Photobucket Is Holding People's Photos For "Ransom"

[msmofet]

"Photobucket Is Holding People's Photos For "Ransom"
The company is now charging a $400 fee to hot-link images — which will break photos on tons of old websites and blogs."

Read more here >>> https://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotop...ource=bbf_enus&utm_term=.yspGB86ZK#.ntLZekRxD

 

[Souschef]

"Photobucket Is Holding People's Photos For "Ransom"
The company is now charging a $400 fee to hot-link images — which will break photos on tons of old websites and blogs."

Read more here >>> https://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotop...ource=bbf_enus&utm_term=.yspGB86ZK#.ntLZekRxD

Including this one. I have seen the odious image on a number of threads

 

[Kayelle]

I for one am really ticked off about this MsM. My entire collection of both food and personal picks are at photobucket and being held ransom. That means that every picture I've ever posted here will Pfffffffttttt........

 

[Caslon]

Sites are probably making a ton of money off their previously free service. They want some of that $$$, now that they are "established." They're reeling you in now...with their hook.

 

[GotGarlic]

I for one am really ticked off about this MsM. My entire collection of both food and personal picks are at photobucket and being held ransom. That means that every picture I've ever posted here will Pfffffffttttt........

I would be, too, Kayelle ?

The first time something like this happened (anyone remember Geocities?), I decided I would never use one of those services. It's only a matter of time before their needs change and they need to make money from more than advertising. Data storage is much cheaper now than it was when Photobucket started, so people have lots of options now.

 

[Just Cooking]

I guess not being very technical helps me...

In another food forum I used photobucket and thought it to be a pain..
For this forum and for facebook I just download pics into the Windows picture section and upload from there..
Perhaps that might not work for other applications but, works perfectly for me where I need it to...

Ross

 

[Steve Kroll]

I have a Photobucket "Plus" account right now, so I guess my links are okay until the end of 2018. But after that, there is absolutely no way I will pay $400 a year for a service that doesn't really provide me with any unique benefit for the money. I can store my photos in plenty of other places.

By doing this the sneaky way that they did, they've lost the trust of consumers. A more fair business practice might be to let free forums like DC continue to link, and only charge people for links coming from for-profit sites like Amazon and eBay.

I could be wrong, but I predict this will be the final nail in the coffin of Photobucket. I would suggest folks get their photos back now (assuming you don't already have them backed up somewhere) and close your account with them, before you lose everything.

 

[roadfix]

For this forum and for facebook I just download pics into the Windows picture section and upload from there..

Yes, that would be ideal if all forums worked that way. Most other forums I belong to require direct links from whichever photo hosting site you're using. I also use Photobucket and it's also been a hot topic on many forums.

 

[GotGarlic]

I guess not being very technical helps me...

In another food forum I used photobucket and thought it to be a pain..
For this forum and for facebook I just download pics into the Windows picture section and upload from there..
Perhaps that might not work for other applications but, works perfectly for me where I need it to...

Ross

I'm pretty technical and this is what I do, too [emoji2] Works great for me.

 

[GotGarlic]

I have a Photobucket "Plus" account right now, so I guess my links are okay until the end of 2018. But after that, there is absolutely no way I will pay $400 a year for a service that doesn't really provide me with any unique benefit for the money. I can store my photos in plenty of other places.

By doing this the sneaky way that they did, they've lost the trust of consumers. A more fair business practice might be to let free forums like DC continue to link, and only charge people for links coming from for-profit sites like Amazon and eBay.

I could be wrong, but I predict this will be the final nail in the coffin of Photobucket. I would suggest folks get their photos back now (assuming you don't already have them backed up somewhere) and close your account with them, before you lose everything.

I think you're right, Steve. This is *terrible* customer service. Anybody with an email address has loads of free storage with their ISP. And Google Photos has some really cool features and a whole lot of storage space.

 

[Just Cooking]

Yes, that would be ideal if all forums worked that way. Most other forums I belong to require direct links from whichever photo hosting site you're using. I also use Photobucket and it's also been a hot topic on many forums.

I totally understand your point.. That's why I said, "Perhaps that might not work for other applications but, works perfectly for me where I need it to."

@ GG... I did something right????

Ross

 

[Kayelle]

I have a Photobucket "Plus" account right now, so I guess my links are okay until the end of 2018. But after that, there is absolutely no way I will pay $400 a year for a service that doesn't really provide me with any unique benefit for the money. I can store my photos in plenty of other places.

By doing this the sneaky way that they did, they've lost the trust of consumers. A more fair business practice might be to let free forums like DC continue to link, and only charge people for links coming from for-profit sites like Amazon and eBay.
Agreeeeee......

I could be wrong, but I predict this will be the final nail in the coffin of Photobucket. I would suggest folks get their photos back now (assuming you don't already have them backed up somewhere) and close your account with them, before you lose everything.

I'm ignorant about how they do it, but the pictures I see that have been downloaded by Photobucket look far superior to others. How they do dat?

 

[Cheryl J]

PB has been more than annoying with their ads covering up nearly half the page, and it's been a pain to load anything. At least for me, but my laptop is getting on in years.

Fortunately, I have most of the pics I care about backed up, or still on my digital camera and phone. Still though, like Kay mentioned, there's going to be a boatload of broken images here on DC. If I'm looking up something in particular from a while back, I enjoy seeing the pics that accompany it. I can't imagine more than a very small percentage of PB users that are willing to pay this price to keep using it, with so many other options out there. PB just signed their own death warrant, IMO.

 

[Kayelle]

I'm ignorant about how they do it, but the pictures I see that have been downloaded by Photobucket look far superior to others. How they do dat?

Nobody smarter than me has the answer to this?

How can I get the same quality of pictures I had before with photobucket?

After all the years of having fun posting my food pictures here at DC, it's just depressing they are all gone now. When I'm not depressed over the thought, I'm furious!!

 

[skilletlicker]

Nobody smarter than me has the answer to this?

How can I get the same quality of pictures I had before with photobucket?

After all the years of having fun posting my food pictures here at DC, it's just depressing they are all gone now. When I'm not depressed over the thought, I'm furious!!

Not smarter than anybody, but I use Imgur.

 

[GotGarlic]

Nobody smarter than me has the answer to this?

How can I get the same quality of pictures I had before with photobucket?

After all the years of having fun posting my food pictures here at DC, it's just depressing they are all gone now. When I'm not depressed over the thought, I'm furious!!

I don't really understand the question. Are you looking for another image hosting service? If you have a Gmail account, try Google Photos. It has a lot of fun features. I have my phone set to automatically upload pix I take with it to Google Photos. I'd suggest getting an account just for that purpose if you don't already have one.

For photos here at DC, I just use the upload function and let the forum host them. That way, they'll always be available as long as the forum exists.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Nobody smarter than me has the answer to this?

How can I get the same quality of pictures I had before with photobucket?

Hi Kayelle. I don't think the service itself does anything to enhance the quality of the photos. I can look at photos I've uploaded to PB side-by-side with the same photo stored on my backup at home and they are identical.

Perhaps it's because Photobucket stores photos at a higher resolution than if you upload directly to DC that makes them appear to "pop" a little bit more. But I don't know for certain.

Another service I've used (also referenced by skilletlicker above) is Imgur. It's very comparable to Photobucket, but seems to be a little lighter on ads, at least from what I've observed.

 

[RPCookin]

Nobody smarter than me has the answer to this?

How can I get the same quality of pictures I had before with photobucket?

After all the years of having fun posting my food pictures here at DC, it's just depressing they are all gone now. When I'm not depressed over the thought, I'm furious!!

I dropped Photobucket and Flickr years ago. I went with Smugmug. I pay an annual fee under $100 and they host my photos in high res, then I can either download or link to them. I can also set up galleries to sell as stock photos if I want to, but I don't have to. I can link in any size I want from original to 100x100 pixels. Example:

150x150:

1024x768:

P.S. I also store my photos backed up on 3 hard drives. I only upload when I want to link to a site.

 

[CharlieD]

Thank G-d my work provides me with my personal drive, not just me. We we can store any information (legal information) we want. Including pictures and videos. For me it is mostly recipes and pictures. 19 TB will less me a lifetime. Of course if I retire or quit, that's another story

 

[dragnlaw]

Colour me confused... I'm not understanding when someone says they will lose all their pictures when Photobucket drops the trap door.

How did you get your pictures onto Photobucket in the first place?

Are they deleted from your phone and/or camera directly you upload them? Why would you do that?

All my photo's (and recipes) are stored on my computer and even then I do backups.

Some of you mention loading directly to this site? How? (in baby terms, svp)