Photobucket

[jetmechmarty]

Have you read the new terms of use? It looks to me like all of the content is going away. That is, unless you pay $399.99 annually for an account.

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.


Read more: http://photobucket.com/terms#ixzz4lcSSVwM9

That's a whole lot of content going away.

[BA80]

It was good until the inevitable greed kicked in. Like dope dealers, get you hooked then start charging for the product.

Pretty much every pic ever posted on .com will vanish unless the ransom is paid. I'll take new ones.

[3Phase]

... Pretty much every pic ever posted on .com will vanish unless the ransom is paid. I'll take new ones.

The same type of thing happened with Flickr. How many of y'all have used Photobucket's print service? I know I haven't, after years of free use, I finally bought a 50 plan to get rid of the ads. So much for that idea! I'll have to see what Customer Service says about existing contracts, I might be able to slide for the rest of my year.

It's not about greed though, media space and serving bandwidth cost serious money that subscriptions can't cover. The only alternative aside from marrying a billionaire that wants to become a pennyaire in a couple of months is advertising and offering services. No one wants to print their pictures or look at the ads so they block 'em but those darned advertisers won't pay unless their ads actually get served. Go figure... the site reorganizes or gets creative with their users' content but however they decide to go about it, they change the rules.

[BA80]

It's not about greed though, media space and serving bandwidth cost serious money that subscriptions can't cover. The only alternative aside from marrying a billionaire that wants to become a pennyaire in a couple of months is advertising and offering services.

As I said......greed.

[3Phase]

As I said......greed.

Free image and video hosting is running down and going away, it was too good to last but it man was it fun! I guess it's sort of like the .com boom where everyone jumped onboard, then went broke or jumped ship and watched it sink.

[BA80]

Free image and video hosting is running down and going away, it was too good to last but it man was it fun! I guess it's sort of like the .com boom where everyone jumped onboard, then went broke or jumped ship and watched it sink.

Or get banned for no apparent reason.


Did I just say that out loud?

[3Phase]

Wait, you know, actually, it's not funny at all but I understand and have no right to laugh about it.

If I have to kick in another $50 to PB for their $99.99/year plan to allow linking that's still only 3.65 cents/day. 3rd part image hosting is a whole other ball game that I'm glad I never played.

[Bonz]

Can XS11.com make a change so we can directly post pictures? The ZRX forum uploads pictures off my device and right into posts.

Screw photo bucket.

[madmax-im]

I have been observing photobucket slide into the abyss for the past 2 yrs..the 900 ads its loads while you try to navigate from one picture to another is a frustrating and downright maddening...I got out of it a few months ago..i was anle to download all of my pics onto my computer and back them up..I wwont delete my 2 accounts that still have 5000+ pics..as long as you dont delete your acct or move anything your posted pics will still be there...
I have been using Smug Mug..and they are light years ahead of PB..not free..but basic plan is 5 bucks a month..there is another free image hosting site...gotta go look for it...

[madmax-im]

postimage

I have not used this..I did try it..it is easy and its free..It works better than photobucket...some folks i know on Advrider forum use it fine...

http://postimage.io/

[TopCatGr58]

Or get banned for no apparent reason.


Did I just say that out loud?

Greg, Scott was talking about the INTERNET Wide abcdef.COM commercial web site BOOM, not XS11.com!

And BNE, I/we can appreciate your/our frustration with the changes that PB has and is persuing, but please remember that there are CHILDREN reading this forum, and even though it was mispelled, it still phonetically says the same 4 letter word that parents would like NOT to be said/read by their kids under 18 y/o or so!

I haven't checked lately because I don't have access to that level of the site's software anymore, but a few years ago, I was very surprised to see the bandwidth that our site used, which was several GB's a month, and that was WITHOUT data/photos as part of the server load. As Scott eluded to, hosting image data is quite expensive as well as providing the bandwidth to show it, and our site is paid for by voluntary donations essentially. I don't handle the $$, so I can't speak with any certainty how much the site's hosting costs are possibly paid by OUT OF POCKET payments that the Webmaster/owner pays?

I don't know HOW/WHO pays for the ZRX's Forum. BTW, you didn't specify WHICH ONE, I found both a ZRXOA.org site, and a ZRXOC.com site. ZRXOA.org Has banners, as well as members with ZRXOA community supporter banners which I would assume are members that contribute $$ to the site?? And both sites also sell ZRX site's member stuff, mugs, shirts, hats, etc, and also has many more active members being a much newer bike.

ZRXOC.com I didn't see any banners, but the site does have a Paypal donation link, as well as the above mentioned goodies for sale funds generation, and again lots more members.

And so they are probably able to fund a website hosting plan WITH photos uploading, but that type of plan would be cost prohibitive for our site, and the Webmaster/owner wanted to keep the site BANNER FREE, and so that's why we have to have OFF SITE photo hosting. We do have a small amount of server space for photos for the tech tips, and they are part of that 3GB a month bandwidth that our site uses.

Back in ancient times, folks were more aware of the kilo byte(Yes, I said KiloByte) sized photos/images and worked using photo editting programs to both shrink in pixel size to 640x 480 sized images, as well converting from BMP(non-compressed windows format) to JPG formats to bring the Kbytes size to about less than 100Kbytes total file size to help keep the bandwidth to a manageable level( folks were using DIALUP ACCESS).

Now, with 18MB digital cameras, and 5000x4000 pixel sized images, and DUMBER Net users that have no idea how to use their personal confuser to reprocess their images, so they just upload and post the FULL SIZED Multi-MegaByte sized image files, not to mention GByte sized VIDEO files, and the bandwidth use/stress has gone not just thru the roof, but into the IONOSphere. And as was stated, it costs LOTS of $$ to provide that bandwidth transmissibility for a website. Think about how much you have to pay a month for your Smart Phone Unlimited DATA access account that with streaming VIDEO Movies, you can run thru several Gbytes a DAY/HOUR!

SO...that's why WE don't offer photo uploading/hosting on XS11.com, and why Photobucket is having to change to a pay/per service model to cover the enormous expenses of hosting what I'm sure is whatever the next size that's larger than a TERABYTE's worth of DATA storage and transmission a month that's not getting paid for by folks ordering printed photos/albums and such! It's NOT GREED, just the cost of business!

T.C.

[Bonz]

Zrxoa.org.

Yeah, it is full of guys that will spend thousands on their bikes and not blink an eye. Lots of donations and website sponsors. Very different than this site.

I was simply using that as an example of a forum that allows direct uploading but didn't know the cost was so prohibitive.

[TopCatGr58]

Here's a quote from GoDaddy commercial grade webhosting fees!

EnterpriseLEVEL plan
Ideal for social media, business listings and advanced eCommerce sites.

As low as
$34.99/mo
On sale - Save 30%
$49.99/mo when you renew4
4 GB memory
240 GB storage
2 CPUs
Unmetered bandwidth
Free 1-year SSL certificate†
Free 1-year Office 365††
Free 1-year malware removal

T.C.

[BA80]

It's NOT GREED, just the cost of business!

T.C.

Yup

[3Phase]

The XS11.com site banner with the picture of your favorite color XS gets served a bunch of times.

I use uBlock-O to block the banner and a few other things to make the page easier to read and it should cut down at least 0.00000001 cents on the site's bandwidth.

XS11 Forums without uBlockO


.

XS11 Forums with uBlockO


.


Idle Talk list without uBlockO


.

Idle Talk list with uBlockO


.


Forum Reply without uBlockO


.

Forum Reply with uBlockO


I try to leave this site's off-site/3rd-party serving, scripting, and statisticing alone and use uBlocks cosmetic blocking to free up more of my screen for text.