Photobucket - Please Read

[♥ ℒʊ√ ♥]

Jul 1, 2017 23:43:20 GMT -8 Tumbleweed said:

Even though I totally understand Photobucket has to make a profit, it still sucks and especially since, after sitting on not opening my forum for years, finally I just did a few weeks ago and now I will have to move all my images someplace else.  That's well over 3,000 images and I doubt I'll do it. So far my site hasn't been affected but I'm sure my time will come soon. I do have most of my images on flash drives and such and did (as soon as I heard about this) download some older personal images that weren't backed up and need to have one last good look to make sure I didn't miss anything.

It's frustrating to say the least and I wish they had offered more reasonable packages to pick from, I might have considered paying say $100 a year. What they want is way too much, if you ask me. But they must be either losing money or close to it and seems to me a last ditch effort to keep from going belly up.

♥ ℒʊ√ ♥ , Thanks for doing the leg work and finding some alternatives.

You're welcome, Tumbleweed . The two alternatives I'm using are really good with fantastic upload speed.

I would have paid P'Bucket $99.99/yearly, as well. That's reasonable. But I would have so appreciated a warning ~ as I'm sure we all would.

I'm in your boat. Thousands of images are in my account. So that's impossible to migrate. Thankfully as I previously posted,  I have every single one and won't be losing anything but the 3rd party sharing. But that's huge for me.

So I'm uploading all new images to the two new sites. That's the best I can do. Anything else would literally take tens and tens of hours. And I don't have it in me.

[forumac]

Hi there. Well I've just logged on to ask a question relating to Photobucket and it appears the problem has been discussed at length. Over the past week or so when using photobucket the ads and pop ups have got worse and worse. Today I find the Forum won't accept 3rd party hosting. 

My forum is a fishing one and without pics of fish it loses 90 % of its effectiveness..

im not techs so could I ask a simple question.

Is there an alternative way to post full pictures on the forum

cheers

[elhombre]

Jul 2, 2017 2:12:00 GMT -8 forumac said:

Hi there. Well I've just logged on to ask a question relating to Photobucket and it appears the problem has been discussed at length. Over the past week or so when using photobucket the ads and pop ups have got worse and worse. Today I find the Forum won't accept 3rd party hosting. 

My forum is a fishing one and without pics of fish it loses 90 % of its effectiveness..

im not techs so could I ask a simple question.

Is there an alternative way to post full pictures on the forum

cheers

I use this on two forums,


www.proboards.com/library/plugins/item/148

Works for us.

[♥ ℒʊ√ ♥]

forumac , besides the plugin listed above, you can also use ProBoards' attachment feature (it does have a storage limit and once reached you can either delete photos or pay for additional ProBoards' storage).

And there's other free hosting sites that still permit 3rd party linking such as ~
village.photos,
nickpic.host,
postimage.io/
imageshack.us/

I hope this helps. 

[Stinky666]

I am unsure exactly of TOS or if people will like, but other possible alternatives of hosts that have been going for years (so not likely to shut down soon), are:

imagevenue.com
imagebam.com

But then there's also:

imgbox.com
imageupper.com
someimage.com


I have used all of these or seen them used on other forum types recently, and they are forums that are strict in terms of allowing what hosts can be posted - and are usually in the know for when terms change. However, I dunno so I will leave it up to someone else to check the terms lol.

Definitely plenty of alternatives out there though, it's a simple case of finding your desired new home.

[m2marsh]

Just an FYI.... I've been downloading all my photobucket images to my hard drive so I can bring them onto another hosting site. You can download entire albums from photobucket and they send you an e-mail when the zip is ready. That is really convenient (though it was down most of Sunday). BUT... note that not all photos come over. Videos don't, and some gifs (it appears animated gifs are the ones it skips). But you can download those one at a time.

[♥ ℒʊ√ ♥]

Just an FYI ~ P'Bucket's Facebook page and Blog page are blowing up with posts, as would be expected.

There's even some speculation their site was hacked. Folks who payed the asking price are still not gaining access to their photos and they're not restored.

So, at this point, it's advisable to proceed with caution. P'Bucket has stopped responding to posts so giving out credit/debit card information if you're inclined to pay seems like it may not be the wisest thing at this point.

It does seem odd to make such a drastic change over a holiday weekend and then go silent. So be careful. If hacked, I'm not so sure downloading images at this point is wise.

Hopefully, like myself, most of us have these images on our own devices, as well. 

[m2marsh]

Jul 3, 2017 12:12:53 GMT -8 ♥ ℒʊ√ ♥ said:

Just an FYI ~ P'Bucket's Facebook page and Blog page are blowing up with posts, as would be expected.

There's even some speculation their site was hacked. Folks who payed the asking price are still not gaining access to their photos and they're not restored.

So, at this point, it's advisable to proceed with caution. P'Bucket has stopped responding to posts so giving out credit/debit card information if you're inclined to pay seems like it may not be the wisest thing at this point.

It does seem odd to make such a drastic change over a holiday weekend and then go silent. So be careful. If hacked, I'm not so sure downloading images at this point is wise.

Hopefully, like myself, most of us have these images on our own devices, as well. 

Thanks.  When you say don't download images, do you mean not even to our own hard drive?  I've been doing that all day!  

[♥ ℒʊ√ ♥]

Sadly, yes. That's what I mean, m2marsh .

I'm only going by comments made ~ and common sense. Since 2003, P'Bucket has been a reputable company. The way this was handled and the timing is suspicious.

So if  (if being the operative word) the site has been hacked, by downloading any images onto your drive, you may encounter problems.

Again, this is NOT set in concrete, but caution should be taken.

I've read comments that those who made payments did so on a page that was not secure and did not have the "httpS" url but only "http". Not good.

I've stopped using the site and have gone to two others. And I'm not visiting the site until there's proof that all of what is transpiring is indeed by Photobucket's hands. I don't need anything from their site. I have all of my thousands of images. It's the 3rd party hosting that is a major issue for me. 

[m2marsh]

Jul 3, 2017 14:52:57 GMT -8 ♥ ℒʊ√ ♥ said:

Sadly, yes. That's what I mean, m2marsh .

I'm only going by comments made ~ and common sense. Since 2003, P'Bucket has been a reputable company. The way this was handled and the timing is suspicious.

So if  (if being the operative word) the site has been hacked, by downloading any images onto your drive, you may encounter problems.

Again, this is NOT set in concrete, but caution should be taken.

I've read comments that those who made payments did so on a page that was not secure and did not have the "httpS" url but only "http". Not good.

I've stopped using the site and have gone to two others. And I'm not visiting the site until there's proof that all of what is transpiring is indeed by Photobucket's hands. I don't need anything from their site. I have all of my thousands of images. It's the 3rd party hosting that is a major issue for me. 

Wouldn't our virus protectors save us from a bad download?  Sorry but I'm not up on this stuff.

[♥ ℒʊ√ ♥]

Jul 3, 2017 14:57:54 GMT -8 m2marsh said:

Wouldn't our virus protectors save us from a bad download?  Sorry but I'm not up on this stuff.

It should.

As I said, I'm only going on users' comments and how P'Bucket has conducted business for more than 14 years.


Do what you are comfortable doing is the only advice I can give you . . . or anyone.


This may, indeed, be their new business strategy.


We'll see how things move forward when the US holiday is over and the company re-opens on Wednesday.

[Kami]

Jul 3, 2017 14:57:54 GMT -8 m2marsh said:

Jul 3, 2017 14:52:57 GMT -8 ♥ ℒʊ√ ♥ said:

Sadly, yes. That's what I mean, m2marsh .

I'm only going by comments made ~ and common sense. Since 2003, P'Bucket has been a reputable company. The way this was handled and the timing is suspicious.

So if  (if being the operative word) the site has been hacked, by downloading any images onto your drive, you may encounter problems.

Again, this is NOT set in concrete, but caution should be taken.

I've read comments that those who made payments did so on a page that was not secure and did not have the "httpS" url but only "http". Not good.

I've stopped using the site and have gone to two others. And I'm not visiting the site until there's proof that all of what is transpiring is indeed by Photobucket's hands. I don't need anything from their site. I have all of my thousands of images. It's the 3rd party hosting that is a major issue for me. 

Wouldn't our virus protectors save us from a bad download?  Sorry but I'm not up on this stuff.

To elaborate a bit on what Luv said, in theory it should, especially if you have your virus definitions up to date. But, if (again, if being the operative word) Photobucket was compromised, there's always the possibility of a new, as-of-yet unknown type of malware whomever has taken it over may release.

Ultimately, it's still a gamble if you don't 100% know what the integrity of the source site is.

[Skidjit]

Honestly, if Photobucket's been hacked, you know they would have heard by now and called everyone off vacation holiday. They would have all been back at work getting all of this straightened out. I seriously doubt they would allow a hacker to take over like this.

[Kami]

Jul 3, 2017 18:35:54 GMT -8 Skidjit said:

Honestly, if Photobucket's been hacked, you know they would have heard by now and called everyone off vacation holiday. They would have all been back at work getting all of this straightened out. I seriously doubt they would allow a hacker to take over like this.

I mean, that is the most likely scenario, yes, but a little caution never hurt anything. I agree with you though it seems unlikely!

[♥ ℒʊ√ ♥]

Jul 3, 2017 18:35:54 GMT -8 Skidjit said:

Honestly, if Photobucket's been hacked, you know they would have heard by now and called everyone off vacation holiday. They would have all been back at work getting all of this straightened out. I seriously doubt they would allow a hacker to take over like this.

Honestly, if they weren't hacked, why aren't they telling all of the members posting on their Facebook page and Blog? These types of companies/services have staff available, even on holidays. No companies "allow" hackers to take over.  P'Bucket is generating a few "canned" responses that aren't addressing the issue at all ~ the last seems to be on July 1st.

Going by the hundreds and hundreds of posts, the non-response from P-Bucket, those who have paid and still can't see their photos showing up on 3rd party sites, bears some caution. 

But as I as posted, do what feels comfortable to you. At this point, that's all that can be done.