AuburnChris 193 Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 TL;DR: Photobucket is evil and stupid now, use Imgur instead. So Photobucket, a site a lot of you use to host pictures here on the site, is currently committing corporate suicide by preventing people from using their service for exactly what they've been using it for since forever. To post pictures from Photobucket here on Fort Fiends, the fine folks idiots at Photobucket have decided that you need to pay them $400 American dollars a year for the privilege. That's dumb. And it's going to break a lot of links here on Fort Fiends. I wish there was something that we could do about that, but there's really not, from our end. Everyone's posts that link to Photobucket are going to break, unless they pay, which I wholeheartedly do not recommend. WHAT DO I DO?, I hear you ask. Here's what you can do: 1. Go download everything you can from your Photobucket account, while you still can. I'm hearing horror stories of people whose accounts are being locked for "violating your free Photobucket account's terms of service" for third-party linking. Once your account has been locked, you apparently can't get to your photos until you pay up, which again DO NOT GIVE THIS DUMB COMPANY YOUR MONEY. 2. USE IMGUR. Imgur is my image host of choice, because it was built for hosting images. That's what it does, and it doesn't charge its users to do it. They're at imgur.com, and I'd write up a whole thing on how to use it, but I don't really have the time at the moment. They're pretty easy to figure out, though. I'm confident that you can do it- you certainly can if you were linking from Photobucket before. 3. Once your previously-hosted-on-Photobucket pictures are now on Imgur, you'll have to manually edit your old, broken posts to point to the new ones. This is the part which will be tedious, and hard, and unfortunately nobody will do it. I'm not going to put too fine a point on this: This sucks, and it sucks a lot. It's going to decimate our Trip Reports forum, which is very image-heavy. I am filled, at this moment, with righteous anger at the morons at Photobucket who thought any of this was a good idea. TL;DR: Photobucket is evil and stupid now, use Imgur instead. wendinator 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
djsamuel 322 Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 I'll second the use of IMGUR. Much easier to use, especially for inserting images into message boards. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AuburnJen 777 Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 Please do this as soon as you possibly can. I know many of you have important jobs that require you to be occupied during the day, but when you get home, PLEASE download all of your images from photobucket if your account has not been already locked. We keep hearing more and more of our friends (no fiends yet) that have had their accounts locked because their accounts are linked. Please get out of there now. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Grumpy and Grandma 740 Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 My question is why can't we post pics directly like I can on other forums? The only pics I store on PB(100 account) are the ones for here. The $99 account is the only one you need to link. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Travisma 1,317 Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 I have been using Imgur for quite a while. There is a limit on the amount of photos you can store for free, and the biggest thing is trying to remember what link to use to post on FF. They have about 6 different types. You would think I would either remember it, or put a sticker on my laptop. But it does work great. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AuburnChris 193 Posted July 13, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 5 minutes ago, Grumpy and Grandma said: My question is why can't we post pics directly like I can on other forums? The only pics I store on PB(100 account) are the ones for here. The $99 account is the only one you need to link. We have a limited amount of storage here on the site, and most of it is consumed by our database that holds, well, everything that you see here on the site that isn't a picture. If we tried to host all the pictures, the amount our hosting provider would charge for that much storage would be... too much. If you have a paid account with Photobucket already (which I'm guessing you do? I can't tell), then you can still embed images until December 31, 2018. At that point, they're going to try to shove you into their $400 plan. Note also that "linking" and "third-party hosting" are different things. By their definitions, "Linking" to Photobucket means putting a link in your post that doesn't show the picture, but instead opens up a page on Photobucket in a new tab where the picture will appear, for example something like "click here to view the picture". "Third-party hosting" is when you embed the picture itself so that it appears in the body of your post, which is how most of the people who post pictures here from Photobucket do it. That's only allowed in their new $400 plan. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 Well that blows. Thanks for the warning, Super Geek. TCD Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DaveInTN 3,247 Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 I've never used PB, but I was burned by a now-defunct photo hosting site (Webshots) that shut down several years ago, and I lost some photos that to this day I haven't recovered. While most of my pics are on a laptop which also backs up to Carbonite, plus an external HD in a safe deposit box, there were some that I had put on Webshots after our home flooded in 2010 and never thought to back up elsewhere. And they're gone forever. So if this PB fiasco affects you, listen to Chris and ACT NOW. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AuburnChris 193 Posted July 13, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 4 minutes ago, Travisma said: I have been using Imgur for quite a while. There is a limit on the amount of photos you can store for free, and the biggest thing is trying to remember what link to use to post on FF. They have about 6 different types. You would think I would either remember it, or put a sticker on my laptop. But it does work great. Use the "BB Code" option. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Grumpy and Grandma 740 Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 So if we move to Imgur we have to re configure each pic over to here individually. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AuburnChris 193 Posted July 13, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 7 minutes ago, Grumpy and Grandma said: So if we move to Imgur we have to re configure each pic over to here individually. For all your previous posts, yes, you'd have to edit the link to point to the new location. I am fully aware, again, that this is a tedious and frustrating process that I fully expect nobody will bother to do. Sadly, most of those pictures will simply disappear into the ether. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Travisma 1,317 Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 13 minutes ago, AuburnChris said: Use the "BB Code" option. Thanks I SQUIRREL! will. Hi I'm Dory what's your name.... Too many things to remember... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 Trying to add an image from Imgur ... Now just to figure out how to resize it in Imgur. Personally I tried Imgur before and didn't like it. Guess I have no choice now! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 That's a great photo, Gwen! TCD Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Travisma 1,317 Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 16 minutes ago, CCIntrigue...aka Gwen said: Trying to add an image from Imgur ... Now just to figure out how to resize it in Imgur. Personally I tried Imgur before and didn't like it. Guess I have no choice now! Pick the size before linking it. I use large or XL? thumbnail. If you use actual? it'll be HUGE. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 5 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said: That's a great photo, Gwen! TCD Thank you! But it's great because it's had a lot of Lightroom/Photoshop work to get rid of the background and enhance the colors. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 5 hours ago, Travisma said: Pick the size before linking it. I use large or XL? thumbnail. If you use actual? it'll be HUGE. Supposedly you can edit the size after uploading the image. But I couldn't get it to work. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 Resized in Imgur ... let's see what happens. Nope, obviously didn't work. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Travisma 1,317 Posted July 14, 2017 Report Share Posted July 14, 2017 37 minutes ago, CCIntrigue...aka Gwen said: Resized in Imgur ... let's see what happens. Nope, obviously didn't work. Great picture, what size did you select? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mouseketab.....Carol 1,261 Posted July 14, 2017 Report Share Posted July 14, 2017 Working on downloading pictures... wouldn't be so bad except Photobucket is mind numbingly slow, and keeps giving errors..... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bhall 115 Posted July 14, 2017 Report Share Posted July 14, 2017 I have almost 1700 pics there. It took me 30 minutes just to download 1 album of 20 pics. I think everyone is participating in a mass exodus and the downloading is crushing their server(s). About half of those pics only exist on photobarf right now as my 2 external hard drives died and my 64gb flash drive was chewed up by our former puggle Landon. So, it's imperative I get these pics. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mouseketab.....Carol 1,261 Posted July 14, 2017 Report Share Posted July 14, 2017 I've got way more than 1700. It's going to take me days to get this done. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bhall 115 Posted July 14, 2017 Report Share Posted July 14, 2017 Not sure if you set up sub-albums in your library, but it will not let me download any albums if there are sub-abums in it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mouseketab.....Carol 1,261 Posted July 14, 2017 Report Share Posted July 14, 2017 Yup, I've been downloading the subalbums, then deleting them, then finally the top album and deleting it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ThemeParkCommando 81 Posted July 14, 2017 Report Share Posted July 14, 2017 I only had about 100 pics on photobucket, but it took me almost 30 minutes to download them last night. I am not a paying member, so I was getting bombarded with popups and adds that blocked access to the site. Plus, ever 5 minutes the site would grey out and try to get me to go to the new TOS page. So frustrating. I wonder if their developers got the idea from the recent ransomware virus attacks? I suppose paying $400 will be worth it to someone who's livelihood depends on their website, and all their pictures are hosted on photobucket. It certainly feels like extortion, to me. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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