Warning to Photobucket Users

[OllieNZ]

Hi All,

Photobucket have changed their terms of service and you now require a $399.99 USD/yr subscription (P500 account) to allow 3rd party sharing of photos (using the IMG code). If they haven't already THEY WILL replace all your shared images with a Photobucket message advising you need to upgrade to a P500 account (The actual image stored on your account will be safe).
As my photo links are currently broken and I will be removing all photos and closing my Photobucket account and finding another host. I would recommend others do the same

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).
Available Plus Account Plans : Photobucket offers the following Plus Account Plans:
o Plus 50 Plan: 52 GB of Storage for $59.99 / Year. The Plus 50 Plan does not allow any image linking or 3rd party image hosting.

o Plus 100 Plan: 102 GB of Storage for $99.99 / Year. The Plus 100 Plan allows for unlimited image linking but does not allow 3rd party image hosting.

o Plus 500 Plan: 500 GB of Storage and unlimited bandwidth for $399.99 / Year. The Plus 500 Plan allows for unlimited image linking and unlimited 3rd party image hosting

[Bailes1992]

I think they've been struggling with money the last few years. The amount of adverts on the site was making it boarder line unusable. Better find a new image hosting website then!

[Welly]

These are sad times for car forums, if you google this there's loads of cases of 'big build' threads loosing the invaluable pictures and it now falls to the owner of the pics to find another way of hosting them, in the right order, perhaps over a couple of forums....lots of time taken to do this.

On a personal level I've posted countless pics on here but not many that I'd class as 'very useful' for future web surfers but on the Volvo Forum I posted a how-to guide which became extremely popular (hits 1st page on google) with over 35,000 views in the forum and some 'thank you's' from them Americans even so I'm quite proud of that work.

I've downloaded all my Albums from PB (not without a massive fight though with their sloooowww web site) and deleted my account. It is true it has been difficult to use their service recently with lots of pop up ads and stuff, I understand other services are available and are perhaps better to use for regular forums like this.

I would be interested to here of other users experiences with a new hosting service soon. I'm guessing that going forward there's going to be big gaps in these forums for future web surfers trying to find information

[FarmerPug]

I wonder has the prevalence of facebook groups for various cars meant less traffic for forums? I find it handy when out in the shed to ask a question on a FB group using the phone rather than waiting to use a computer.
Having said that then there is no secure place for good information or discussions to stay in, a forum has always been good in that regard.

I had a look at photobucket alternatives, Imgbb seems to work;

[Welly]

Looks like my request to PB to delete my account has worked (after 2 weeks ) going by the look of my 'new; avatar. Agreed though farmer it can be a faff using a laptop especially if you want to upload pictures, I guess a phone is much quicker although you can't see sh*t on the fairly small screen of even the largest of phones.

[Welly]

Since the dust has settled, who's using which hosting service now?

Any good ones/bad ones?

Ease of use etc?

I've not even bothered to look into any yet. I wonder how PB are getting on now?

[trufflehunt]

I've never had a Photobucket account, but noticed this on MX5 forum yesterday.....

"... Photobucket looks to have a new management team in place. The huge fees that were introduced a while ago have now been reduced by about 95% and all old 3rd party hosted images in forums across the world have been restored (for now).

I did a very quick check on our forum and it looks like the old photos are currently working Smile

I guess people will need to pay the fees for 3rd party hosting in the long term for the photos to stay working though.

Whether people are willing to return to Photobucket and pay them remains to be seen...trust in the company can’t be great...

Some news about the changes can be seen below:

https://globenewswire.com/news-release/ ... Trust.html

...... "

[Bailes1992]

I closed my PB account down and I certainly would never consider using them again. They've ruined so many good blogs and guides by being so selfish. Really have shot themselves in the foot.