Photobucket destroyed all my picture posts

[gonealookin]

I have been using a free Photobucket account for photo uploading and image embedding on sites such as this one for the last 10 years.

It turns out that they have changed their TOS to prohibit image embedding from the free account.  From the new TOS, last revised July 5, 2017:

The free account does not allow any image linking or 3rd party image hosting. If you are interested in image linking and/or 3rd party image hosting, you will need to subscribe to one of our Plus Accounts described below. Free account Members can upgrade to a Plus account at any time.

So let's see what my options are to convert to a "Plus" account, to continue to allow my photos to be embedded:

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.

So I could pay $99.99/year to post links to photos but not actually embed them, or $399.99/year to embed them.  Ummm, no.

I'll probably go through the free account, save some stuff and then delete the account entirely.  Meanwhile, they have replaced my images with a lovely extortion demand, for example in the Carson City Freeway thread.  I am infuriated that my picture posts have been destroyed in this way, and I'm sorry for the resulting visual carnage in the threads.

[hotdogPi]

1995hoo had the same problem.

Note: Switch to Flickr, NOT Imgur. Imgur is for Internet memes, not photographs.

[froggie]

one word:  Flickr.

(imgur is also an option)

[plain]

Someone on here a while back (I'm sorry I can't remember who, I have to dig back through the threads) suggested using the Tapatalk app for the phone, that is if you ever consider using photos from your phone instead of a computer. I installed the app a few months back myself but I'm yet to try it (seems to work for other members though).

[gonealookin]

1995hoo had the same problem.

Thanks, I looked around a bit for other complaints and managed to overlook the recent 1995hoo thread over in Photos and Videos; a moderator may want to merge this thread into that one.

It looks like I've only used that Photobucket account to post pictures on three sites.  I thought there were more.  Sorry that the AARoads forum turns out to be one of the "lucky winners".

[Max Rockatansky]

Did the same thing to me in regards to my older posts.  Just gave me a reason to re upload with my freshly completed Flickr account.  I ever created a new photo thread just for that purpose, I also have two non-net based backups to rely on if Flickr goes rogue also.

[rickmastfan67]

I got nailed as well by this the other day.

[jakeroot]

Note: Switch to Flickr, NOT Imgur. Imgur is for Internet memes, not photographs.

Flickr is better for sharing with other Flickr users. If your primary use is sharing on other sites using direct links, Imgur is better.

[froggie]

^ I haven't had a problem doing such on Flickr.  Plus from what I've seen, Flickr has better organization.

[jeffandnicole]

As someone said, Photobucket has gone rogue, and they have been for a while.  A year or two ago their app became fairly useless for embedding photos.  Thinking it was an update issue I went to their main app page, only to see nothing but 1 star reviews from everyone with the same problem.  If they were upset about that change, none of them are going to fork out $400 for the privilege of posting pics within their postings.

[hbelkins]

You can get web hosting for less than $10 a month and store your images on your own domain. I don' t know why Photobucket thinks it can get by with these rates.

And Facebook is free, and it allows linking to images. Create a Page, which is by default viewable to the public, and post your photos there.

[Max Rockatansky]

You can get web hosting for less than $10 a month and store your images on your own domain. I don' t know why Photobucket thinks it can get by with these rates.

And Facebook is free, and it allows linking to images. Create a Page, which is by default viewable to the public, and post your photos there.

The problem with Facebook is that they compress the photos.  That isn't so much an issue if you don't care about having the original size but Flickr does retain the origins file size.  For domains, I've just never wanted the hassle since that is a little too close to jumping in too deep with maybe trying my own website. 

[jakeroot]

^ I haven't had a problem doing such on Flickr

It's just that it's a pain in the ass. Too many clicks, especially when you're quickly trying to upload and share something.

Plus from what I've seen, Flickr has better organization.

Flickr has a slightly more user-friendly interface for Flickr to Flickr sharing, though I wouldn't say that one or the other has better organisation (both are pretty good). But that's not my reason for using these photo-sharing sites. I upload photos solely to share on other sites. Imgur has a much simpler interface, which loads quicker (in my experience), and the upload process is much faster (drag + drop on most any page) and it's done...no need to go to an upload interface, no need to add tags and shit, no need to click "UPLOAD"; just drag, release, and done.

[bandit957]

I have been using a free Photobucket account for photo uploading and image embedding on sites such as this one for the last 10 years.

It turns out that they have changed their TOS to prohibit image embedding from the free account.

That violates antitrust laws.

[formulanone]

I have been using a free Photobucket account for photo uploading and image embedding on sites such as this one for the last 10 years.

It turns out that they have changed their TOS to prohibit image embedding from the free account.

That violates antitrust laws.

I'm absolutely sure the idea of a company effectively deciding to "take their ball and go home" is 100% legal, no matter how foolish they seem.

[gonealookin]

For my limited needs, Imgur seems to work fine.



Unfortunately, because I'm a dummy who doesn't check my work before deleting things, I lost my I-580 Carson City Freeway construction photos (the "download" button on Photobucket created an empty file) before I figured out the correct downloading method (right-click and save) so those are gone forever.

[Darkchylde]

If Photobucket wants to unload a boatload of buckshot into their foot, who am I to care? Facebook can die in a fire, and I haven't been much of a Flickr fan in the past.

I'll probably keep using Imgur for uploading single pics to here for the time being.

[wanderer2575]

Right now this is the only site for which I upload photos to share, and Imgur is quite sufficient.  Maybe it's not great for photo organization, but I don't care since I'm using it only as a middleman for links.  If I were to ever get serious about putting my entire photo collection online for everyone to see, no doubt I'd use something else.

I tried poking around Flickr, but apparently I'm too social media-deficient to figure out how to use it.  Create my own domain?  You might as well ask me to build my own space shuttle.

[Brandon]

Photobucket (which I used) can go fuck off.  Better to call them Photofucket and use a different host.

[paulthemapguy]

What kind of absolute moron thinks that anyone would pay $400 a year for a meaningless image hosting website?  That's hilarious.   
I guess Photobucket is over.  Sleep with the fishes like xanga and livejournal.

[1995hoo]

As is noted above, I asked about it in another thread. Haven't gotten around to doing anything about it yet and I doubt I'll ever get around to restoring all my posts.

[Max Rockatansky]

My solution for a thread I revisited with CA 146 West was to link over the new Flickr album that had the old pictures.  I'll probably do likewise if I revisit a topic but won't go out of my way to fix stuff photo by photo.

[cahwyguy]

This came across my various feeds, and may offer some solutions:

http://marahmarie.dreamwidth.org/345239.html
Subject: How to view and download ransomed Photobucket gallery images, on a per-image basis (updated 7-26-17)

Daniel

[MNHighwayMan]

Unfortunately, because I'm a dummy who doesn't check my work before deleting things, I lost my I-580 Carson City Freeway construction photos (the "download" button on Photobucket created an empty file) before I figured out the correct downloading method (right-click and save) so those are gone forever.

This is why you keep two local versions (an external hard drive and a microSD card for me), and one version on, preferably, a cloud-based backup (like Dropbox) or on a hosting site (like Imgur or Flickr).

Unless the United States gets annihilated in nuclear war, I'll always have at least one version of my photos I can depend upon.

[D-Dey65]

I recently visited a tumblr page (non-road-related, BTW), who's entire backdrop is now nothing but photobucket error messages.