PLEASE! Stop using Photobucket. Please?

Test:

Edit: why isn't it working???

Edit2: got it!

EastCoastMojo wrote: I just downloaded my pics and deleted my photobucket accounts. It's only a matter of time before they implode.

I hate to say it, but I will be glad to see it. They really deserve to for the asshattery they are doing.

$10 a month for hotlinking, I would consider it, but not $33.33

In reply to Javelin:

Gotta do a long press or right click to view the image in a separate window and grab the link from there.

Edit: looks like you got it while I was posting.

Yeah, I noticed a 502 Bad Gateway on Berkit last night, glad the issue is resolved.

I can only imagine the backlash that Photobucket is going to feel once forum-going public realize how destructive the move to a monetization platform is going to be to their years (decades?) old threads. Years ago (maybe 8 or so?) when PB was new-ish and I joined, the site was quick, intuitive, and I was only vaguely aware of the ads in the sidebars. Over the years, the ads and "video while content is loading" popups became significantly more difficult to live with, but I suffered thru because the essential functionality of PB was still there. Even when the content became so intrusive that using the site was a challenge - videos and ads now took longer to load because the site had become so bloated, it was drowning under its own weight, I STILL used PB because thats where all my content was...all of it. All my digital imagery and video was housed there. Forum links lead there, I even had the email address to upload mass files from my phone to my PB mobile album stored as a quick-contact. And, I was happy to suffer thru their terrible mess, and watch their stupid video ads, and choke on their clickbait popups, all because my content - my forum posts, funny memes, build threads - was so caught in their site, I knew that all my posted images would die if I moved them.

And, so, now theyre dead.

And Im angry.

And I be a LOT of others will be too. A lot of regular folks who fell into their trap, and their forum posts and helpful hints will be lost to corporate greed and arrogance. No one likes being trapped. The people will vote with their wallets, and their media. People will find another solution. And Photobucket will have done it to themselves.

Photobucket's demise will be public, and no one will lift a finger to help. I cant imagine that theyre going to convince more than a few dozen % of their users to convert to a paid account. Will that be enough revenue to make up for the lost sales in ad space when their traffic numbers fall off exponentially over the coming months? I personally dont think so, and I cant wait for it. This couldnt have happened to a nicer bunch of shiny happy-holes.

In reply to 4cylndrfury:

Here's what I think of photobucket.

Photo bucket has always sucked the sweat off a dead man's ass. Always.

Y'all motivated me to buy my own domain. I looked around at several options, I'm familiar with Wordpress, since we use that for a few external sites at work, but they're far from the best value.

I wound up with Blue Host, after Keith's and another person I know's recommendation. ~$95 got me 50 Gib of space for 3 years, and free domain registration. Domain registration will be <$9 annually.

After I got a domain, and some space, I installed Piwigo, more or less on a whim, it's one of about 4 different photo album style scripts Blue Host provides idiot proof installation for, to create your own "photobucket."

So far it's working. I've managed to update all the images on Muffin's thread with correct links.

My site

All of my build thread images are still alive. Maybe the website will run faster with everyone abandoning ship.

Toyman01 wrote: All of my build thread images are still alive. Maybe the website will run faster with everyone abandoning ship.

Yeah, me too. A random picture or two has disappeared, but its 99% there. Then again, I had a nightmare renewing my payment options with the berkeleyers about a week before the whole thing went mammaries up. They wanted to up my payments to 33 bucks a month. I wrote, and told them their whole system was jacked, and they eventually set me back on my $3.99 a month program, of which I use just under 10%. I wonder if that's going to go sideways in another year. Sometimes I consider shutting it down just for solidarity with my internet brothers. One way or the other, I downloaded that stuff to a zip drive, just in case I feel the need to go back through, and fix all my crappy build threads after they inevitably do their money grab.

In reply to wheelsmithy:

I've already opened a smugmug account and have started moving everything. I'll keep both accounts active till I get that complete, then it's goodbye PB. The writing is on the wall.

Just signed up on Photoberkit. Thanks for setting that up.

In reply to T.J.:

Account approved

OK, I'm a-gonna-try hotlinking:

The parking lot at work. Is there a trend? That's like only half of them.

Is it still possible to get on The Berk-it?

I have done nothing to solve my Photobucket problems.

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

Big thanks to Stampie and ECM!!!! You guys rock.

In reply to John Welsh :

Yep, still time.

I uploaded that from my phone. I had to use the one at a time thing. My phone is an android and doesn't have flash. I tried installing flash and then every time I used the multiple upload thing, it crashed my browser, both firefox and chrome.

But, yeah, thanks guys for doing this.

bigdaddylee82 wrote: Y'all motivated me to buy my own domain. I looked around at several options, I'm familiar with Wordpress, since we use that for a few external sites at work, but they're far from the best value. I wound up with Blue Host, after Keith's and another person I know's recommendation. ~$95 got me 50 Gib of space for 3 years, and free domain registration. Domain registration will be <$9 annually. After I got a domain, and some space, I installed Piwigo, more or less on a whim, it's one of about 4 different photo album style scripts Blue Host provides idiot proof installation for, to create your own "photobucket." So far it's working. I've managed to update all the images on Muffin's thread with correct links. My site

I played with Pwingo a bit before writing my own script. It's good gallery software, but seemed awkward for photo hosting for forums. It's really hard to get a direct URL out of it. Unless you found a plugin I didn't.

I've been using my script for the fuzz pedal and amp threads I'm doing right now, and I wish I'd done it earlier!

Photobucket isn't the first big image host to go down, and it won't be the last. Signing up with another hosting company will save you for a few years, but eventually it'll implode as well.

The good news about the Photobucket disaster is that it's got people thinking like archivists, about how to ensure permanence of information. It's like a library having a fire - terrible loss of information, but lessons well learned.

I would love to know how well this has worked for PB. Are the dollars rolling in, or are customers running away?

In reply to mad_machine:

So far, it doesn't look to have affected the paying customers, only the people with free accounts. I haven't bailed because all of my stuff still works for $35/year. So, site traffic might be down some, but as far as paying customers, that probably hasn't changed much.

The real question is, are the rates for the paying customers going to go up to match what they wanted from the free accounts? My gut say yes, as soon as my account is due to re-up. We shall see, because that happens in early January. For now, I'm not changing anything except that all my new stuff is going to a Smugmug account. January, I will decide which way to go.

To be honest, I'd really like Photobucket to keep working. I do not want to have to go through all my build threads to reinsert the images. For all the hate PB gets, I've never really had a problem with them. It just works and has been for 10 years.

Ok, got all my M3 build thread pics moved on Photoberkit and tried to redo the links on my first post.

Opened the pic into a large window, copied the address, pasted it into the camera link window here and no love.

So what'd I do wrong?

Doc, try right clicking and "copy image location", not the address of the big window. That worked for me. For example, the image location of the above Toyota themed parking lot is http://photoberkit.com/copper/albums/userpics/10038/IMG_20170720_161454.jpg

Stampie wrote:

yupididit wrote: Someone explain photoberkit. I'm assuming a grm member made it?

The idea of a shared hosting site was brought up by Woody first. In that thread Tactical Penguin suggested the name Photoberkit. A few weeks before the Photobucket apocalypse I had started hosting my images on my own site mainly because I was tired of the Photobucket ads. While watching the discussion I saw what I thought was the need but no one actually doing a site. So I registered and set up a basic site. EastCoastMojo asked how to help and I took that as a volunteer to head the Photoberkit committee. And that's where we are.

Okay, I haven't been paying attention to this thread until just now and had to scroll back through a few pages to figure out what was going on.

How do I sign up for Photoberkit?

In reply to Woody:

Here ya go:

Photoberkit sign up

EastCoastMojo wrote: In reply to Woody: Here ya go: Photoberkit sign up

Registered, awaiting approval. Fingers crossed!