Photobucket changing their T&C's?

Gary Kinghorn

Gary Kinghorn

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Been alerted on my forum to the fact that Photobucket are stopping people from being able to link their images on to forums unless the person buys one of their $100 / 400 accounts. Apparently they have already started removing some peoples images, so that threads on forums show blank spaces, rather than the pictures. I'm sure this must already be being discussed on here, but I haven't seen it. Any truth to it? Can't say as I have delved in to it before, but I know loads use them to host and share.

Types of Accounts, Pricing and Limits

  • Visiting: There is no cost to visit the Site or to register as a Member.
  • 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.
  • Ad-free account: The Ad-free account offers Members the ability to use the Site without seeing any third party banner advertisements when logged into your Ad-free account (note, viewers of your images within Photobucket will see ads unless they, too, have Plus accounts). This account level is available for $2.49 / month, payable by the Member on a monthly recurring basis.


  • Plus account: The Plus Account offers several paid options that may give the Paying Member more storage, bandwidth, 3rd party image hosting, image linking and/or other services as outlined below. Once and during such period of time in which you subscribe to and pay for a Plus Account, we will consider you a "Paying Member." Please note that all Plus account subscriptions are billed annually at the commencement of the service.


  • Available Plus Account Plans: Photobucket offers the following Plus Account Plans:
  • 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.
  • Plus 100 Plan: 50 GB of Storage for $99.99 / Year. The Plus 100 Plan allows for unlimited image linking but does not allow 3rd party image hosting.
  • Plus 500 Plan: 500 GB of Storage and 100 GB of bandwidth for $399.99 / Year. The Plus 500 Plan allows for unlimited image linking and 100 GB of 3rd party image hosting.
  • Enterprise Level Plan: For Members that need more than 500 GB of Storage and/or more than 100 GB of bandwidth, Photobucket offers competitive pricing to meet your needs. Please contact: support@photobucket.com for pricing.


Read more: http://photobucket.com/terms#ixzz4l0tVAHC3
 
I wasn't aware of this but I more or less gave up with photobucket when it seemed to change into wall to wall ads and became almost unusable. If it's still like that there are miles better free alternatives out there.
 
gramps said:
Other than Flickr, which are the most reliable free alternatives?
Click to expand...

I'm a long time flickr user but know a few people now using 500px. Sounds good though I don't feel any real need to change. Google images seems popular as well and then you have all the instagram/facebook type options.

But to be honest, I cannot really fault Flickr for my own use. Does everything I need nice and simply.
 
gad-westy said:
But to be honest, I cannot really fault Flickr for my own use. Does everything I need nice and simply.
Click to expand...
I agree but sometimes I need somewhere to host a few, like advert pics or trials that I don't want to put in my Flickr albums ... I'll check out 500px. :)
 
gramps said:
I agree but sometimes I need somewhere to host a few, like advert pics or trials that I don't want to put in my Flickr albums ... I'll check out 500px. :)
Click to expand...

Funnily enough that's exactly why I used to use photobucket. Think the only things I ever sell now that need to have hosted images are on here so I just upload them to TP.
 
I used to use photobucket but i do t even click on photobucket links anymore due to the horrific advertising. Flickr, which I'm new to, seems to be the best option now.

All my camera phone pics automatically go to my Google account though, but I dobt share from that.
 
I used to use Photobucket a lot but it's become slow and unreliable for me lately and I can wait an age for uploaded pictures to appear. I used to use it for two reasons, for posting on forums and (and mostly) for sharing pictures with people in other parts of the world. Thankfully I've discovered that I can post pictures here directly from my pc :D and my GF uses a thing called "Line" and sends pictures using that.

So.... crash and burn Photobucket. I don't care.

Especially as it's gone from being relatively easy to use to being a right royal PITA.

:D
 
I don't like the idea of anyone being able to see my pictures so is it possible to just use flickr to host pictures without anyone else being able to see them?

If it isn't... is there anything that allows you do just upload pictures without others seeing them?
 
woof woof said:
I don't like the idea of anyone being able to see my pictures so is it possible to just use flickr to host pictures without anyone else being able to see them?

If it isn't... is there anything that allows you do just upload pictures without others seeing them?
Click to expand...
You can mark all or some of your images as 'Private' in Flickr.
 
woof woof said:
I used to use Photobucket a lot but it's become slow and unreliable for me lately and I can wait an age for uploaded pictures to appear. Especially as it's gone from being relatively easy to use to being a right royal PITA.
Click to expand...

This, basically. Flickr is a PITA for posting images to blogger, so I've begun to use google images for that, Flickr as a showcase for wider work.

Darn nuisance as PB used to be a LOT better than flickr for image hosting, and I even paid for extra bandwidth. The other nail in the PB coffin was the insistance that visitors had to view ads - if having a pro account stopped visitors getting added to death then I'd have gone for it. Looks like they're probably going to go soon then.
 
I'm also a previous PB user who has moved to flickr because of the horrendous adverts in PB. Now I see that all the posts on TP that refer to images hosted on PB just have a strange graphic instead, saying I have used 100% of 3rd party hosting. It appears the account level that would allow this hosting would cost $400 per year!!! I don't think there is any prospect of my paying that, or of finding a way to re-host the images elsewhere and replace the links... :( If PB was used by a significant proportion of TP members, this will sadly greatly affect TP.

In a way I can't blame PB, but it's a major change without notice or warning.
 
Really annoyed about this. Started using PB 7 years ago. Was ok back then. I'm into my cars and use it to host images into my build threads on different forums, I've also posted some here. They're now all gone, replaced with some image with a "100% usage" message.

I have current build threads I'm still updating that now have no images in them. For a site that over the last few years has got steadily worse to the point where I now hate using it the price tag of $399.99 is comical. I hope this is the end of them, can't see anyone pay that much for such a terrible website.

Is there a solution to replacing the images I've used in forums over the years? I expect not :(
 


I do not know when the new terms come into effect i have just linked this from Photo bucket to test.

I will check back later to see if it vanishes.
 
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I used to use photobucket, but not for ages. So I've just deleted my account.
 
This is what's replaced all of my images I've ever linked to over the last 7 years from Photobucket. This should be a picture of my car!

 
Can everyone else see that? Just posted it on another forum and only I can see the picture, everyone else see's the 3rd party message.
 
Weirdly I've posted the same picture on another forum and no one else can see it!
 
If you try to view the image in new tab it now redirects to photobucket page by adding .html - adverts attempt to load.
I notice postimage are now doing this too, but you can still usually embed as before - but they want you to use the the thumbnail code which links to their page with image on it.
 
Like Alistair, I haven't used my PB account for lord knows how long. So I have downloaded my pics to the PC and deleted the account.
 
It's weird, now appears that PB is not being consistent. I'm finding some of my Photobucket images are visible and some aren't. For those that aren't visible, clicking on the PB graphic ("3rd party Hsting has been temporarily disabled") leads to the image in PB, so all is not totally lost. This one (a terrible pic but that was the point as it was from a thread discussing fireworks) was replaced by the graphic, so not visible in context:



Anyone else see or not see that?
 
ChrisR said:
Anyone else see or not see that?
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I see the PB meter thingy.
If I click on that I get cudbm on PB.
Plus loads and loads of ads. I've even won a iPhone6. All I have to do is click on a link to get it. Yeah, yeah.
 
Photobucket used to be a great site but like most, it's hitting the end of it's cycle and will likely vanish or be absorbed by a bigger company.

Wouldn't pay for it when there are better alternatives now.
 
I won't ever use it again, and I definitely will not pay $400 per year but I might have paid a (much) smaller amount to avoid having the 1000 or so images I have there "disappear" from TP.

OK, so I need a bit of smart that will (a) download all the images from PB, (b) re-upload them to an alternate site and (c) fix up all the links in TP posts to the PB images! With that, I truly could say bye bye to PB.

Is such a bit of code feasible?
 
It seems the photos I've posted on the forum have now disappeared! Thanks for the notice Photobucket!

Now it's my turn to give them some notice... I'm off somewhere else! If they think I'm going to pay them one cent, let alone $400 a year, after they've done that to me (not to mention the advert and popup-ridden, crashy, nightmare that's been my recent experience of trying to log into their site to upload photos) then I'm afraid they've got another thing coming! Flickr here I come. And no, I'm not going to delete my account with them, I shall leave it there to take up their server space! :naughty:
 
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The no notice thing really annoyed me! I emailed them, not that they have a contact us part on the website, just replied to the email they sent me so not expecting anything in return.

My theory is it's just an exercise to increase revenue through advertisements. I don't think they expect people to pay the $399.99 a year, who in their right mind would. But now it means people might click on the meter logo thingy to see the missing image and be directed to their website, or anyone who continues to use PB will just use the link that takes you to their website. Either way, whoever the unlucky soul is that finds their way to PB will be bombarded with so many adverts to the point where they'll probably never see the photo! It's a shame that all these images will now be missing from posts on all sorts of different forums.
 
A couple of years back I paid about $20 for an extra 10GB of storage/bandwidth. I've seen no messages warning me about usage so I wonder if this pic will display properly?

Somerton%20Wassail%202017-6818_zps3znkicx0.jpg


And the answer is no. Looks life PB is gone then.
 
I am not bothered what PB do.
All my images are stored in at least triplicate on hard disks and findable through lightroom. If needed I will re-export to Flickr any needed for linking.
Only images that I have linked are on Flickr or PB anyway.
 
ancient_mariner said:
A couple of years back I paid about $20 for an extra 10GB of storage/bandwidth. I've seen no messages warning me about usage so I wonder if this pic will display properly?

Somerton%20Wassail%202017-6818_zps3znkicx0.jpg


And the answer is no. Looks life PB is gone then.
Click to expand...

I've just checked and a lot of pictures I've posted have been replaced by that clock thing.
 
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