Photobucket - What is going on?

[PaulRhB]

Photobucket are claiming only the links are down but while I can see thumbnails if I click on them I get the same clock image and would need to pay the minimum even to access the pics now.

Going to upload a few clocks to them!

Bucket deleted

Edited July 1, 2017 by PaulRhB

[big jim]

Mine is still working, how odd

[martin_wynne]

Mine is still working, how odd

 

I know nothing about Photobucket, and don't want to state the obvious.

 

But the images displayed clearly show that the problems apply to account holders who have gone over 100% of their quota. Presumably, you haven't?

 

 

Martin.

[PaulRhB]

I know nothing about Photobucket, and don't want to state the obvious.

 

But the images displayed clearly show that the problems apply to account holders who have gone over 100% of their quota. Presumably, you haven't?

 

pbucket_image.png

 

Martin.

Well as there was no quota at all previously for third party hosting and my account was only 12% used I hadn't gone over any limits so I wouldn't bet on that

[martin_wynne]

Well as there was no quota at all previously for third party hosting and my account was only 12% used I hadn't gone over any limits so I wouldn't bet on that

 

So what does the image mean?

 

Martin.

[martin_wynne]

Martin, the problem stems from a literally overnight change in terms & conditions by PB, designed and intended for all users to be in violation instantly, and imposed with no notification or warning to exhort the most amount of money by giving their users no change to retrieve their images conveniently thus catching them completely off guard. This then, hopes PB, will force them to accept the new $400 payment plan, filling up the coffers at PB HQ allowing the CEO and his cronies to get even bigger bonuses

 

Fortunately, I'm not affected, as I don't use these 'free*' (   ) hosting sites at all.

 

*they're never free, you pay one way or the other, most likely with privacy-sensitive data, which is increasingly valuable to the world of online criminals

 

So what does the 100% gauge in the image mean?

 

p.s. I'm not affected either. I wouldn't use a site like Photobucket in a million years. Just take one look at the web site to know that you are the product, not the customer. Same as Facebook -- why else would a profit-making corporation give you something for free?

 

Martin.

Edited July 1, 2017 by martin_wynne

[Gwiwer]

Am I right in thinking that the basic (formerly) free-of-charge PB account set quotas for both maximum hosted data and hits?

 

That being the case it would be possible to have just a single image hosted but if it happened to attract a vast number of hits - let's say it was especially unique or newsworthy - your total traffic quota would be exceeded and all anyone could then see would be a PB message.

[martin_wynne]

Am I right in thinking that the basic (formerly) free-of-charge PB account set quotas for both maximum hosted data and hits?

 

That being the case it would be possible to have just a single image hosted but if it happened to attract a vast number of hits - let's say it was especially unique or newsworthy - your total traffic quota would be exceeded and all anyone could then see would be a PB message.

 

Thanks Rick. That presumably explains the over-100% replacement image for those who claim to be under quota. If you have linked your image(s) elsewhere you have no way of knowing how many times they have been clicked or displayed.

 

It makes sense -- nowadays storage costs have dropped like a stone, but data-centre bandwidth costs haven't.

 

Presumably if you link to your page, instead of the image, it still works ok? That way the user sees the advertising.

 

Martin.

[rockershovel]

Mine appears to be still working, listing 36% of quota full

[Ian J.]

Maybe 100% is referring to bandwidth only, and not the amount of storage you use?

Edited July 1, 2017 by Ian J.

[PaulRhB]

Yes it appears to be hits rather than posted images one which you have no control over. If you add a description it means search engine hits on related subjects no doubt count.

Doesn't explain why my account was accessible but not the images. Doesn't matter it's a minor inconvenience and certainly not worth paying that amount for with lots of other options. The only annoying thing is the total lack of warning thereby rendering hundreds of pages of topics useless as the posts with images no longer make sense with no option to transfer or weigh up the options. Even if they back down as some sites suggest they may I won't be going back after the way it was done.

I don't mind paying if that's what the changing world pushes on them but not extortion like that.

Their loss ultimately due to greed bumping it up with no warning from 0-£310 in our terms.

Edited July 1, 2017 by PaulRhB

[tractor_37260]

I've noticed although it's still working as such, if you try to share an image via the IMG link to another site, it no longer works . However once the URL link is in the IMG box - you can just copy and paste it - that still works (for now ? ) 

 

It also now takes ages to upload images, with loads of ARGH ads constantly popping up !! - may also be part due to my net connection......

Edited July 1, 2017 by tractor_37260

[martin_wynne]

deleted

Edited July 1, 2017 by martin_wynne

[big jim]

This random picture is posted from the Photobucket mobile app using the "IMG" option

 

 

Still working for everyone?

 

I'm in the plus 50 account with 40% useage, that says I have unlimited bandwidth

Edited July 1, 2017 by big jim

[dhjgreen]

This random picture is posted from the Photobucket mobile app using the "IMG" option

Still working for everyone?

I'm in the plus 50 account with 40% useage, that says I have unlimited bandwidth

Jim, still working for me.

[pylonman]

I was quite happily viewing somebody's work on RMweb, and suddenly I cannot see it, in the pictures posted.

 

This is just another example of things being made over-complicated.

 

IF YOU DON'T WANT YOUR PHOTO'S TO BE USED ELSEWHERE, DON'T POST THEM ON A PUBLIC DOMAIN !! 

 

Also, don't expect that others are going to fork out money to view your photo's.

 

Simple !!

 

Personally, I am not the least bit concerned that any photo's I post on RMweb might be used elswhere.  If I was, then I wouldn't post them.

 

Simple decision, which doesn't inconvenience anyone else.

[big jim]

Sorry pylon man, your post has completely lost me!

 

 

What's your rant about, pictures going awol, people using your pictures, paying to access them or what?

Edited July 1, 2017 by big jim

[Ruston]

Has anyone tried downloading their albums from PB? I have logged in to my account and have an album open.

 

Near the bottom RH corner there are "Actions" - I clicked "download album" and a thing popped up, which says "You are about to download [name of album] and a cancel button and a download button. Clicking the download button makes the background go dark but nothing happens. Nothing is, or even appears to be in the process of, downloaded.

 

I tried again and had to go through one of those ridiculous things to "prove I'm not a robot" and this time the "download" button turned blue but still nothing happened.

 

Then the verfification expired, I did it all again but still nothing happens when I click the button.

 

So there seems to be no way, short of paying the ransom, of getting my photos back at all.

[PjKing1]

Well I've lost all my pics so PB can kiss my ass an go an Fu(£ itself I'm not paying to upload my photos, this might be a stupid question but surely there's a way Rmweb can be changed to just upload photos straight from our phones/pc's etc without resizing the image??

[Ian J.]

I make a local copy of any images I intend to upload here, then resize them on software I have locally (gThumb in Linux Mint) to no more than 800px by 600px and keep the jpeg compression fairly high, which keeps the file sizes quite small but still reasonable enough for others to view.

 

RMweb isn't a photo or file store, and certainly I'd never rely on it for that. That would be just as bad as using any cloud server for the only copy of my images!

[PjKing1]

Ah, exactly the kind of insensitive user that makes sure it'll never happen

 

RMweb is NOT a photo-hosting site and although I'm not in charge here, I can safely assure you that's not gonna happen, ever! You can upload images, but the bigger they are, the more likely it is this facility, paid for by Warners (and not you!), will disappear PDQ if people like you upload all their raw images several MB's large As I've alluded to earlier in the thread, limit the size of the uploaded images to 1024x768 pix, or around 300 kB. Because not only would those 3, 10 or even 30MB raw files clog up the RMweb server space and bandwidth, users who don't have superhighspeedultrafastbroadband internet connections (which still is a considerable proportion of visitors, I understand) will most definitely NOT appreciate their dead-slow connections downloading one, let alone more, of those files

 

Oh, and for those insensitive enough to not give a f*ck, I'm pretty confident Andy Y will swing his ban-hammer rigorously and ruthlessly if you take the above as a challenge and deliberately pump the server full with your raw files

If you read my post properly I didn't actually say I didn't give a £&(£ I said PB can go and &&&& itself but if some one wants to go swing a hammer then fine, let's face it that type of attitude is will drive anyone away from the forum. Edited July 2, 2017 by PjKing1

[ROSSPOP]

Just Googled  `changes to Photobucket` and  `we`re all doomed`  Any third party links to forums will be charged.

 

Photobucket account deleted forever.........

 

Have duplicated with:-

 

Google Drive.

 

FLIKR

 

Imgur.com

 

The trusty  ol`  Memory Stick.

[chaz]

My own view is that Photobucket were perfectly at liberty to change their terms and conditions for a free service where there is no contract between a buyer and seller. However we are at liberty to say "no thanks" - I wouldn't pay a penny for a service that was previously free - 399 a year? Don't be silly. This looks to me like a "S0d 0ff, we don't want your business". So I have deleted all of my photos from PB and closed my account - I will have nothing further to do with the outfit.

 

My only regret is that, as I was under the mistaken impression that photo's couldn't be directly uploaded to RMweb but had to be linked in, I posted a large number of images that have now, alas, gone from various topics. 

 

I haven't lost any photos, they are all safely in folders in my computer and backed up to a 2TB external hard drive. In my own topics I have offered to re-post pictures on request - although with the number involved I will not be restoring them all, with well over 1000 posted the job is just too big. Sorry lads.

 

Chaz

[Giles]

This gets more interesting...... My photos are still available, and i pay a nominal fee as an 'ad-free' member.

I read the terms and conditions closely and get this... it would appear that only the 'free' account holders are getting penalised at this time, as the 'ad-free' section foes NOT include the terrible '3rd paty hosting' wording. Whether it is possible for anyone to upgrade to ad-free and unlock I don't know - I suspect that would be unduly optimistic.

 

Terms and conditions below:

 

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 and you will continue to see Photobucket offers and announcements). 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. Photobucket may also offer a monthly billing option for its Plus Accounts (see terms and restrictions, below).

Edited July 2, 2017 by Giles

[gr.king]

Learning from what has now repeatedly happened, and taking some useful points (but without the vitriol) from what has been said above, is this a good time for some prominent fresh advice (or perhaps new RULES) on the matter of the amount of image data that RMWeb users should be allowed to upload, perhaps not just per image, but per month, per year etc too?

Just having a size limit per image doesn't seem to me to really treat equally those who upload masses of images, and those who might only upload an occasional image (which might nonetheless be a real gem deserving high resolution). Image uploads of around 1500 x 1100 certainly seem to be possible at present, is it viable for that to continue?

 

Given that any form of free third party hosting is obviously highly vulnerable to the sudden demands of Dick Turpin, just as I've now experienced firstly 3+ years ago with Imageshack and now with Photobucket, it makes no sense to trust any new or alternative free host, so it seems to be best policy to upload any necessary images direct to RMWeb. There are free programs available to those who care to look that will re-size images, quite apart from the facility that was available on (or through) RMWeb itself last time I looked.