Photobucket... WTF!!

[ebv8]

i checked mine out because i have been on 93% full for a while now, i tried deleting files but it stayed at 93% full
i downloaded the app on my phone and logged in and i went from 2gb to 8gb so i'm at 18% now for free

[GO FURTHER]

Originally Posted by ebv8

i checked mine out because i have been on 93% full for a while now, i tried deleting files but it stayed at 93% full
i downloaded the app on my phone and logged in and i went from 2gb to 8gb so i'm at 18% now for free

I think you mean you went from 2GB to 10GB.
2GB is free... You get an extra bonus 8GB when you download the mobile app and log in the first time.

[OzriderXR8]

I got the notice this morning, I'm deleting everything and will add 1 post with new links on each of my build threads.

[ebv8]

I miss understood the extent of the problem. I thought it was just oversized accpunts but its 3rd party issues so all our photos are gooooone!. Least i still have access so ill be downloading all files and swapping to another site. Bye bye photobucket

[EB#]

Flickr is an option for free hosting of pics. I've been checking it out a bit...

bafalconpic99 by EB#, on Flickr

See account options here:
https://www.flickr.com/account/upgrade/pro

A few notes:

- Flickr is owned by Yahoo. If you already have a Yahoo email account, the
use of Flickr may be included (?)... It's worth a check. Storage should not be
a problem, as 1TB is available on the free account.

- Using Flickr is pretty simple. Upload the image, then share and link by a
straight copy/paste of a 'BBCode'.

- Upload your image at a suitable size first, or choose a new/reduced size for
your thread at the time of linking.

- A posted image includes a hyperlinked credit/link as shown above. This element
can be moved to beneath the image or deleted, but editing of the link code is
required to do this at the time of posting. However, deleting the credit link
may go against the Flickr guidelines (?).

- Although Flickr third party hosting is free, it doesn't necessarily mean it
will stay that way.... as per the PB bombshell.

- For a linked image, Flickr has a comparatively long & complex line of code,
with the jpeg file name buried in the middle. So a global edit of existing linked
images may not be possible for old threads here at AFF... Perhaps Russ could
comment on this one?

- I would suggest more research and a 'test drive' before jumping to a new
image host such as Flickr or any of the others. There is plenty of additional
info, reviews and comparisons online.

For the AFF members that have used Flickr, feel free to add review notes or comments!

[EB#]

Further to my previous post and by way of a comparison, here is what the different link types look like..


linktypes by EB#, on Flickr

[jimt3te50]

I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows

[Whitey-AMG]

Well..... looks like I've been caught out as well...
Years of posting on AFF and pics all gone.
This place is starting to look pretty bland without all the pics now..

[BLU-220]

I'm uploading my pictures via imgur far superior compare to PB so far, but my all my other pictures from PB are all gone
I hope Russell has a solution to restore them though ??

[GO FURTHER]

Photobucket release statement on 6th July regarding 3rd party hosting....

Including the following slight change to terms....

3. What users are affected by the changes to our 3rd Party Hosting
policies?

Moving forward, new and legacy free account users will NOT have third party
hosting available.

If you were a Plus Account subscriber in good standing as of June 1, 2017,
you will continue to have all the privileges you have enjoyed including 3rd
Party Hosting until December 31, 2018 as long as you maintain your
subscription.

Non Plus 500 Account subscribers that purchased after June 1, 2017 will not
have access to 3rd Party Hosting.

Full statement here...

http://http://blog.photobucket.com/p...s-photobucket/

Also ....Photobucket addresses complaints over new policy that charges heavy users $400

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/07/06...over-charging/

[DJM83]

Mine seems to work ok.

[wodahs]

Originally Posted by DJM83

Mine seems to work ok.
image

looking good my friend
and I'm posting heaps of them same pics you have there

[Dezza]

Mine was still working yesterday, but is stuffed today. I've started using postimage.org and it seems alright so far. Shame that all the show and shine threads etc. will now be pretty much full of broken links. Such a greedy way to do business. I understand that everyone using photobucket for free wouldn't have helped them but to make everyone go to the highest tier account if they want to hotlink (which is the only reason I'd use photobucket!) is ridiculous.

[OzriderXR8]

A couple of other forums I'm on have allowed editing on old posts.

Basically letting us replace links or at the very least delete the Photobucket links.

[GO FURTHER]

Originally Posted by OzriderXR8

A couple of other forums I'm on have allowed editing on old posts.

Basically letting us replace links or at the very least delete the Photobucket links.

I've given this some deep thought, and come to the conclusion that many of the large threads in say the "Show N Shine" sub forum can never ever be restored to their full former glory with all the photos.

Most people have not thought of the following...

Even if RussellW and his team find a way to replace all the links of photos you have uploaded to the new photo hoist (keeping the same file names) or even if space was made available here on the AFF servers...

Even if you were allowed for a limited period to edit only your build thread and replace links, etc....

Even if you pay the ransom of AUD$520 per year... Here's why it will never be the same...

The threads may also contain photos from other users in replies in your build thread which add valuable contributions and meaning.
Some of these users, may no longer be active members, or may not upload their photos to a new host (or can't be bothered, etc).

You won't be able to replace photos / links of all the contributors to your thread... So your build thread will always have the annoying bad Photobucket links!

If you delete their Photobucket links all together instead... You have words in a reply that may have less meaning without the pics.

Show N Shine threads like "Show us your FGX" or "Show us your Mustang" complied from many many members, will never be restored completely.

[Eric A]

My conspiracy.

Facebook has bought out Photobucket and done this to try and ruin the usability of forums and to get more of this forum/blog type activity on Facebook.

[GO FURTHER]

Originally Posted by EB#

After checking it out on PB, this doesn't seem to be the case for my photos... Perhaps accounts differ from one to the other in some fashion?

In my case:

- All jpeg files that I have uploaded to PB have retained the original xxx.jpg file name
- When I downloaded copies of the lot just recently, they also retained the original names.
- The jpeg file name appears to be the same in each direct link as well, apart from jpeg file names that include a space.
In these cases, the space is replaced with the characters '%20',
Eg. ... i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd344/sneak880/General%20Stuff/white%20AU.jpg
Note that the space in the album name is also replaced with the '%20' characters.

In the case of a prospective upload to the AFF server, a batch editing procedure for image links may need to decypher
whatever appears after the final slash in the direct link line. If the file names don't quite match exactly due to some added junk
characters from PB? This may not be possible? Or, in my case, the AFF image link line could simply use the same '%20' character
for a 'space' without editing the final element in the link?

I have just worked out why some members like yourself have their photo filenames retained exactly as uploaded to Photobucket, while others like myself have had the photo names changed once uploaded and linked to this forum....

In the "settings" menu (accessed on your album page from the little cog wheel on the right hand side)....

Scroll down to "Album Privacy settings"...

Under this submenu ...

File Name Scrambling
To protect your privacy, we recommend that you select the options to scramble both future and past upload file names. However, if you intend for your photos to be public or used for business purposes, we recognize that you may not want to scramble.

I had this set to "scramble" like many members ... Thus the change in filenames.

What this means, is that I now have to download all my photos from the Photobucket albums to my PC.... Even though I already have copies of all the photos !... Otherwise, it is impossible to know all the "scrambled" names.

[gpierce]

Personally I think digitisation of our lives will never be enduring. Think of all the analog photos from years ago that are lost to the ages. Photobuckets will come and go, and so will our lives.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[russellw]

Originally Posted by GO FURTHER

I've given this some deep thought, and come to the conclusion that many of the large threads in say the "Show N Shine" sub forum can never ever be restored to their full former glory with all the photos.

Most people have not thought of the following...

Even if RussellW and his team find a way to replace all the links of photos you have uploaded to the new photo hoist (keeping the same file names) or even if space was made available here on the AFF servers...

Even if you were allowed for a limited period to edit only your build thread and replace links, etc....

Even if you pay the ransom of AUD$520 per year... Here's why it will never be the same...

The threads may also contain photos from other users in replies in your build thread which add valuable contributions and meaning.
Some of these users, may no longer be active members, or may not upload their photos to a new host (or can't be bothered, etc).

You won't be able to replace photos / links of all the contributors to your thread... So your build thread will always have the annoying bad Photobucket links!

If you delete their Photobucket links all together instead... You have words in a reply that may have less meaning without the pics.

Show N Shine threads like "Show us your FGX" or "Show us your Mustang" complied from many many members, will never be restored completely.

Almost right. One of the things we will do after a period of time is remove all image links that reference photobucket so that there won't be any broken links. We'll have to make allowances for anyone who chooses to pay the photobucket ransom but that's a smaller scenario that the other.

You are correct in saying that the 'show us your' threads are going to be the worst hit but we are investigating the possibility of moving them into a new forum and providing 'edit post' permissions for everyone for a specific time period. Some will never be fixed but that's well beyond our control.

All the Tech Portal images are safe as they are hosted by us as are all user attachments and gallery images so it's not the absolute worst it could have been. We've moved a lot of technical posts from other areas into the Tech Portal for just that reason and the offer is always open for anyone with a tech thread to have it (and associated images) moved to that portal.

We are currently adding a substantial amount of storage to the new server and once this is in place we will migrate to that server. We are also currently running tests on that server with a number of different photo hosting applications to find one that suits best. Our existing Gallery software (PhotoPost) is old anyway; not https compliant and as it is no longer supported needs to get the flick. We have the option of migrating the existing 22,485 images (80% of which are in the brochure scans) to the new image hosting server or adding them to the native Vbulletin user gallery which became available from v3.8 and which we've never bothered to turn on.

**Warning - Logical Discussion Ahead**

Taking the emotion out of this for a moment, let's look at some background on why this has happened and why it is likely to continue happening to currently 'free' internet services that use an advertising revenue business model.

The world of online advertising (in case you've been living under a rock) is basically owned by Google Ads. They determine how, where and for what ads are placed and use some pretty clever tech to track user activity and send them targeted ads. Likewise (and more importantly) they absolutely control the impression and click rates that are paid to sites hosting Google ads and these rates have been gradually reducing over time and, more importantly, have fallen significantly over the last 6 months.

It doesn't matter much to us. We display ads for guests so that they help pay for their own bandwidth use but the revenue from that has reduced substantially in that time despite similar activity levels from guests.

Put your self in the shoes of a Photobucket (or Facebook) for a moment. We have 3 TB of outbound data allowance per month in our hosting plan and rarely ever trouble that limit. Typical data costs in the USA are in the order of 8-20 cents per Gb of outbound data dependant on where that data is being delivered - for example, data to the continental US will cost 8 cents per Gb while Australia is 15 cents. As a global service PB is no doubt paying less but they also have little control over where the data is being pulled from so even if we assume they get a global rate for anywhere at 5 cents per Gb, that's an awful lot of money every month without counting the cost of physical storage and facilities to host it. PB also can't generate the same level of ad revenue (impressions) that a Facebook can and that's especially so when 3rd party linking is done as then they get none.

The drop in revenues from online advertising will be hurting Facebook (and others too) and they will have to look closely at how they provide their particular service and the business model that supports it.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not defending the action taken by PB as it is largely reprehensible but what I am saying is that we are probably heading toward the end of the free ride as the litany of failed on-line 'free' storage providers testifies to. It's going to become a user pays model in the near future and the only thing that should be under discussion is how much is reasonable for any particular service. Perhaps if PB had taken that approach, we wouldn't be where we are now.

**end of logical discussion **

We currently provide storage for hosted images but with the same restrictions as PB - in other words they can't be used externally to this site and even then we run about 2.5TB a month of outbound data.

We don't charge users for this forum or the wealth of information it contains because we have sponsors who help us meet the running costs and all the actual work that a commercial venture would have to pay for is provided by volunteers who share our passion. We also have a small group of donating members who voluntarily support this community because they want to and for both those groups we are extremely grateful.

We will probably be implementing a small annual charge for data storage for those who have more than x storage (x is yet to be determined) but it will only be on a cost recovery basis and most likely (as noted in an earlier post) in 5 Gb increments - enough to store ~3,000 images suitable for web viewing at 200 kb each. Hi resolution images (like the brochure scans) are much larger but they need to be so that the detail can be read but the images we use elsewhere range from 150 kb - 350 kb which is ample.

I'm open to thoughts as to:

1. Where 'x' should be set but as a guide the current gallery allows each user 500 Mb with a maximum file size of 500 kb.

2. Whether $10 per annum is considered a reasonable cost for 5 Gb of hosted storage.

Cheers
Russ

[Whitey-AMG]

Originally Posted by BLU-220

I'm uploading my pictures via imgur far superior compare to PB so far, but my all my other pictures from PB are all gone
I hope Russell has a solution to restore them though ??
image

How did u link the image ?
I've opened an account with IMGUR but can't figure out how to get the link that actually shows the pic when you post like you did. I can see in the edit option it offers a LINK to the pic but that's only a web link ?

[FairmontGS]

I think $10 per 5 gig is a steal.

[cs123]

Originally Posted by Bluey-GT

How did u link the image ?
I've opened an account with IMGUR but can't figure out how to get the link that actually shows the pic when you post like you did. I can see in the edit option it offers a LINK to the pic but that's only a web link ?

Create a imgur account, log into the account.

Upload pic

Select pic

This is on the right



Select the size of the pic you want.

Select BB code.

Past that into your post

[cs123]

Originally Posted by FairmontGS

I think $10 per 5 gig is a steal.

I agree

[Whitey-AMG]

Originally Posted by cs123

Create a imgur account, log into the account.

Upload pic

Select pic

This is on the right

image

Select the size of the pic you want.

Select BB code.

Past that into your post

Can't see that menu on iPhone using the IMGUR app
Is it only desktop functionality ?

[cs123]

Originally Posted by Bluey-GT

Can't see that menu on iPhone using the IMGUR app
Is it only desktop functionality ?

Yeah, on the desktop. On the iphone I use the mobile website, not the app. That functionality is missing.

[BLU-220]

Originally Posted by Bluey-GT

How did u link the image ?
I've opened an account with IMGUR but can't figure out how to get the link that actually shows the pic when you post like you did. I can see in the edit option it offers a LINK to the pic but that's only a web link ?

All I do is click on the the picture in my album
Then right click and you will see the option
Copy Image address


Cheers Dean

[Whitey-AMG]

Cool !

Works on phone - thanks !
Just need to fiddle with sizing.
Thanks guys.....

[BLU-220]

For resize in your album hover over the picture and you will see a edit option
click on that then on the top right of the picture you will see size all I do is edit the first number to 800 then
Click apply then save done

Cheers Dean

[Whitey-AMG]

Originally Posted by BLU-220

For resize in your album hover over the picture and you will see a edit option
click on that then on the top right of the picture you will see size all I do is edit the first number to 800 then
Click apply then save done

Cheers Dean

Thanks Dean
That edit option functionality not available via phone it seems , even using the web page not the app....
That pic above is 65 mb ... lols.

I wonder if there is a resize option using the phone on the webpage ?

[Pepscobra]

I'm just started using imgur also.
Question; can you copy/paste the bbcode from the iPhone app? I can't seem to find it.
Works ok from my PC.