Photobucket

Lost Skeleton

Lost Skeleton

Well-known member
Can anyone recommend a reasonable alternative to (ugh) Photobucket? I see I am now required to pay for the privilege of third party hosting. I will not pay $400.00 per year to share photos on this or any other forum. Sorry, but I'd rather invest the money in collectibles.

Every photo I have ever posted here is now in Photobucket limbo. I have no desire to make my albums public because one never knows who is lurking. Even if I switch to another host, there will be no way to reconcile the new links with existing posts. All the hours I have devoted to this site are now meaningless. What good is a topic on helmet covers (which received 45,653 views) without a single one of my photos for reference? I spent ages on that, as I did with all my photography.

I guess that's it. I'm out.

Chas
 
I use Photobucket and haven't seen anything about a third party fee, my photos are still up on my postings here. :-k
 
As is my avatar photo, which resides in Photobucket. Everything else has been replaced with the following (for example):

http://pickelhaubes.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11211" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It could be that the new user terms are being implemented gradually. If so, it will wreck much of what has been contributed to make this forum great. :-?

Chas
 
Hi, Chas--
First, I've had a LOT of problems with Photobucket in recent months too. It is to the point that I found it unusable and unfortunately what I've found all have issues. Hosting of images is a problem simply because of the business model. The most important thing to remember is that these companies are trying to make money through a service.

Now in your particular case can you check and see if you are at the FREE storage limit.

By the look of the image in your posts that shows up it looks like you could be at the limit. That is why your images aren't showing up. Photobucket is one of those services where so-called "power users" simply don't have enough space and end up paying to host more. I believe the service provides 2GB of free storage, and while that sounds like a lot that is really only 1,000 2MB images. If you post a lot on forums that can be used up quickly - and honestly for a lot of us on this and other forums we've been milking that cow for a LONG, LONG time. At some point it is pay up or give up.

Finally, and please don't take this the wrong way, but your argument is a bit weak. You said: "I see I am now required to pay for the privilege of third party hosting. I will not pay $400.00 per year to share photos on this or any other forum. Sorry, but I'd rather invest the money in collectibles."

I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but Photobucket is a business too and they have to make money somehow. They can't host endless photos of helmets and whatever else. There is no free lunch unfortunately. I agree that no one likes to pay money for things that were free, but you have to weigh the value you get from any service.

Just my two cents.
PS
 
Your points are well articulated, Peter. No offense taken. However, the last time I checked, I had used less than 10% of my "free" storage. Most of the photos I uploaded to Photobucket were under 80 KB each. Furthermore, one is inundated with pop-up advertising for hosting on the cheap. Obviously, PB rakes in a fortune from paid advertisers. Naturally, PB is entitled to charge something from its users, but if the lowest payment option is $400.00 per annum, they can pound salt as far as I'm concerned. That's not a weak argument. It's economic reality.

My position is that even a more cost effective alternative is pointless at this stage. Were I to switch to ImageShack or Flickr (for example), I will not be investing further time in attempting to update and reconcile over 1000 existing posts with completely new and incompatible image tags. Should I cull selected images to see whether it frees up Photobucket storage? What's the point? I might just as well delete everything. Finally, I absolutely refuse to make my PB albums public through direct links. Any troll can access this forum, and ALL the photos contained within, without ever registering. I can Google Kaiserliche Marine Schirmmütze and find dozens of my photos with links to this site. Some of my photos have even been pilfered and used in Wikipedia articles. That horse left the barn long ago, but I refuse to make it any easier for the thieves. Do I have an inflated opinion of what I contributed to this forum over the years? I don't think so, but others will invariably disagree.

It's a shame this phpBB platform abandoned direct and private image hosting ages ago. I understand the issue was one of additional expense. Nevertheless, an in house system would have been preferable, and something to which I would have gladly contributed. It would have meant greater security for forum members — some of whose collections are valued in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

An idea I wanted to float is a pickelhaubes.com closed group on Facebook. There, I routinely upload images of greater resolution than I ever used on PB, and it costs nothing more than abandoning one's expectations of privacy — something that already affects anyone who has ever used the internet.
 
To further illustrate my point. Click on the following link:

https://www.google.com/search?q=kaiserliche+marine+schirmm%C3%BCtze&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiniOaO0-PUAhUHGj4KHbaMAnMQsAQIIQ&biw=1920&bih=951#imgrc=_" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Five of the visors in the first three rows are mine and one is Tony's. Photobucket "generously" allows those thumbs to remain, but if one clicks on "visit page," it is gone. If one clicks on "view image," he goes straight to Photobucket — pop-up advertisements and all. Don't think for one moment that Google and Photobucket don't receive some remuneration, however paltry or indirect, for every hit they collect.
 
Weird, mine is still working fine and I am 20% of my quota

Still a pain to use, pop ups etc. but working

James
 
Hi James,

I logged into Photobucket this morning to attempt to get to the bottom of things. According to PB, I have only used 4% of my "free" storage. That's hardly anything if the 2 GB maximum that Peter mentioned is correct. "Third party hosting" is the problem, and I have no idea when that quota is expended. Would it be safe to assume that most of your 20% has also been shared to third parties? If so, I should still be well under the maximum. Then again, I have no idea whether the numbers are based on percentage of uploads or volume of third party hosting.

The new user policy went into effect on 27 June 2017. Whether it hit me before others because my surname begins with "B," I cannot say. It will probably catch up with everyone eventually. Be watching for it.

In the meantime, it will delete some photos I no longer regard important to this forum — historic firearms, medals, etc. — though I doubt it will change anything.

Chas
 
UPDATE: I just deleted 70 of 1280 photos and one short video uploaded to Photobucket specifically for 3rd Party Hosting. Remember, those 1280 photos accounted for 4% of my total storage, which is now only 3.8% full or 80MB. A "free" account is, as Peter stated, 2GB or 2,000MB.

From Photobucket:

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, Etsy, eBay auction listings, a blog, etc. is definitively 3rd party hosting.

Deleting the photos changed absolutely nothing. Obviously, there is no quota. The only way for me to unlock 3rd Party Hosting is to purchase a "Plus500" yearly plan for $399.99. Sorry, but I ain't doing it.

It's a safe bet that sooner or later this will catch up with all Photobucket users on this forum. I no longer care. I will also be deleting my Photobucket account to restore as much privacy to my collection as I can.

I wish the Admin would take note of all this as it will eventually kill-off a substantial portion of the forum.

Finally — from a blogger:

http://www.laurenwayne.com/2017/06/photobucket-phail-how-to-ruin-host-site.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chas
 
And cost-wise it seems like a reasonable alternative, James. However, I'm not sufficiently interested to begin at square one all over again. The fact that this conversation has only motivated three other people to comment pretty much sums it up; my photo sharing days are at an end.

No one will even notice.
 
Just trying to help. My guess is most people are not even around to read this, it is the 4th, long weekend

James
 
I just logged in on my photobucket and seems that i have not one foto in there on my personal page
I am not an expert at computers for saving the fotos on that particilar site
Al of my fotos from my collection are either on a sd card or on a stick
As for your dilema weather you take photobucket or an other site like image shack i wont be of mutch help here
Most part of the time it amaises me i sucseed in uploading pics to pickelhaubes.com
Just not into the entire computerbusiness

Sorry if i cant share more information on this matter

Jonas
 
I wish the Admin would take note of all this as it will eventually kill-off a substantial portion of the forum....
The fact that this conversation has only motivated three other people to comment pretty much sums it up; my photo sharing days are at an end.
Click to expand...

I don't know. Seems to me that if you did not have a proprietary interest in the photos it wouldn't bother you.
 
I appreciate your contributions to this forum Chas. They are always informative and professionally done. I don't know if its a sad commentary :lol: on my private life that I read all of the forum postings!
 
Joe, if you read every word I wrote above, it should be obvious this will eventually impact every member who has used Photobucket to post images on this forum. Once those photos are "locked out," what remains? A whole load of text with no illustrative context, whatsoever. I used to hear others comment about what a fabulous teaching tool this forum is. For example, "Look at this one-of-a-kind unit marking… oh, that's right, that picture no longer exists because 3rd Party Hosting has been locked." You once asked me to write something about color in period photographs. I did so. That humble effort has received 17,523 views to date. Take a look at it now.

http://pickelhaubes.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2417" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Useless, isn't it?

Most of the phpBB forums facilitate photo uploads. This one used to as well. When Photobucket attempts to charge users $399.99 to unlock 3rd Part Hosting, it is because they "think" each user operates his own proprietary forum, or blog, etc. I don't. This website is my proxy host. If the Admin were seriously interested in preserving this forum for future generations of members (yeah, right), it could make an appeal to help fund such a system. I'd rather give that $400.00 to Brian toward the purchase of a server with sufficient storage for photo uploads than to horsebleep Photobucket. In-house is always a more secure system than third party. Additionally, a closed group on Facebook — an extension of Pickelhaubes.com — might be worthy of merit.

I don't have anything more to offer. Those are my ideas.

Respectfully,

Chas
 
Like so many others, I too have had an endless nightmare with photobucket. I have a couple of posts that I have been waiting to add to the forum, but photobucket prevents me from successfully adding pictures. I have done some investigation, talked to some people who belong to that special "computer age group", and I have begun signing up for other photo sharing websites in order to find out if a reasonable alternative exists. I am hopeful that I can find a place that won't hold my photos for ransom.

Here is what I have found so far:

Dropbox.com
Flickr.com
Imageshack.com
Picorator.com
Shutterfly.com

There are several others, some of which can be located here: http://www.topbestalternatives.com/photobucket/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; but it looks like many of those are for producing cards, albums, or selling photos online.

I have an equal interest in fixing this problem, so I would appreciate any and all input concerning alternative sites.

Here is a photo I just loaded on picorator.com. I copied the "Forum Code (BBC Code)" link and pasted it directly into the forum. I did not resize it and I have not "played" with the website enough yet to even know what editing is available. It was quick and easy to sign up to picorator.com and I did NOT SEE EVEN A SINGLE POP-UP while I was in this website!!!!



This looks like a pretty good alternative, at least for now.

John :(
 
Thank you, John. I'm certain I will be able to find a decent alternative for future photo sharing, but what is past is gone for good. I wish I had never thrown in my lot with Photobucket. :(
 
Lost Skeleton said:
Thank you, John. I'm certain I will be able to find a decent alternative for future photo sharing, but what is past is gone for good. I wish I had never thrown in my lot with Photobucket. :(
Click to expand...

I am 100% with you there. Photobucket has been a pain since day one! Good luck. I would hate to see you give up. Many of us here look forward to your educational posts.

John :)
 
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