Photobucket Just Broke Billions of Photos Across the Web

[Justins00ss]

Just discovered this issue today. Went to post some photos and bam! it came up with a 3rd party sharing message. Unreal.

[Merlin]

Yes, PB has the right to change its business model. This is not the issue. I understand the 10 billion images stored by 100 million registered users.
It is not why...massive drive space, bandwidth etc. The issue is how they went about it. A quiet (almost hidden) blog post then bam instant decapitation.

Many photo/video sharing services have an free (ad based) or subscriber (ad free) business model. This has been Photobucket`s model since 2003.
I must admit that recently, the free (ad based) model of PB has become impossible to use due to the overwhelming amount of annoying pop-up ads.
For this reason, I recently created a second subscriber (ad free) account. This acts and behaves like PB did before the recent pop-up ad madness.

Many of us have seen changes in the business models of such software companies as Adobe and Microsoft where they now "lease" software products.
Almost all of the Adobe products are "lease" and Microsoft followed with Office 365 etc. The software companies would much rather "lease" than "sell".
BTW-I can`t remember the last time an auto dealer ad on television said a vehicle purchase price. All I see is "lease" from only $289 per month etc.

Yes, many other on-line companies are now following...YouTube is starting a subscriber pay-to-play model sneak peak-> https://www.youtube.com/new
So back to PB, IIRC If you purchased even an ad-free account for $2.49 per month prior to the hijack/ransom you can still 3rd party host until Dec. 2018.

What PB did was whack ALL the "free" accounts from using any 3rd party hosting. IMHO forums are a very small part of the PB bandwidth costs issue.
I`m pretty sure that by doing this their bandwidth cost fell like a rock. The "free" folks are now scrambling for another "free" place to serve their pics.

I can visualize the PB board meeting now. It`s time to make some money! To hell with all the "free" folks. Let`s teach those freeloaders a lesson!
What they did...IMHO is a wake-up-call to product end users and a grand example of what not to do...for the other software/product service providers.

What Photobucket did is not illegal but IMHO it was fundamentally wrong. "If they are not already a paid subscriber then chop them off at the knees!"
It`s now too late to be a subscriber under the prior cost structure. Now it`s RANSOM time! What PB is going to do in the future as anybody`s guess.

[JSFM35X]

How much do you pay?

Perhaps ill do that if its reasonable ands see if that bring my pics back?

Probably gonna jinx myself here..........

I wonder if they leave me alone since I pay for more storage........?

[Ronkh]

How much do you pay?

Perhaps ill do that if its reasonable ands see if that bring my pics back?

I really don`t remember. I am at 2nd tier with so many pics though.

[Ronkh]

, IIRC If you purchased even an ad-free account for $2.49 per month prior to the hijack/ransom you can still 3rd party host until Dec. 2018.



.

This explains it

[Merlin]

How much do you pay?

Perhaps ill do that if its reasonable ands see if that bring my pics back?

Now it`s too late. It`s $399 per year RANSOM time! (end of sentence) "That will separate the wheat from the chaff"
From what I understand...Your pics are still there but can not be 3rd party hosted unless you pay PB $399 per year.

It is now too late to be a subscriber under the prior cost structure.

My guess, if you are a current paid customer then you get a reprieve (for now). Who knows what`s next from PB?

My guess, is PB`s position is: "If your pics and 3rd party hosting is important to you, then pay us the money!"
Again, my guess is they are going after the big dog PB service users like eBay, Etsy and shopping businesses.
At this point no one knows what the future of PB is going to be. PB costs are high. This could cause a collapse.

[Merlin]

As far as forum hosting and using Photobucket.

Image Size - I never use a image size larger the 1024x768
1) On some forums it throws the formatting way off
2) Many forums use a image formatter and display a smaller image

File Size - I try to keep the pic file size to around 100k
1) If the file takes a long time to load folks don`t wait.
2) yes, it reduces the quality a bit. It`s a forum not a giant poster.
3) I use my phone for pics. The lens is the size of a pinhead.
4) Even a good DSLR never does the (in person) work justice.

Like lots of folks, I am now looking for an alternative to PB
Sadly, it will be missed.

[Merlin]

I just did my first post using a different hosting source. Your thoughts?

2013 Jaguar XK Coupe - A Miracle Detailing - CQuartz Professional

Now I have the task of downloading over 4,200 images from Photobucket.
Then uploading them to the new host. Then trying to go back and edit posts.
I hope Autopia will enable post editing (for a while) so folks could revise image paths.

[Ronkh]

I just did my first post using a different hosting source. Your thoughts?

2013 Jaguar XK Coupe - A Miracle Detailing - CQuartz Professional

Now I have the task of downloading over 4,200 images from Photobucket.
Then uploading them to the new host. Then trying to go back and edit posts.
I hope Autopia will enable post editing (for a while) so folks could revise image paths.

Please keep me updated as I want to migrate away from photob as well.

[RaskyR1]

So how does this affect me if I`m currently a premium member? I have almost 10,000 pics loaded to photobucket and it what I`ve always used.

[Ronkh]

So how does this affect me if I`m currently a premium member? I have almost 10,000 pics loaded to photobucket and it what I`ve always used.

Same w me. From what I can glean from Merlin`s post, we`re good till December 2018. (I hope)

[Angus]

In the process of downloading everything off of Photobucket now...

[Ronkh]

In the process of downloading everything off of Photobucket now...

hope you have better luck than me.

Smaller albums fine, large ones get errors.

[Angus]

hope you have better luck than me.

Smaller albums fine, large ones get errors.

How large is large for you? So far my biggest album download was 614 pics - no errors at all.

[Ronkh]

will look when i get home
getting new tire now