Online photo storage

For those who don't know, Photobucket has eliminated the ability to link to pics which are stored there unless you pay $40 / month.

I usually try to avoid free services as companies have to make a profit to be a going concern, which is more difficult if they don't charge. I was bitten on this one. All photo's I've ever shared in online forums are now gone.

While they didn't handle this as well as they could have, I certainly can't blame them for having to take action.

It is a strange way to go about it. They could have easily informed their customers that they were going ahead with a change and have allowed them a 2-3 month time frame to make a decision. Regardless, I find it quite an expensive service as Imageshack only charges $40, annually, and their service is quite good, in my opinion.

I totally agree. EFDan had a little trouble getting a pic to show, so I wanted to make people aware in case was the issue for him as well as to make others aware.

While they sent an email the day they cut the service, is was cryptic and I didn't understand the implication. I discovered it when I tried to link.

This should be a lesson for those that want to rely on and ad based income for a website. Photobucket failed in this miserably. With the advent of popup blockers and adblockers, Photobucket has been bleeding revenue for the last couple of yrs. To flip the switch from ad based revenue to a pay to play revenue overnight revealed just how desperate they are to stay alive. Save your pictures now. I wouldnt be surprised if it folded under in the next year or so, along with the 95 million users worth of irreplaceable photo albums.

Also I would like to thank andrewjs18 for using the imgur based system here @ DFS. I dont have to have 2 websites open and copy and paste links just to post pictures. Letting it look into my computer to post pics is so much easier that the photobucket method. And if you look back, all of the pics are still there.

I'm a fan of imgur. that said, there's no such thing as a 100% guarantee when it comes to a free service. the best bet is to keep the photos backed up to a cloud service like dropbox or google drive so if something like photobucket or imgur goes away, you don't lose access to your photos.

if you have amazon prime, they allow unlimited photos to be stored on their servers. but again, this requires you to always have amazon prime...

These are good comments. I have everything backed up in two different places.

I feel badly for Photobucket. The performance on their website has become worse and worse. I was willing to pay for their service, but they kept offering things I didn't want.

andrewjs18, I've always tried to link pics from another source so DFS wouldn't have to pay more. Do you have a thing with Imgur where I don't need to worry about that?

The owner of one of the hobby forums from my other interests asked hosted the forum himself. He cut off the ability to upload from your computer so he wouldn't have to pay to store them. He suggested we all use Photobucket. I feel for them as well. 90% of the historical pics from that site are gone.

I run my business on MS Office 365, which includes a a great solution for photos. All my pics are automatically uploaded to MS OneDrive which has a 'create a link' function. As I think about it, I'm grateful that Photobucket booted me as I wouldn't have found out about OneDrive otherwise.

When does this change happen? It still gives me links and my photos are still up on forums. There's a go add free option for 2.49 a month on my Photobucket page?

Wonder if it's based of usage as I don't have many photos on my account.

Photobucket blows. It used to be good like 4-5 years ago but has gone way downhill since then. Way too many ads and slow, slow, slow. Imgur is much better IMO.

These are good comments.   I have everything backed up in two different places.  

I feel badly for Photobucket.  The performance on their website has become worse and worse.  I was willing to pay for their service, but they kept offering things I didn't want.  

andrewjs18, I've always tried to link pics from another source so DFS wouldn't have to pay more.  Do you have a thing with Imgur where I don't need to worry about that?

The owner of one of the hobby forums from my other interests asked hosted the forum himself.  He cut off the ability to upload from your computer so he wouldn't have to pay to store them.  He suggested we all use Photobucket.  I feel for them as well.  90% of the historical pics from that site are gone.

I run my business on MS Office 365, which includes a a great solution for photos.  All my pics are automatically uploaded to MS OneDrive which has a 'create a link' function.  As I think about it, I'm grateful that Photobucket booted me as I wouldn't have found out about OneDrive otherwise.

imgur lets you hook into their API for free - this is what I do. I generated an 'app' on their system, which then gives me an ID and then I added it into the code we use. disk space is usually the killer for forums out there, especially when they use the attachment system. to minimize that here on DFS, I disabled the attachments and offloaded the service onto imgur since it's free.

imgur is free for all users. you can sign up and create albums and such if you wish..

When does this change happen? It still gives me links and my photos are still up on forums. There's a go add free option for 2.49 a month on my Photobucket page?

Wonder if it's based of usage as I don't have many photos on my account.

It happened a couple of weeks ago. I didn't have that many photos and reduced them to about 100,k before uploading. I would suggest finding something different and backing up your photos if you haven't already. Sounds like Imgur is good.