you figure it out. Not a lot of annoying advertising either.

[Bilgemaster]

I used to use Photobucket from time to time when I just wanted to lob a pic up on the 'net on the fly from my phone, instead of squirreling it away on one of my own web domains via FTP. But you're all right: it has recently become nearly unusable. So much so, that there is a growing mass of folks out there who are making a virtual online religion out of hating on those ass clowns.

Tinypic.com will get that picture online of your mod or that frayed halyard gubbin widget doodad you have a question about in short order and without all that drama of a descent into popup hәll.

[Tomfoolery]

Tinypic.com will get that picture online of your mod or that frayed halyard gubbin widget doodad you have a question about in short order and without all that drama of a descent into popup hәll.

I started with tinypic, slowly migrated to photobucket, and with the popups and slowness increasing over time, have been moving back to tinypic, as even with the security question you get on every other upload, it's still way faster. And in a fit of pee'd-off-edness, I cleaned out and closed my p'bucket account. Which messes up images I have in posts, but they were dead anyway, so no difference other than I enjoyed my tantrum.

And tinypic has no way to hold you up for ransom, since it's more or less anonymous, with no account existing.

My son has been pushing for me to get my own domain. Maybe it's time.

[Phil M]

Well, crap! I didn't know that about Photobucket.

The only reason I have a Photobucket account is for this forum. I will follow this thread to see what the general consensus is for posting photos.

So the way that I understand it is my photos do not show up automatically?
http://www.macgregorsailors.com/forum/v ... =8&t=26278

because I view them so quickly ( I have a Photobucket account) I assumed everyone else automatically view them as well.

[Bilgemaster]

[...snip!]
My son has been pushing for me to get my own domain. Maybe it's time.

Don't expect much or really any technical support as a free user, but if you just want free domain hosting with no banners, pop ups, or other annoying frippery, then https://www.000webhost.com/ ain''t so bad. As for domain registration, Godaddy,com is what I use. It's pretty much "set and forget" as far as annual or biannual renewals go. "tomfoolery.com" may be taken, but lots of other newer options like "tomfoolery.info", "tomfoolery.club" and so forth can had for as little as a buck. You can still build a site on it, or host your own photos. Oddly enough, "Mac26X.com" and "Mac26M.com" are still available.

Another option for some folks might be their own internet service provider. Many folks aren't aware of the fact that their providers may often offer some kind of free personal website hosting. Comcast used to, but no longer has since 2015. I think Verizon's also discontinued theirs, but ask your service provider. They may still offer something like that, certainly good enough to lob some pix onto.

[dlandersson]

I use godaddy, and host my own pictures. No big deal.

[NiceAft]

Catigale posted:

“Postby Catigale » Mon Jul 10, 2017 11:08 am
Photobucket has just changed to a model where only paid subscribers can link to their accounts to third party sites.

Bad news for us here.

Ive alerted Heath”