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Photobucket to stop allowing direct linking unless you pay.


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A day late and a dollar short, but it shows the scale of the tsunami of destruction caused by this insensitive and sneaky money grab by Hades based Photobucket.  They know FULL WELL that no-one reads updated terms & conditions, so they realised they were doing something pretty underhand.  Shame on them :fraidnot:

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Well, that's it.  Just deleted all my photos (they're on my hard drive anyway) and closed my account.  I figured it was better to do that before I just couldn't get at them any more.  The last straw was an ad that I couldn't get rid of urging me to upgrade to a paid PB account.

 

My apologies for anyone who was looking at one of my old threads, but there will be more once I've found a new host.

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I have an idea. Instead of relying on a third party photo site, why can't Britmodeller just fix the forums where we can copy and paste a photo into the thread itself? I always found the linking from Photobucket to be a pain anyway.

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10 minutes ago, Texan76 said:

I have an idea. Instead of relying on a third party photo site, why can't Britmodeller just fix the forums where we can copy and paste a photo into the thread itself? I always found the linking from Photobucket to be a pain anyway.

Mike has said previously that it would use up his bandwidth, not to say the terabytes or whatever of extra storage he'd have to acquire at some considerable cost (to who?). Added to that embedding images runs the risk of viruses.

 

So a non starter really.

 

Trevor

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22 minutes ago, Texan76 said:

I have an idea. Instead of relying on a third party photo site, why can't Britmodeller just fix the forums where we can copy and paste a photo into the thread itself? I always found the linking from Photobucket to be a pain anyway.

 

 

...as Trevor says, it would heap a massive amount of cost onto the server that would be impossible to recoup on a non-commercial basis.  There's also the fact that we're not set up to be a photo-host, and our current server has been configured to be a forum powerhouse, not a photo server.  We'd need to migrate to a new server, or stand a new one up just to deal with photos.  That gets expensive fast, and you can soon tear through terrabytes of data with even a modest photo count.  if we allowed 3rd party hosting into the bargain, we'd be calling the fire brigade to the new server in no time :jump_fire:

 

TL;DR too much cost and responsibility in a field we have no experience in.

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6 minutes ago, Dads203 said:

 

It's alive!!!! :shocked:

 

I doubt that would make much in the way of inroads, but I've been seeing articles popping up all over the place showing PB up for the short-sighted muppets they've been lately.  The sheer volume of negativity might affect their share price, which in turn hits investors and maybe dents the confidence of any investment capital involvement, and it's those people that DO actually matter to the bosses at PB, as they have the power to oust them.

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I started reading up on this issue. There seems to be a huge backlash on how Photobucket handled this rollout. Instead of doing all these petitions, etc., I would encourage everyone to go and use a competitors service and refuse to return to Photobucket. They would really feel the pain of their action then. I would use someone else and refuse to return to them even if they rescind the new policy. 

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Hello

This is funny. I just received and e-mail from PB informing me that they have launched PBdeals service. They offered me a lot of stuff I do not need nor want. Is this their normal policy? I have always deleted their e-mails on server without opening them, so I do not know if spam like this is part of their usual e-correspondence. Cheers

Jure

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This is just a quick test to see if using goo.gl to shorten the URL allows the image to still be visible after I have signed-out of Google Photos.

 

First image is using the URL direct from Google Photos (Right-click, Copy, Insert other media, Insert image from URL, add ?.JPG to end)

 

iRB2JeD0CASS0jhDvItqzeWw1vqL8su4EdFNeYuu

 

Second image is using the URL direct from Google Photos (Right-click, Copy) then shortened using goo.gl  (Insert other media, Insert image from URL, add ?.JPG to end)

 

ok6nS3?.JPG

 

My theory is that the really long URL is not really reliable compared to the shortened version.

 

After posting I will log-out of Google to see what happens.

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11 hours ago, Kevin Callahan said:

Thankfully I've never put anything on PB that wasn't already on my HDD and a stick, so I won't be losing any photos. What will happen, unfortunately, is that all email postings I have made in the past now have that dreaded "no third party hosting" replacements. At one stroke, this invalidates a lot of the history of our boards. What I think about PB at this moment would cause an archdemon to blush with embarrassment, but I think that Postimage is probably the one I will use from this point on. I can only quote to PB a redacted version of Jim Cornette's famous closing phrase: Thank you, forget you, bye!

This is a no-swearing board, which includes mixed up and obfuscated spellings. Please remember this.

 

My apologies to the mods. I didn't realize that obfuscations were not allowed. I'll keep this in mind in future. 

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Hi Diggers11, I can see both pictures. I'm using Firefox on a PC and Chrome on a Smartphone (mobile version of BM).

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

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Well, I won’t delete my images on my PB account as others have said that you can still see the blocked images by right clicking them and opening in a new tab.

Pain in the bottom really, as I’ve been quite happy with PB since 2008 rarely having problems other than taking a while to upload photos on occasion.

 

Just started on Imgur, just to trial it out. So far so good with regards uploading stuff. Stupidly simple by just dragging photos from my pictures folder straight onto the open Imgur webpage!

 

Testing, testing  1  2  3…

2C8G6by.jpg

 

:yes: Job's a good'un

 

Mart

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I made a submission to Photobucket as detailed at page 5 of this thread. Here's Photobucket's response:

Quote

Moss (Photobucket Support)

Jul 3, 2:55 PM MDT 

Hello,

Thank you for feedback.

Photobucket continues to have the distinct pleasure of hosting 15 billion photos from 100 million unique users since inception fourteen years ago. In recent months, management has made some changes that will enable Photobucket to continue providing excellent services to our user base while maintaining an economically stable position.

In the past we’ve had solutions for everyone. From free users to paid subscriptions, there’s been an option for all types of people that care about their memories, blogs, or businesses. We continue to commit to offering free services as well as enterprise support, but we’ve needed to reinforce standards we’ve been historically lenient on.

It is our business to serve our users with valuable benefits that are otherwise very costly for us to support compared to our competitors, especially as it relates to third party image hosting. Starting several weeks ago, we began telling our users that the nature of how we work with them will be changing with the tide of the photo hosting environment via messaging in email, on site, etc. In staying true to our word, we’re asking that customers using our service as an image serving facility buy a subscription to continue with that level of service that has historically been overlooked for free users. This feature is a costly one, and we are asking our patrons to help support our infrastructure. We aren’t deleting photos or holding any photos at arm’s length for download; we are simply asking our non-paying users to join our subscription service to continue enjoying benefits of our site.

The subscriptions we are offering are price competitive for the greater photo hosting landscape, and we hope to bring additional functionality in the upcoming months to further delight our users that support their businesses with our service. We are continually evaluating our subscriptions, committing to the needs, feedback, and desires of our valued user base.

Sincerely,


Moss@Photobucket Support

 

There's nothing in the response that specifically addresses any of the points that I raised. Accordingly, it would appear that I have received a generic response (not that I expected anything more).

 

As has already been pointed out on this thread by others, Photobucket does not want small users, it is repositioning itself as a host for "users that support their businesses with our service."

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Oh my brain really hurts :(.

 

It's 6.05 am here in Australia. I've been on Photobucket for Nine Hours :o!!!

 

I only have old computers. They work fine usually; what's with all the 'Flash' adverts popping up everywhere? Around seven on the go all at once, then a TV style advert comes on with a dolphin in a deck chair trying to sell me Fishermans Friends, at the same time a full screen almost naked, pregnant woman, is trying to sell me 'Huggies' :frantic: !!!!

 

The computer fan was going like mad with all the Flash animations! It speeds up when they give you those 'intelligence tests': "Are you Human?"

"How many boxes have road signs?"

"How many boxes have cars?"

"How many boxes contain orang utans wearing bikinis juggling ferrets?"

 

Then the fan ať maximum, then the download starts just as the CPU is about to melt.

 

The fan slows.

 

Wait 20 minutes.

 

"The exe file attached to the zip contains no data".

 

I wanted buttons, not zips, that ended me up in A & E last time and the liniment was expensive :confused: .

 

Still a gig to go :shutup:.

 

:hanging:

 

Yours losing his fruit bowl

TonyT

 

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29 minutes ago, Air-to-Air said:

Starting several weeks ago, we began telling our users that the nature of how we work with them will be changing with the tide of the photo hosting environment via messaging in email, on site, etc.

Funny how it appears that NO ONE on here, or any other forum I frequent, had heard anything about their extortion until they started holding peoples pictures to ransom...

 

29 minutes ago, Air-to-Air said:

we are asking our patrons to help support our infrastructure.

 

Ha, said it earlier, their servers are about to implode!! 

 

29 minutes ago, Air-to-Air said:

The subscriptions we are offering are price competitive for the greater photo hosting landscape,

 

Hahahaha!! How can they write that with a straight face....!!

 

Keith

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That's very true Mike. It's been down as low as zero Centigrade tonight. A little warmer than the weekend when it was down to around minus seven.

 

I pity people with older computers trying to do this in Southern Europe, Southern US, QLD etc.

 

It feels very deliberate. 'Get off our site because you're clearly not wealthy enough'. Not only fees to use the service, but to stop the older computers from burning up due to the Flash ads.

 

Duvet and laptop. Now porridge with honey and a cuppa and onwards again. Reading the BBC article.

 

There'll be thousands of people all over the planet doing this. I wonder if the PB price malarkey will create a restructuring of other companies price plans :hmmm: .

 

Mrs. T is away with work so the hours are mine, have at ye, PB ye varmints :hobbyhorse: !.

 

Best regards 

TonyT

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4 minutes ago, TonyTiger66 said:

There'll be millions of people all over the planet doing this.

 

Fixed that for ya.  Maybe not quite so well supplied and so eruditely described, but doing it nonetheless.  :shrug:

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37 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

I gave that post a 'like' Tony. But I'm not sure I should have...!!

 

Keith

 

Yes Keith, cheered me up :D.

 

I've thought about it a lot and I'm no longer of  the 'appreciative of the free time we've had' school of thought.

 

It's our interaction, the uploading, error reporting, reviews of apps, raising of support 'tickets' etc that has helped them to gain their true revenue, from advertising and user geo data dissemination.

 

As you've pointed out, their new pricing policy for 3rd party sharing is quite hurtful to those on lower incomes (around 80% plus of the population of the planet, 99% if we look at global wealth absolutes). There could have been tiers for third party sharing customers based on criteria they could set. 

 

They've counted on us all doing what we do best; finding our own way elsewhere. It's a bit like we went on  a 'Photobucket Cruise', then woke up one morning to find the ship in the middle of the Black Sea, with no crew, but a working ships telephone and tools to build lifeboats.

 

It's not just BM stuff, old work, research, blog, stuff for the kids; certainly not  given enough notice. I hadn't thought about Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, Abebooks etc. Lots of smaller customers, one person book sellers etc trying to just keep going. The 'how to fix it yourself' sites too. Grrrr. :angrysoapbox.sml:.

 

I think I'll have another cuppa :D :mental: .

Best regards

TonyT

 

Erudite Mike, me :hmmm:? It's great stuff for resin kits, I'll give it that, but I'm erring more toward CA for faster build time  :christmas:.

 

:coat: 

T

 

 

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8 hours ago, Air-to-Air said:

Just a suggestion for members. If you've got a bucket load of content stored on Photobucket and you've been a big contributor to Britmodeller, most of us appreciate that it would be far too much work for you to update years and years of posts. All is not lost! Whilst your images are not revealed in those historic threads, the links to Photobucket still work - so long as you do not close your account! You don't have to pay the ransom, just leave the content parked on Photobucket as it is.

 

By all means, download your content, get it hosted somewhere else, and update your favourite and current threads.

 

The historic threads will still have some value because people that are keen to see what you have done (or contributed) will still be able to click through to your Photobucket hosted image. If, however, you delete your account, your historic threads will have the Photobucket/P500 image embedded in them for good (unless you subsequently edit them out).

 

Yep - that's good advice.

 

Keep all your photos there (even if you had them private, as I had).  It will clutter their servers, if enough of us keep our (free) accounts, but we can still copy them, and put our images on other, more friendly, sites and re-post from those sites where we can/have interest in doing so.  That way, PB gains nothing.  If we leave, then they can re-allocate the bandwith to others who are foolish enough to pay their crazy prices.

 

Hit them in their pocket - it's the least they deserve.

 

Philip

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