PHOTO bucket

[bazmak]

Photo bucket has taken all my photos down until
i take out a subscription account.I did not even know
is this a new policy,has anyone else got this problem
Please suggest alternatives,i feel as though i have been blackmailed

 

[goldstar31]

Photo bucket has taken all my photos down until
i take out a subscription account.I did not even know
is this a new policy,has anyone else got this problem
Please suggest alternatives,i feel as though i have been blackmailed

Barry,
I keep up to date with Model Engineering Clearing House and they are in the same situation.

I've never had the so called joys of posting pictures but might I suggest you have a look there.

Nice crowd, incidentally

Regards

Norman

 

[Cogsy]

According to their terms of service, if you upload more than 2GB of files they will suspend your account until you pay a subscription. I'd guess this is what has happened to you. I'd say their business strategy suggests a user that needs more than 2GB of space is more than a casual user and deserves to pay for the hosting. I'm not saying their policy is right or wrong, but it is clearly stated in the terms of service - the trouble is, none of us read the TOS until we have a problem (me included).
If it's any consolation, I lost all access to my pictures in similar fashion on imageshack a few years ago, but I had no way to get them back. It's always a gamble with free products.

 

[gbritnell]

The worst part about it is if you want to 3rd party link your photos to a site that doesn't have direct photo linking then the cost of the annual subscription is (drum roll) $399.00 per year. You read that right, $399.00 per year.
I guess it's all about the money!
gbritnell

 

[Blogwitch]

I had major problems with PB a few years ago, even though I pay for the use of it.
This was where they continually change the way their site operates, and just one bad button press lost me many years of photos, luckily, I had already backed them up to my computer, but re-uploading them doesn't cure the problem as they have a different URL to the original ones, so unless you can get access to your old posts, there is no way to get the pictures back into them.

The main advantage of using PB is that you can load the picture into your text directly where you want them, plus if anyone is just surfing without membership, they can still see the pictures, and so it will maybe lure them into becoming members. If you upload directly to the site, the text will be there but no piccies.

The only other way to get it free is to upload them directly to the site, which costs you nothing, but because of the way this site is run, I suspect it leaves you open to losing the copyright of your photos and you have no control over them, plus if everyone did it, the site would maybe start to slow down.

John

 

[Wizard69]

Photo bucket has taken all my photos down until
i take out a subscription account.I did not even know
is this a new policy,has anyone else got this problem
Please suggest alternatives,i feel as though i have been blackmailed

I really don't know what to say here, I never really like the majority of the photo sharing services out there. The problem is you can't really have a free service these days without heavy advertising or other ways to bank roll the web site. So the services try to rope you in by offering a free "beginners account" an then force you into exactly the situation you are in now. You either pay or get suspended.

You might be better off looking into services like iCloud, Box, DropBox, iDrive, Google Drive and others. The problem is these aren't really designed to serve just photos and you likely will still end up having to pay a service fee. Each though can be setup to share files in one form or another.

Another option would be to setup up your own web server but you really need a desire and background to pull this off well.

In a nut shell the photo sharing services out there suck from my standpoint.

 

[burkLane]

The worst part about it is if you want to 3rd party link your photos to a site that doesn't have direct photo linking then the cost of the annual subscription is (drum roll) $399.00 per year. You read that right, $399.00 per year.
I guess it's all about the money!
gbritnell

I was shocked when I was notified of this also! IMHO PB is a pretty expensive cloud service.

For 15 years I used my Comcast web page account for picture posting. 2 years ago they took those accounts away and over night a couple of forums lost all the picture links. Comcast notified me in advance and I was able to backup those files. A couple of forums I posted on also downloaded the pictures to their site on a couple of my DIY threads I posted they considered the best on their site other wise all other links were lost.

I also started to use photo bucket to post pics and dreaded every time I was on that site. Its so slow and at times useless. One reason I dont post here or other forums as much.

 

[rodw]

Photobucket for years has had a bandwidth limit and if you go over it, you have to pay. About 5 years ago, I went over that limit and signed up to pay about $30 a year. I now have over 5000 photos up there and every photo I take on my phone is synced to photobucket. I still only have consumed 16% of my storage. I've always downsampled my images (except phone photos) to save storage.

Guys, I willingly pay that each year so that you guys and many others on other forums see my photos. I am at a bit of a loss to see where your $400 comes from when their current plans are $6, $10 and $40 a month. Surely there is a lower cost plan that will work for you, just look in the fine print for it.

Honestly, everybody seems to want to get my phone photos, Google and Samsung but no-one does a good a job as Photobucket.

 

[bazmak]

Maybe they have not got to you get.I never went over my limit
that is not the problem.All the smaller subscription packages
they say will not let you host your images to a forum type site
unless you pay the full package of $400.I would gladly pay $30 per year
but that is not what photobucket tell me i can do.No doubt this issue
will become more prevalent,if anyone has the same issues please post
I personally think the images posted will gradually dry up.I will keep an eye
on others ,and those that keep posting images i will ask the question
Meanwhile only texts posts from me which is a shame.The old saying
a picture speaks a thousand words

 

[ozzie46]

I have downloaded my photos to my computer in preparation to close my PB account. No problem there but when I try to retrieve my videos PB says I have to upgrade to download my videos back to my computer. To me they are holding my videos for ransom. I may end up loosing my videos as there is no way I'm going to pay $400 a year.

Ron

 

[Blogwitch]

I have the cheapest rate on PB, and I can still link my piccies to sites without any problems.

Ron, stick your vids on Youtube from now on, it is a minefield to get around and do anything with them, but eventually when you get the hang of it, it is rather easy.

John

 

[bazmak]

Fortunately i always put my photos into the computer first and put them
thru software to improve them.I then the select the ones i want to post
and upload them to PB.So losing them is not a problem.As my allowance is reduced i delete earlier ones to make more room.According to PB i cannot
put any photos to a host site unless i buy the $400 package.How many others
have met this restriction and how many others are still posting to HMEM
with out being in the top package

 

[toolznthings]

Not getting one red cent form me, period !

Brian

 

[Cogsy]

I use photobucket and so far my pics are still up on the forum. Soon I may post a few more and see what happens then,.

 

[Crisptrans]

I have no photos loaded to photobucket. I receive a block where a photo should be that says I need to upgrade my account, something about 3rd party sharing. I browsed thru and the first choice was insane. I love to look at the artistry you gentlemen preform, but that's a lot more than my allowance can support . I don't know what account or who they think I'm sharing all of the photos I don't have loaded on their site with, but it seems like a not to savory business practice to me

 

[Cogsy]

Guys, I willingly pay that each year so that you guys and many others on other forums see my photos. I am at a bit of a loss to see where your $400 comes from when their current plans are $6, $10 and $40 a month. Surely there is a lower cost plan that will work for you, just look in the fine print for it.

It looks like Photobucket made a BIG change to their TOS on the 28th June and now the only pricing tier that allows 3rd party hosting (posting pics to a forum) is the $399 per year plan. As yet my account hasn't been flagged, probably as I don't have many pictures or much traffic but I'm sure it will be soon.

Photobucket has clearly made the decision that free accounts don't pay the bills and are essentially charging for cloud storage below the top tier plan, which actually provides 'normal' picture hosting options. I wouldn't be surprised to see a newcomer to the market gain a foothold in the void of photobuckets' departure as a viable free hosting option. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Photobucket to reverse their decision though.

For me, I guess the easiest (or rather cheapest) thing to do is host my pics on some of the hosting space I already pay for, for other reasons. I'd suggest maybe looking into a similar thing, either a free hosting site with a couple of gig of space, or a reasonably priced hosting plan and your own domain. Owning your own domain has the added advantage of guaranteeing permanent access to your email address even if you change employers, or ISP's.

 

[Wizard69]

I have downloaded my photos to my computer in preparation to close my PB account. No problem there but when I try to retrieve my videos PB says I have to upgrade to download my videos back to my computer. To me they are holding my videos for ransom. I may end up loosing my videos as there is no way I'm going to pay $400 a year.



Ron

Always backup locally!!!!!

I can't stress this enough. A lot of people i know seem to think that these could based services can never fail nor do something unethical. Reality is a different thing as they have lost data and have done questionable things as you have described.

For anything important you really want that file stored in at least 3 places. A cloud service for sharing, locally on your hard disk for quick access. And a third place that is not colocated with you computer.


For the most part there is no reason to believe files are safe online.

Now all of that being said, these services have to pay for the hardware and access so I'm not one to complain too loudly about the charges they apply. The best thing to do here is to shop around. Just realize other approaches often cost more per year. Also something like setting up your own web server is very involved and requires constant attention.

In the end there us no good solution to photo sharing. One way or the other it will cost you money and leave you with shortcomings.

 

[Wizard69]

I have no photos loaded to photobucket. I receive a block where a photo should be that says I need to upgrade my account, something about 3rd party sharing. I browsed thru and the first choice was insane. I love to look at the artistry you gentlemen preform, but that's a lot more than my allowance can support . I don't know what account or who they think I'm sharing all of the photos I don't have loaded on their site with, but it seems like a not to savory business practice to me

The problem is that every bit they push over their network connection costs them money. When the picture gets posted to a forum such as this, that picture gets downloaded many times costing PB a lot of money and maybe more importantly a lot of bandwidth.

$400 bucks a year is actually pretty cheap. If you try to run your own server, paying $400 a year, you might hit bandwidth limits that make your pictures unavailable from time to time.

In a nut shell sharing to forums results in very heavy traffic for sites like PB thus increasing their expenses. Think about it a bit, every time you visit a page on this forum your browser re downloads all the pictures it doesn't have cached. Since people are in the habit of revisiting threads one user can generate many extra downloads of a picture. Multiply that by thousands if users.

Frankly one way around this is for the forums to provide image storage and download capability. However you end up with the same economic issue in that many online forums such as this can't afford the bandwidth. It all comes back to getting what you paid for.

 

[Wizard69]

It looks like Photobucket made a BIG change to their TOS on the 28th June and now the only pricing tier that allows 3rd party hosting (posting pics to a forum) is the $399 per year plan. As yet my account hasn't been flagged, probably as I don't have many pictures or much traffic but I'm sure it will be soon.

Photobucket has clearly made the decision that free accounts don't pay the bills and are essentially charging for cloud storage below the top tier plan, which actually provides 'normal' picture hosting options. I wouldn't be surprised to see a newcomer to the market gain a foothold in the void of photobuckets' departure as a viable free hosting option. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Photobucket to reverse their decision though.

For me, I guess the easiest (or rather cheapest) thing to do is host my pics on some of the hosting space I already pay for, for other reasons. I'd suggest maybe looking into a similar thing, either a free hosting site with a couple of gig of space, or a reasonably priced hosting plan and your own domain. Owning your own domain has the added advantage of guaranteeing permanent access to your email address even if you change employers, or ISP's.

Owning your own host isn't cost free either, especially if you sign up with a provider and an account that doesn't have bandwidth limitations. In many cases it would be cheaper to pay PB $400 a month. The so called free hosting sites can be extremely limited.

Beyond all of that managing your own domain and host isn't a trivial activity. Especially when you consider hackers and other concerns with server management.

Im not saying it cant be done just that the economics is debatable. One retired tool and die maker i know did set up such a server so it isn't impossible but he also wasn't sharing photos with forums. The thing here he was retired and had a part time computer based business. Thus he had the time and skills. Now i forget what he was paying at the time but it was around $25 a month.

 

[TonyM]

I have visited various forums recently and its not unusual to find photos and videos are not available in many threads. So I guess PB's rules are affecting a lot of people.