Photobucket picture hosting changes

[emptysea]

I need clarification. Kenny, are you saying that Photobucket is charged something with I embed an image I store there on this forum?

Yes, because it is not stored on this forum. It is stored on the Photobucket server and loaded to everyone's computer from there. Every time it is loaded, either on the photobucket website or this forum, photobucket pays money to their internet provider based on total amount of data transfered. They do get a large discount being a large website with a lot of traffic compared to a small forum like this one but they depend on ads bringing in more income than the cost of the "free" service they provide. They lose big on 3rd party hosting because they are still paying for the storage and bandwidth that your photo costs them with no ad revenue being generated.

This forum could host the photo's and skip that step but would face the same challenge of how much would the storage and bandwidth would cost. Some forums charge a small fee like $25/year for a premium membership to allow for extra features like photo storage.

Yes, because it is not stored on this forum. It is stored on the Photobucket server and loaded to everyone's computer from there. Every time it is loaded, either on the photobucket website or this forum, photobucket pays money to their internet provider based on total amount of data transfered. They do get a large discount being a large website with a lot of traffic compared to a small forum like this one but they depend on ads bringing in more income than the cost of the "free" service they provide. They lose big on 3rd party hosting because they are still paying for the storage and bandwidth that your photo costs them with no ad revenue being generated.

This forum could host the photo's and skip that step but would face the same challenge of how much would the storage and bandwidth would cost. Some forums charge a small fee like $25/year for a premium membership to allow for extra features like photo storage.
Thanks for clearing that up. So, is it inevitable that most, if not all, photo hosting sites will charge the user for the ability to embed photos on other sites (like this one)? Do you think it then comes down to how much each site will charge? If I read correctly, Photobucket's only membership level that allows for this type of sharing costs $500. That seems very pricey, although it may include other features. I pay a few bucks a month to keep the ads off of Photobucket, but I think I can spend the same few bucks with SmugMug and get 3rd party hosting as well as better photo editing tools. Any opinion one way or another on this line of thinking, Kenny?

 

[kennyw]

Photobucket wants $400/year to allow the remote hosting which most people feel is excessive. Years ago I used to use another popular free photo service that died off and was shortly replaced with photobucket on most forums I frequent. Now photobucket is dieing off and I don't think too many people are willing to jump in to bail them out at $400/year.

I believe a subscription based cloud service or hosting your own server at home will be the way of the future if you don't want to keep changing providers as they die off. But a few bucks a month or $25ish a year is where I would want to be.

 

[Stichill]

$400 / year for hosting is insane. If people were to visit their page to look at a photo they'd make what, $0.02 per view from the ads? You'd have to have 20,000 views / year to justify $400 in ad compensation fees.

Classic case of pricing themselves out of the market. $40 a year, some people would go for it. $400 a year...few takers I'd wager.

There are better, free options available. Hard to sell a $400 service vs. free.

 

[Cormanus]

It has the hallmarks of a struggling business, I reckon. It's a pity as the effort required by individuals to repair the information loss on forums like this is not inconsequential.

 

[Stichill]

Likely the venture capitalists are ready for the monetization phase/exit via public stock offering. Young Silicon Valley entrepreneurs be like, "Say what now? No more seed capital? We have to turn a profit?"

 

[Cormanus]

ECT News Network: Where Business Meets Technology

Seems like a charge may not be unreasonable, but the amount and the poor handling of the change is provoking some ire. See also, http://www.news.com.au/finance/busi...t/news-story/f5b3efdaa1dfd7cb5c9a62e6ec2520c6.

 

[Lord Popgun]

Well, right about now I wish Guth would just host the images. I'd be willing to pay. Wonder how much it would be. At least the pics wouldn't disappear unless Guth shut the board down.

 

[WK57ABF_imp]

Could someone help please I'm confused - do we have to use a picture hosting site to post images on this forum? - In the past I've just been inserting an image into the post from my photo album - is this simple method frowned upon? - does it use up space on the forum? - Thank you.
John

 

[Cormanus]

John, you can upload directly to the forum. It has the disadvantage that the picture files have to be small. I can't remember exactly what size. That means the resolution of the picture may not be all that good, but that often doesn't matter.

The second disadvantage is that sometimes, even though the file size is smal, the dimensions of the picture are large and it takes up a lot of room on the screen. This doesn't happen with hosted images as the forum software is able to control their dimensions. For some reason, that doesn't seem to work for uploaded photos.

The final issue is that uploaded photos take up the forum's storage space and the owner of the forum—Guth—has to pick up the tab. Although it hasn't happened yet, his generosity may have some limits.

 

[WK57ABF_imp]

Cormanus - thank you for the explanation - I'm uncomfortable with computers and have found picture hosting sites very difficult to use - i downsize photo's on phone to under 250kb and they always come out small in the thread I'm posting on - I'm happy to make a financial contribution to the forum to be able to continue in this way.
John

 

[Razor]

I don't know diddle about electronic hosting, but here's what another site is looking into.

Call for SQL experts

 

[emptysea]

Today, for about the third or fourth time in the last couple of months, I spent a little time trying to figure out how to move photos in my Photobucket library to another photo hosting website in an organized and efficient manner. No luck on that, so no luck on easily replacing the soon-to-be missing pictures in my various posts. I find this frustrating and sad and it is part of the reason that I have not been contributing detailed Seat Time reports over the past several months; the death of my lanyard camera being the the other part.

I am going to start using SmugMug for my photos and paying a small ($5/month) fee. Once I replace my lanyard cam, I hope to have some more posts for you all.

 

[the Ferret]

PB is not even allowing me to delete my photos from their site. EVerytime I do it locks up

 

[Rocky_imp]

When this fiasco with PB started I immediately went in and deleted all my pictures from that site.
I have them on my hard drive anyway so they aren't lost and I can bring them forward to another hosting site as I choose.

 

[Cormanus]

I, for one, look forward to a resumption of your seat time posts, EmptySea.

I fear the only way you’re going to repair the photos in your earlier posts is to post them anew. Even with moderator privileges editing the ones where, by making two quick posts, one has exceeded the maximum number of photos, will be impossible without splitting the post.

I’ve played with reposting some of mine on a blog, but I’m not sure I’ve the patience.

 

[emptysea]

When this fiasco with PB started I immediately went in and deleted all my pictures from that site.
I have them on my hard drive anyway so they aren't lost and I can bring them forward to another hosting site as I choose.

I can delete them..one by one. That wasn't my desire. I was hoping, apparently in vain, that I could recreate the same folders on another site and then replace the PB photos I've posted with photos from the new site. Cormanus informs me that that is virtually impossible. This saddens me because, speaking of vain, I thought some of my reports were pretty darn good and a lot of that had to do with the photos -- God knows I can't write worth a hoot.

Oh well.... I think it's time to start afresh with a new site and figure out what to do with the photos on PB.

 

[Cormanus]

Too modest by half MTC.

 

[emptysea]

I tried something new to me when for posting my recent Seat Time report without using Photobucket or other similar sites. I used Tapatalk. Sort of.

Problem with Tapatalk is that it’s a phone app. I don’t know about the rest of you, but there’s no way on Earth that I’m going to tap out a 500+ word post on my phone. So, what I did was to type out my report here, save it as a draft, and then cut/paste it into Tapatalk. Once it was there, I inserted pictures at appropriate spots and posted the whole thing. To make the positioning of pictures easier, I typed “INSERT PIC OF ___” at the desired spot in my draft.

The extra step of moving the text from here to Tapatalk went smoothly, but lengthier posts might be difficult to transfer in one post. I’m not sure if Tapatalk has a limit on the size of a post, but it worked for me this time.

It’s possible that a bunch of you have already figured out everything I just said, but I hadn’t and it’s a process that works fairly well.

 

[Guth_imp]

NOTE: This post is for informational purposes only! I am not supporting this product in any way, lol. I also have no idea how long this plug-in will remain effective.

If any of you guys are using Firefox or Chrome web browsers, you might want to check out the "Photobucket Hotlink Fix". It's a pretty creative plug-in that automatically connects your browser to the images that are still intact out on Photobucket. I tried it with Chrome and was able to view an old Seat Time report, complete with images hosted in Photobucket. Sounds like some users might need to clear their browser's cache (refresh the page) for it to work in some instances. (If you don't know how to do this, you probably needn't bother with the plug-in). This might be of help to someone trying to make sense of their old posts and recall what images were used. For me, it means that I can browse the forum in Chrome and see all of the images hosted in Photobucket as I could in the past.

Firefox Plug-In
[url=https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/photobucket-hotlink/kegnjbncdcliihbemealioapbifiaedg]Chrome Plug-in

 

[Mandrau_imp]

It's already hitting the ferret. Photobucket is no longer going to allow 3rd party hosting without paying for the largest account at $400/year. Time to find another source for picture hosting on forums.

Quote:From Photobuckets Terms page -

Types of Accounts, Pricing and Limits

Visiting : There is no cost to visit the Site or to register as a Member.
Free account : Each individual Member gets one free account that provides 2 GB of free storage or space available for your original photo files, or videos under 10min. The free account does not allow any image linking or 3rd party image hosting. If a free account Member exceeds their Content Limit, their account will be immediately suspended and they will need to become a “Paying Member” (defined below) in order to continue accessing their account. You can upgrade to a Plus account at any time.
Ad-free Account : The Ad-free Account offers Members the ability to use the Site without seeing any third party banner advertisements when logged into your Ad-free Account (note, viewers of your images within Photobucket will see ads unless they, too, have Plus accounts and you will continue to see Photobucket offers and announcements). This account level is available for $2.49 / month, payable by the Member on a monthly recurring basis.
Plus Account : The Plus Account offers several paid options that may give the Paying Member more storage, bandwidth, 3rd party image hosting, image linking and/or other services as outlined below. Once and during such period of time in which you subscribe to and pay for a Plus Account, we will consider you a "Paying Member." Please note that all Plus Account subscriptions are billed annually at the commencement of the service. Photobucket may also offer a monthly billing option for its Plus Accounts (see terms and restrictions, below).
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: 500 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.

Additional Features of all Plus Accounts : When you upgrade to any Plus Account, you will also receive:
o Premium Support. You have direct access to our tech support team. Email our PLUS Support Team

o No Ads: When you're logged into your Plus account, you won't see any ads on Photobucket pages (note, viewers of your images within Photobucket will see ads unless they, too, have Plus Accounts and you will continue to see Photobucket offers and announcements).

Read more: Private Group Photo & Video Sharing

I have been finally posting pics now direct from my iPad but first I have to email the photo to myself at “medium” to reduce it’s size. Pain in the ass.