Photobucket WTF???

FWIW, I came across this article among the very long list of hits that came up for "Replacement for Photobucket for third party hosting"

Their comment on Imgur is interesting:

  • Imgur (but only with the Embed option) -- Imgur is named as an alternative whenever it comes to image hosting services on the Internet. While you may hotlink to images uploaded to Imgur, the service's Terms of Service forbid you explicitly from doing so. What it allows is to use the embed feature, but this may not work in many cases. Also this which does not bode well.
    • Don't hotlink to adult content or to file-sharing, gambling, torrent, warez, or Imgur rip-off sites. Don't impersonate someone else. Also, don't use Imgur to host image libraries you link to from elsewhere, content for your website, advertising, avatars, or anything else that turns us into your content delivery network
 
Their comment on Imgur is interesting:
I've read that before and while it is a little concerning I read it as being aimed at users like website owners who might want to store all their images on imgur instead of their own servers. My take on it is that if imgur didn't want their users to link to images they would not have provided the easy-to-use tools to create links. Is there a risk that they could stop third-party linking? Yeah, I'd say there is (and indeed they did a couple of years ago for CGN) but any free-to-use hosting service is similarly at risk, and on balance imgur's features make it worth it for me.
 
The reason you see that is photobucket broke the web in July. They changed their TOS overnight, disabled 3rd party hosting which allows you to link to pics in forums etc and put a system in place thay requires a photobucket user to pay 299 US$ per year to do what used to be free.

Obviously very few people will pay that much let alone how it was handled. So you see the image you posted when people have not updated the BB code to a new site and it is still linked to photobuclet.
Thank you, that is the response that I was looking for! It is very frustrating now even going back to older threads and not seeing the pictures that were posted. I cant see photobucket making it as who will post pics that no one can see and who in their right mind is going to pay $299 US for something that is free at other hosting sites. I never liked PB, and have never used them. When I was in Ontario, my internet provider provided the user with free web space that was linked to your account and you can just upload photos there and post the link. Here in Saskatchewan, I have tried multitude of free hosting sites and seem to like Flickr by yahoo. I dont know if I will be sticking with that, but it seems to work for me and has been for a while now.
 
Thank you, that is the response that I was looking for! It is very frustrating now even going back to older threads and not seeing the pictures that were posted. I cant see photobucket making it as who will post pics that no one can see and who in their right mind is going to pay $299 US for something that is free at other hosting sites. I never liked PB, and have never used them. When I was in Ontario, my internet provider provided the user with free web space that was linked to your account and you can just upload photos there and post the link. Here in Saskatchewan, I have tried multitude of free hosting sites and seem to like Flickr by yahoo. I dont know if I will be sticking with that, but it seems to work for me and has been for a while now.

Flickr has always been a first rate service, even after the changes that some people didn't seem to like. I used to use their free service for image hosting, but started paying the $50/year fee when I got in to more serious photography. For hosting images and embedding them in to forums, it really doesn't get much easier or better. Photobucket and Imageshack not so much, which is why I never bothered to pay a dime for their services, even when they threatened to cut off access to all the images I had hosted with them.
I only wish I had started with Flickr sooner so that all of my legacy threads in a multitude of forums didn't contain hundreds of blank spaces where imagaes used to be, thanks to ImageShack and Photobucket.
 
Op did you realize photo bucket turns the picture into a hotlink which will direct you to the picture on photo buckets website? People have to purposely delete the link for that not to work...
 
Who wants to pay for a free site, this is what they use to make people pay, no copy and paste pictures, nice

Nothing in life is free. The administration has to pay for all this to be hosted on the net. Server space isn't free. If you want them to pay for the server space for you to host pictures, doesnt it make sense to pay something? And it's optional. You can go elsewhere to host your pics if $25 is too rich for your blood.
 
I use Photobucket. The fee is relatively small for the thousands of images that I have on it. I also have only used 10% of my storage!

which will end Dec 31 2018 for current paying members...then requiring $399.99 a year thereafter to allow 3rd party hosting.


Available Plus Account Plans : Photobucket offers the following Plus Account Plans:

o Plus 50 Plan: 52 GB of Storage for $59.99 / Year. The Plus 50 Plan does not allow any image linking or 3rd party image hosting.

o Plus 100 Plan: 102 GB of Storage for $99.99 / Year. The Plus 100 Plan allows for unlimited image linking but does not allow 3rd party image hosting.

o Plus 500 Plan: 502 GB of Storage and unlimited bandwidth for $399.99 / Year. The Plus 500 Plan allows for unlimited image linking and unlimited 3rd party image hosting.

· 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.
 
Firefox has an add-on to view photo's blocked by Photobucket.

I've installed it and it works.

Firefox add-on link

for Chrome

Chrome add-on link
[/QUOTE]

THANK YOU!!! I have been getting the same issue as the OP for months and thought it had something to do with my CGN account.
I installed the Chrome add-on from your link and all those Photobucket images now appear in the forum posts.
Excellent!
 
I'm surprised Photobucket hasn't completely folded yet. This week I've been getting email from them under the ironically title "unlock your photosbucket images" (it should be titled "it's still not too late to pay our ransom"). They've dropped the ransom from $399 / year to $119 / year. What a bargain!


"Hello Scott,

We would like to offer a tailored plan for users just like you - our Premium plan for $119.99 / year.

The Premium plan will provide 3rd party hosting for non-commercial use on your forums, blogs, and personal websites*. Additionally, you will be able to store up to 300,000 photos.

We are working on some exciting changes for 2018. This is our exclusive introductory price and this offer will expire in 7 days."





Jump that shark Photobucket, jump that shark.
 
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