For years i have used Photobucket for Free Image Storage to display Pictures on some of the Forums that I use and occasionally on items I sold on eBay.

Now they want $400/yr to permit 3rd party display.

This leaves a number of posts on the forums without the Images displayed,
just this:



Jerks

Just heard that the other day people on another forum were complaining as a lot of posts were left with that image. Just use http://imgur.com/ it's a little different set up but once you get used to it it's alright.There were a couple others mentioned here maybe they'll post links again.

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Just heard that the other day people on another forum were complaining as a lot of posts were left with that image. Just use http://imgur.com/ it's a little different set up but once you get used to it it's alright.There were a couple others mentioned here maybe they'll post links again.

Thanks, I have created a account with imgur. You don't have to have an account with them to upload images but it seems easier to keep track of uploaded images if you do have a account.

Thanks again!
Paul Pavlik

On one hand, I understand that people hosting images on their site leads to high bandwidth costs.

On the other hand, cutting off all access unless you pay $400 a year is idiotic. You can get a VPS server for less than that and host the images yourself. Or use Amazon AWS, IMGUR, or another service. That charge sounds like it's just going to cause a mass exodus from PhotoBucket to other services (and a lot of broken image links).

Have to agree. Totally idiotic. I'm suspecting that this will back fire on Photobucket and if I'd be surprised if they don't have to back track on this within a year. May even put them out of business. Heads should roll on this stupidity and Greed. Nothing like holding your Customers Data for Ransom.

Cloud Services = Corner the market with a free service. Then when you have bought out all the other competition or put them out of business.... jack up the rates astronomically. Oh and read the Licence agreements. Once you upload Data to a " Cloud " service they " own " that Data in most cases. Certainly the case with Photobucket.

And of course you are entirely dependant on the Security of said " Cloud " Database. Not that Criminal minds would ever want to attcak Commercial " Cloud " databases to gain access to millions of Bank accounts or Credit cards etc.

Yeah... " The Cloud " is a really great place to store your data.... NOT !!!

I believe that charge is for 3rd party hosting, I don't think it's going to affect too many people.

This is their full text:


*What is 3rd Party Hosting?

Photobucket defines 3rd party hosting as the action of embedding an image or photo onto another website. For example, using the <img> tag to embed or display a JPEG image from your Photobucket account on another website such as a forum, auction listing, blog, etc. is definitively 3rd party hosting.
Why Photobucket?

Photobucket is the global destination for linking and 3rd party hosting. In Photobucket’s 14-year history, the Company amassed over 100 million registered users, over 15 billion images stored, 2 million daily uploads and 10 billion photos accessed monthly.

Easy to Use – Upload a photo from any device and copy the embed code with one click to host a photo with no development or technical knowledge required

Competitive, fixed pricing Offers the only unlimited 3rd party hosting plan (Commercial and Personal Use)
Are my pictures still safe?

Yes! All your photos are still available by logging into your Photobucket Account. Photobucket has only restricted the ability to view your photos on 3rd party sites.
Can I download my Photos?

Absolutely, at any time. It is an easy four step process:

Step 1. Login to your Photobucket Account

Step 2. Navigate to your library page

Step 3. View a photo and click the download button

Step 4. The picture will be saved to your computer

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I don't think it's going to affect too many people.

Quote:

Photobucket defines 3rd party hosting as the action of embedding an image or photo onto another website. For example, using the <img> tag to embed or display a JPEG image from your Photobucket account on another website such as a forum, auction listing, blog, etc. is definitively 3rd party hosting.

And I would think it to be quite common for users of an image hosting site to embed images into a forum.

Not all forums host images themselves (pcqanda.com does).
And even if they do, there are still those who will link images from an image hosting site rather then upload directly to here.





One is hosted elsewhere.
One is uploaded & hosted here.

To have Photobucket come along, out of the blue & break any & all forums that have images embedded from them is a crock.

Lets see what happens with
http://www.pcqanda.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=printer_friendly&forum=2&topic_id=558652&mesg_id=558667
or
http://www.pcqanda.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=printer_friendly&forum=2&topic_id=555682&mesg_id=555685
or
any other number of posts that have photobucket hosted images.


Presumably at some point in time you'll see something like:





Won't that be lovely.

It's actually happening already there is a car thread on another forum that's left with a lot of placeholders instead of images. So they have started with that and a lot of people are doing their definition of 3rd party hosting.