Photobucket

Same thing here!
Also active on different fora. Not all militaria related.
Lifetime member on two of the militaria fora, one for my " intelectual" ( :D !)contribution, the other for the financial ( I once gave*)contribution.
I am quiet active on the antiques market and very often need to find out what a item needs to be genuine and what it is worth.
Many sites (worthpoint, Drouot etc...) hold parts of that information and ask money to get it.
I never payed for information. Because if I would it would cost me quiet a lot....
And I trust I always got reasonable good information up to now, for what I get on fora.
A give an take experience. A fair exchange of info or/and help. Also made some nice acquaintances, that goes on in real live.

But I do understand the job and cost of a forum (I had one my self and have been moderating a other), so if you could tell me what the donation/ membership cost, would be to be part of this forum I would be glad to considering to stay or leave.


*the financial contribution I gave, didn't come from me exactly.
It was years ago on a militaria forum that a sponsor gave 3 prices during a contest. First price was a 500 euro voucher to spent at the sponsor shop.
I was second. And me and the winner decided to donate our gain to the forum. Don't how it exactly was finalized. But it made us lifetime menbers of that particular forum. :wink:
 
I too will gladly contribute to an in-house photo posting system if that is to be. Photobucket and I don't get along well!
 
stuka f said:
A give an take experience. A fair exchange of info or/and help.
Click to expand...
Precisely. Experienced collectors vet items on eBay (and elsewhere) to assist prospective bidders and buyers; some members buy, sell, and trade through this community; topics of discussion often quote (or provide comparable information to) costly reference books. Everyone here benefits from the give and take. Tony Schnurr and reservist1 have assisted me countless times, and I have contributed to published books by Johan Somers and monfort. I did so freely and gladly. For those who had relations in uniform during the Great War, I have used my self-funded memberships with ancestry.com, findmypast.co.uk, and the "pay to download" UK National Archives to conduct genealogical and military searches for service records, Medal Index Cards and Medal Rolls. I do this gratis, and have been contributing to the Imperial War Museum's LIVES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR project. The work is comparable to a full-time job, but if it helps someone connect with a forgotten, or unknown, member of his/her family tree, it is worth it.

A comparable phpBB forum I belong to, British Medals Forum, provides services to trace lost and stolen medals, and dedicated researchers have devoted countless hours to compiling databases for surviving Waterloo and Naval General Service Medals. One can download Excel spreadsheets with the fruits of this research, which include auction provenance and known disposition of surviving medals — at no cost. The goal is update and complete the database. Furthermore, one can upload multiple attachments and add descriptive captions. GMIC and Wehrmacht Awards also utilize the same phpBB format.

This piqued my curiosity. If I understand the system correctly, the initial phpBB license is $75.00 and annual renewal of that license is $49.00. I'm no multi-millionaire, but I can certainly chip in. Money could also be raised by incorporating discrete advertising. Even the phpBB web page does so:

http://www.phpbbhs.com/pricing.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yes, I was shocked and frustrated when Photobucket crapped the bed. Who wouldn't be? After all, I didn't pull them out of a hat. Photobucket was recommended to me by members of this forum who had personal experience with the service. Once bitten, twice shy.

Regarding the rest — message received.

Chas
 
The platform is the easy part. Hosting is the expense. Sites that allow image posting often pay several thousand $ a year. It is a very costly undertaking to activate image uploading.
 
Lost Skeleton said:
I read through the Picorator terms of service and privacy terms. It's not for me. Though the IP for the site is in Germany, the company is Russian. After the Photobucket debacle, I don't feel comfortable surrendering personal info to Egor S Pavlikhin in the Russian Federation:

http://picorator.com.outerstats.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I've been looking into California based SmugMug.

https://www.smugmug.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chas
Click to expand...

Chas,
I just got hit today and now all of my photobucket photos are held for ransom. I knew that it was just a matter of time. I agree with your comment, and I don't want to deal with a foreign company, especially Russian, but I also realize that photobucket is an American company. I have a feeling that SmugMug is eventually bound for the same downward slide as photobucket.

John
 
Hi John:

It's amazing how quickly someone updates a Wikipedia article. I was reading about Photobucket ownership, and the 28 June 2017 Terms of Use fiasco has already been added to the History section. !00,000,000 users? That number is going to take a hit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photobucket" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

When it comes to available alternatives, Picorator neither makes the list, nor has a Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_image-sharing_websites" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chas
 
Lost Skeleton said:
Hi John:

It's amazing how quickly someone updates a Wikipedia article. I was reading about Photobucket ownership, and the 28 June 2017 Terms of Use fiasco has already been added to the History section. !00,000,000 users? That number is going to take a hit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photobucket" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chas
Click to expand...

Holy Cow! I had no idea that Wikipedia was that "Johnny on the spot".

John
 
SkipperJohn said:
Holy Cow! I had no idea that Wikipedia was that "Johnny on the spot".
Click to expand...

Wikipedia is a site anyone can update, so the one "plus" is that it is timely. When a celebrity dies the site is updated literally within seconds!

The downside is that anyone can pretty much contribute to it... so trusting everything on Wikipedia is like trusting the know-it-all at the bar.
 
Well, the more I dig into this... I must admit I completely understand this move by Photobucket. I'm going to be the contrarian on this one, but I think this is actually the smartest move that Photobucket could have made. Let's say they have 100 million users, which is the current estimate. According to reports more than 75 percent of all members are free users and make the company NO money, but these are also the guys like us that just use it for third party hosting. In the end we generate ZERO income for the company and fill up their servers.

As Tony mentioned hosting is the largest single expense for any forum. I know another helmet forum had to do a mid year fundraising drive just to pay for the photo hosting. So consider that forums cost $2000+ a year to run because of photo hosting, then actually Photobucket looks attractive. Of course to most of us this is outrageous because we are used to paying nothing, so a jump to $400 is a fortune.

However, I really did think about this and dug into the details. If they said $20 a year for hosting for the 2GB that used to be free then maybe they'd lose 50 percent of the people and that might be a bad move in the long term. Yes, that would mean they'd reap about $2billion a year in revenue, but have higher expenses including having the keep 50+ million people happy. Now with $400 a year, if they keep only 1 percent of their customers they stand to make $400 million a year and have far fewer customers to keep happy. Photobucket only employs around 50 people in Denver so the way I see this that's not a bad way to run a leaner shop.

Honestly, I have to say this is looking like a smart move - but handled badly. We should have received warning, etc. They really did break a ton of forums, blogs, sales on Etsy, eBay and Amazon, etc.

Finally, I think forum owners should talk to Photobucket about providing a way for all the images on a forum to be hosted at $400 a year. That would probably be a cheaper option for Pickelhaubes.com. Not for EACH of us to pay $400, but for the forum. Look at this way, if there are 100 members that would cost us $4 each a year.

Here is the 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. I seriously doubt this forum uses even 20 GB of storage right now. 502 GB would give us enough space for another decade!
 
Actually this move by PB does provide an opportunity, purchase a Plus 500 Plan and then sell GB on it to those who don't want to buy the whole thing.
 
aicusv said:
Actually this move by PB does provide an opportunity, purchase a Plus 500 Plan and then sell GB on it to those who don't want to buy the whole thing.
Click to expand...

Brilliant idea, but I'm sure that they would catch on and eventually charge the "owner" $40,000 a year to maintain it. I don't think anyone will trust photobucket again.

John
 
Peter_Suciu said:
Finally, I think forum owners should talk to Photobucket about providing a way for all the images on a forum to be hosted at $400 a year. That would probably be a cheaper option for Pickelhaubes.com. Not for EACH of us to pay $400, but for the forum. Look at this way, if there are 100 members that would cost us $4 each a year.

Here is the 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. I seriously doubt this forum uses even 20 GB of storage right now. 502 GB would give us enough space for another decade!
Click to expand...
It sounds like the perfect solution to me, Peter. With one username — "pickelhaubes," for example — and a shared password for the entire forum, all our photos could be hosted ad free under a single Photobucket subscription. Each of us could create our own album within the shared library to keep things easy to manage. Your idea is brilliant. As stated previously, I think it would be a wise idea to review the profiles of forum members. Those who have not posted for a lengthy period, or never posted at all, should be culled. I would be more concerned about forum/Photobucket privacy and security than anyone hitching a free ride. Imagine the harm that could be done should the wrong person have access to the Photobucket password. Trust and individual integrity will be the key to it working.

Should this sound too egalitarian, Brian need only share the password with those who contribute to the annual Photobucket subscription fee.

I made a contribution to the forum server fees on Friday. If Brian decides to run with your idea, 1/4 of a Plus 500 annual plan is already covered.

Kudos!

Chas
 
Think it's time to put in my two cents.

It's a nasty move from PB (I'm using flickr myself), but I would be really sorry to see this forum change into the "select few welcome only" type forum that there are so many of already.

I very much enjoy the tone and respect displayed here, and I'm on the forum almost every day.

I have contributed financially a few times, but as I'm a modest collector (total of 8 OR Pickelhauben, all "normal" regiments) I don't have a lot to show and therefor also have a modest number of posts. I post when I think I can contribute. I enjoy other people's helmets and have tried my hand at helmet restoration inspired by Brian's wonderful work (and shown the results here).

If this forum were to change to a place where only people with great collections and many posts are allowed then that would be a great loss for me.

Best regards,

Lars
 
I agree with you, Lars. When I made my suggestion about culling, it was motivated by what I perceive to be countless "users" with no history of activity on the forum. I do appreciate there can be a silent majority in our midst, but, were we to attempt some sort of shared forum Photobucket subscription, would it be fair for a "Joe Flabeets," who does nothing here, to use the 3rd party hosting to upload images of his sale items to eBay? I do not advocate being exclusionary, but there has to be some measure of control.

Thank you for responding. Your concerns will help inform whatever decisions the administration eventually makes. I'm just a member, like you, and was soliciting help. Perhaps, you can tell me something about how the Flickr service works. I tried my hand at SmugMug, but was unable to get to any "http://img." code to embed.

Thanks,

Chas
 
I'm happy to hear that Chas :D

My yahoo account also allows me to log in on flickr. Apparently I have 1 terabyte available of which I use 0.0%

Once you have uploaded a picture (or a picture someone else uploaded for that matter) and have clicked on it so it is the only picture visible, click on the curved arrow (in the lower right hand corner of the picture, hovering over it shows "Share Photo"), then select "BBCode", select size and the link automatically appears.

Not sure what their business model is so no guarantee that they won't start charging at some later point in time.

Best regards,

Lars
 
I have consulted with my son Logan, who obviously is much more up to date regarding this ongoing issue with PB. As a result of his advice, I have joined Imgur and will be using them to host my pictures in the future. He has told me not to use PB again but to lay low and not use that account. They have not "come for me" as yet perhaps because I am at 60% usage. Thank you Chas and Matt for the recent donations, unfortunately PayPal no longer sends notifications of this to me, so if I do not check into the account, I don't know that there has been money sent. However, I thank you both...Chas and John you each have a made good point....it is truly the contributions made by members such as yourselves and many others..... in photos, posts, advice and countless other things that make this forum what it is. However, that does not pay the bills when they come due. It is what it is, we are collectors of a very obscure piece of History, many know of them but would never think of collecting them. I have taken on the task of hosting this forum and my life has been enriched tenfold as a result.
Obviously, the idea that this site should host everyone's pictures is not realistic and is not going to happen, way too much money involved. This forum was never set up on some sort of business model, which I am sure is very obvious to our business minded members. What I can assure you all, is that I will continue to host it with some help from the membership. We do excellent work gentlemen, we guide young collectors we have saved them thousands of $$. We have exposed "the frakers" and we are known worldwide and that is a tribute to our forum. Regarding other web site forums, I honestly could care less, I have enough to do looking after our forum. This is my focus and as always I wish you well and above all, happy hunting for pickelhauben!! :thumb up:
 
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