This Can Ruin Everybody's Fun Of Creating & Post Screenshots

[Aharon]

Shalom and greetings all my pals,

Photobucket had made important announcement 2 days ago that could potentially ruin everybody's fun of creating and posting screenshots.

PhotoBucket now charges $399 for third-party hosted images.

Here is new rule for Photobucket: Free account : Each individual Member gets one free account that provides 2 GB of free storage or space available for your original photo files, or videos under 10min. The free account does not allow any image linking or 3rd party image hosting. If a free account Member exceeds their Content Limit, their account will be immediately suspended and they will need to become a “Paying Member” (defined below) in order to continue accessing their account. You can upgrade to a Plus account at any time.

Photobucket's new pricing system:

o Plus 50 Plan: 52 GB of Storage for $59.99 / Year. The Plus 50 Plan does not allow any image linking or 3rd party image hosting.

o Plus 100 Plan: 102 GB of Storage for $99.99 / Year. The Plus 100 Plan allows for unlimited image linking but not allow 3rd party image hosting.

o Plus 500 Plan: 500 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.

Here is the link for specific explanations by computer analyst experts as seen on this link:

https://www.ghacks.net/2017/06/30/photobucket-now-charges-399-for-third-party-hosted-images/

This is going to destroy flightsimmers' important hobby of creating beautiful screenshots. Guess I will have to look for another very reliable and superb photo image hosting site. Shesshhhhh.

Regards,

Aharon

[Tako_Kichi]

I just got an email to say all my linked images here and on a photography forum have all been disabled. Time to look for a new host.

[jeansy]

fsfiles.org

[Ferry_vO]

Thanks for the heads-up. Just cancelled my subscription and am now deleting all my images.

[Martyn]

I'd recommend https://postimage.io/

Very easy to use and free.

[ryanbatc]

Yeah me too... frustrating but now am using Flikr until they do the same lol

[dvj]

This should not stop you from creating beautiful screen shots. It only prevents you from storing them outside of your PC. Plenty of other hosting sites to choose from.

[Duckie]

The first and only advisory I received read like a ransom wear threat. My photos have been locked and I cannot access them because of my abuse of storage limits (I had 589 MB of photos, all FSX, all accumulated over several years) and 3rd party hosting. If I want access to my photos I must sign up for a payware account for $59.99 per year!

WOW! Goes from free to ransom wear hijack in less that 60 seconds!!!

Sure does ruin a lot of threads here.

PB account deleted and now on fsfiles.org

[hairyspin]

I suppose they haven't got round to me yet, since the screenshots I've posted here are still here. Photobucket has become slower and slower in the past year with ever more intrusive adverts on each page but if free account users may not post links to their pictures on forums like this, Photobucket should remove the means to do so from their pages. If they have genuinely revoked this privilege for free account holders then that's their decision, as using other services will be ours.

Smell of cordite and sore feet?

[heywooood]

imgur is easy, free, allows you to resize and edit your pics for forum use and ad free...no stupid popups http://imgur.com (http://imgur.com/?)

[Mach3DS]

Flickr...they copyright your images as well.

[gman5250]

I switched to Flickr a couple of years ago...until they go ransom (subscription) I suppose the photos I've posted will be OK.

I know I have the option of pro bono cloud storage available in areas I have not used yet. Looks like the trend towards marginalizing free storage is accelerating.

I was fortunate enough to acquire 3DS Max before they went purely subscription based, and I don't subscribe to Adobe clouds. Old school I guess.

As far as Photobucket goes...all of my screenies are backed up on external drive, so if I need to do any post ransom damage control, I'll still have options.

Two thumbs down on PB for this one. :p87::rocket:

[gman5250]

Flickr...they copyright your images as well.

Yeah...that's another conversation entirely. I'll refrain from commentary out of respect for our EULA!!!! :dizzy:

[manfredc3]

I have not received any notification from them yet, but will make sure my current backup matches the images I have on PhotoBucket just in case.

[Roxane-21]

Hummm... Fake news ?

I have a free account at PB, with many images linked on several forums, and everything is still up working. No notification either.

[Aharon]

I wish it is fake news but unfortunately it is NOT.

Which one is better for screenshots? Flickr or Imgur? I post an average of 40 or 50 screenshots per post on various aviation forums.

Is Flickr owned by Yahoo?

Anyone who has not received such announcement, if you go to Photobucket, you will see new service of notice on top of screen and when you click on it, it takes you to new service of notice containing new rules and new pricing rates.

Regards,

Aharon

[Tako_Kichi]

Hummm... Fake news ?

I have a free account at PB, with many images linked on several forums, and everything is still up working. No notification either.

It may not have happened yet .... but it will eventually. Once your bandwidth usage from remote views hits their limit...WHAMMO...no more linked images and the ransom demand to have them displayed again.

[gman5250]

Is Flickr owned by Yahoo?

Verizon/Yahoo/Flicker...as far as I know it happened Q1 this year, but I would need to look deeper to state that as absolute fact.

[Manschy]

Don't understand what's happen here so far: This is currently the state I found on PB:

http://photobucket.com/pricing

So please help me to get it clear - in my case, I have 2 GB for free, means currently still 6% of aviable free size. Furthermore, the pricing on this site shows 6$/month up to 52!!!!GB and so on. Where do I have to expect problems, please?

[Naismith]

Everybody these days seems to have their hand out. From the top down Now it has been mandated up here we must tip 20% in restaurants etc. No options. Well I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more
https://youtu.be/dib2-HBsF08

[Aharon]

Don't understand what's happen here so far So please help me to get it clear - in my case, I have 2 GB for free, means currently still 6% of aviable free size. Furthermore, the pricing on this site shows 6$/month up to 52!!!!GB and so on. Where do I have to expect problems, please?

Let me repeat in my original post showing conditions clearly stated in red font:

Free account : 2 GB of free storage or space available for your original photo files, or videos under 10min. The free account does not allow any image linking or 3rd party image hosting

o Plus 50 Plan: 52 GB of Storage for $59.99 / Year. The Plus 50 Plan does not allow any image linking or 3rd party image hosting

o Plus 100 Plan: 102 GB of Storage for $99.99 / Year. The Plus 100 Plan allows for unlimited image linking but does not allow 3rd party image hosting.

o Plus 500 Plan: 500 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.

[Aharon]

PC Magazine is reporting on this news item with screaming headline "Photobucket breaks Image Links across the Internet"

Here is the article:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/354711/photobucket-breaks-image-links-across-the-internet

[blanston12]

Has anyone tried google photo's?

After reading this this I am glad I run my own website and can hide my photos there.

[Timmy74]

fsfiles.org

Absolutely 100%!!!!:encouragement:

[DennyA]

This isn't going to hurt screenshot hosting at all, it's just going to make people choose a different host. If you're not archiving the photos under your own account for personal use, you can even throw them on Imgur without even logging in.

[greenie]

I've always kept a copy of my images on my usb backup. I like to be in control where I can and be independent of the net.

Another vote for http://imgur.com/upload

[WarHorse47]

Is there any comparison of the various image hosting sites?

I've stuck with PB for some time because I can group my images by subject. I've tried a few other sites, but they don't seem to have much in the way of managing or editing the uploaded images.

[Manschy]

Let me repeat in my original post showing conditions clearly stated in red font:

Free account : 2 GB of free storage or space available for your original photo files, or videos under 10min. The free account does not allow any image linking or 3rd party image hosting

o Plus 50 Plan: 52 GB of Storage for $59.99 / Year. The Plus 50 Plan does not allow any image linking or 3rd party image hosting

o Plus 100 Plan: 102 GB of Storage for $99.99 / Year. The Plus 100 Plan allows for unlimited image linking but does not allow 3rd party image hosting.

o Plus 500 Plan: 500 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.

Aharon, thank you - some time I am a little stupid in reading carefully, sorry. Now I am clear about it, thank you! :wavey: BTW: That is an insolence indeed!

I just have to edit: I checked my older screenshots in some other forums, and most shots are still there, instead of some other shots of several other users. So I am deeply confused. What's happen there? :mixed-smiley-027:

Another thought: What about hacking? Everything's possible these days.... No company can be that stupid to my opinion. I assume that may be an option...

[Bjoern]

My Photobucket hosted images still work as well, but I can't log in or recover my username and passwords.

Will probably save some images for nostalgia and then delete my account. I haven't used it in years anyway.

[Paul Domingue]

Has anyone tried google photo's?

After reading this this I am glad I run my own website and can hide my photos there.

I use Google drive as well as postimage.

[nomad13]

When you get something for free, not sure how much you can complain. "Hot linking"(what we are talking about here) uses a lot of bandwidth, that costs money.

As far as free photo hosting goes, Imgur (http://imgur.com/) would be my choice. They are the preferred photo hosting for popular social media websites like Reddit, so it would be the least likely to start charging for service, but as with any free internet service, it may not stay free forever.

You can get your own website and host your photos there for $35-$50 a year (http://www.hostingadvice.com/reviews/cheap/), about the price of one of these payware planes. Plus you can have your own internet kingdom.

[Bjoern]

Still no recovery e-mail from Photobucket and still no way to login. Oh well...

[Bushpounder]

I was able to rescue some photos that I did not have stored. I keep a folder of 99.999 I upload, so I didn't lose anything. They won't be around much longer with that action and that price layout.

Don

[lownslo]

WARNING!! Earlier today a poster at a photo enthusiast website I frequent tried to upload some images hosted by Photobucket. The mix of images included some graphic porn! The poster is a respected member of the website, and members there have little doubt that he had nothing to do with the graphic content in the posting. Like Avsim, that website is family oriented, so please be cautious and careful if posting images from Photobucket.


Greg

[Aharon]

Thanks all for very interesting comments.

I have been using Photobucket for almost TEN years for millions of my screenshots published in various aviation forums and NOW I have to look for a new image hosting site that can offer BBB code below each of 25 screenshots per page so that I can click on BBB img code and paste on forum post for fast work writing a flight screenshot report.

Got to evaluate Imgur and Flickr as well as FSFiles to see which one offers me painless and fast copy of IMG codes. Remember I publish an average of 45 screenshots per post.

While Photobucket is ruining all aviation forums' screenshot or photo subforums by replacing screenshots and photos with black boxes, Photbucket also is ruining many virtual airlines' websites and homepages by replacing screenshots or photos with black boxes as seen on example of the following link:

www.virtualaca.net/index.php/tour/category/3 (http://www.virtualaca.net/index.php/tour/category/3)

When testing Imgur and FSFiles, I have discovered that those two image hosting website do NOT automatically resize my screenshots from 1920x900 to 1024x500 during uploadings that Photobucket can do.

I really need any image hosting website that can automatically resize DURING UPLOADING any number of screenshots from 1920x800 to 1024x500.

I am afraid I do not like Imgur and Flickr.

I am trying out FsFiles image hosting site. FsFiles seems to be interesting and possible solution only if there is function that I can put or re-sort screenshots' file names in file order in any album in FSFiles. Anybody knows how? I cannot find function for that in FsFiles.

When I tried to get my forum signature screenshot banners from my Photobucket account, I have right now discovered that it is blocked from allowing me to download!!! In other words, I cannot get or download my screenshots back from Photobucket without paying 399 buck ransom!!!!

That means I have to create many new signatures for my accounts in many forums!!

Regards,

Aharon

[flaviossa]

Nobody uses https://imageshack.com ?

[Aharon]

Nobody uses https://imageshack.com ?

That is because it is NOT free

[DaveB]

That means I have to create many new signatures for my accounts in many forums!!

Do you not have originals on your pc?

ATB
DaveB:)

[moune]

Hi,
http://www.hiboox.com/?lang=en

Here, no ?

Good evening, moune.

[Ferry_vO]

I really need any image hosting website that can automatically resize DURING UPLOADING any number of screenshots from 1920x800 to 1024x500.


Try a little program called Bimp lite; it is a really powerful tool to resize batches of images, and gives you a lot of control over size, file type and quality.
If you are using Windows 10, make sure to run it as administrator and use Windows 7 compatibility mode.

[blanston12]

That is because it is NOT free

If you're only looking for a free site your going to be disappointed again some day, they need some form of revenue stream from the service to give them an incentive to keep it going. Only someone like google or facebook has the resources as part of their infrastructure to keep your images alive forever, and then they do it to gather information on who is reading it. Best to find someone who has been around for a while that is inexpensive but not free.

Who that is I have no idea.

[Aharon]

Do you not have originals on your pc?

yes but in external portable backup hard drives for storage and it will take me LONG time to look for forum signature banners in my backups LOL

Regards,

Aharon

[Alky]

imgur is easy, free, allows you to resize and edit your pics for forum use and ad free...no stupid popups http://imgur.com (http://imgur.com/?)

I like Imgur as well, easy to use and they don't limit the size of your pic.

[gman5250]

Nothing is ever free.

Photobucket is owned by News Corp. Total assets $15+ Billion, and they reach 75% of the worlds population via their diverse network of newspapers and media.

Rupert Murdoch just turned over the reigns to his sons and there are big changes under the hood. It's possible that the strategy to make PB subscription based is revenue driven, but I had the impression that the "freebie" cloud was a simple loss leader to bring in higher tier business.

There is another aspect that parallels moves by being made by YouTube, Google, Facebook and the other giants, and that is copyright. The whales are pressing to obtain copyright ownership of all posted materials. It brings up some unsettling considerations when posting editorial, art or video. For example, If you or I post up a pic or video of a project, a legal claim may be made to copyright if you or I have surrendered the IP rights when joining the hosting site.

I always err on the side of caution, so I would be more inclined to keep my IP closer to my vest.

[ce_zeta]

Yeap, Gordon. The only reasonble option is mount your own hosting site.


That is because it is NOT free
Are you kidding? 'cause isn't free? Nopes pal. The point here is. Imageshack broke links in the past in a similar way than Photobucket (I dont remember the details), so Imageshack cannot be trusted. They can change his own Terms of Service but Imageshack and Photobucket changed it abruptly.

[hairyspin]

I do remember ImageShack changing their terms and they gave notice they were doing it. I had a couple of weeks at least to move my images. Photobucket gave no notice, just pulled the plug. 'Nuff said.

[n4gix]

Nobody uses https://imageshack.com ?

I do and have been for several years. In fact, I just got a notice of renewal a few days ago. $37.99/year really isn't too onerous... :very_drunk:

[Bjoern]

Nobody uses https://imageshack.com ?

They were okay ten years ago, but then got awfully slow and finally were not even an option anymore.

[gman5250]

Yeap, Gordon. The only reasonble option is mount your own hosting site.

That is in the works.

I'm not at the point of launch, but when I build the site I'll structure it to accommodate a local server. The beauty shots can live there with the other data without any outside interference.