What is happening with this site?

[dolphans1]

Guys/Gals - what exactly is happening with this site? A lot of my posts and pictures are missing from some of my recent threads?

Is it on my end, or the photo hosting site?

As many of you know, we all post to contribute to the site, help out and archive some history, to educate and share ideas and experiences, but if stuff disappears for whatever reasons, what's the point? Right?

It takes a long time to do this.

If this site can't handle posts or videos, can we transition it over to Facebook?

Thanks.

[Tenorman]

Photobucket...

I think because of the cost of Photobucket (now you must pay) and unless you pay, you can no longer link the photos...

Therefore, many of the photos that were linked to Photobucket are gone...

I think....

Tenorman

[bikerphil]

There is a fix to view the photos. Which browser are you using dolphans1?

[dolphans1]

Yes, I recently fixed that issue months ago using Firefox, but I have been using a new photo hosting site which prompted me to start this thread.

[DeanR]

Please let us have absolutely nothing to do with facebook.

[Jerry]

Please let us have absolutely nothing to do with facebook.

Could not agree more. Facebook sells people to advertisers. Not interested in having anything to do with it.

As for photo hosting...
None of the hosting sites is forever. This site, as do many sites, relies on external links to post photos. Blog pages, or at least those built on WordPress templates, upload photos to a folder in the web site structure. In my blog page the folder is named "uploads" and photos are grouped by year and month. Cost of storage is included in my hosting fees.

Blog pages are not designed for threads / discussions such as this but there are other forum platforms that allow uploading. A quick search turned up ProBoards, for example, that has this to say about attachnments:

****

Add Attachment: If the forum staff has attachments enabled, you will see this button on the posting page. After you click the Add Attachment button, a new window will pop up letting you know how many files you can upload at a time, along with what the file size limit per attachment is. To attach a file, click the + Add Files... button, and then choose a file that you would like to upload from the Browse window that pops up. Once you choose a file, you will see a progress bar for the attachment that is uploading.

Once the attachment has been made, you can use the Insert button to have the attachment appear inline within your post, or you can use the Delete button if you decide against adding an attachment. Otherwise, you can click the Done button found at the bottom of the pop-up window and your attachment file will appear at the very end of your post after your thread has been made.

****

Maybe time to look at a different hosting platform? As long as the hosting account is active the attachments will never disappear from threads.

[dolphans1]

Trust me, I don't care for Facebook either and I understand the hosting issues, but on this thread, I had posted before and after pictures recently and recently and there all gone, with the exception of the recent one.

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47104&page=4

[skids]

It is depressing. We had a lot of tech tips that really needed images.

[Aches n Pains]

I suspect that a new blog site would lose all the links i have created over the years. I'm 75 and not sure my heart could take it. If everybody kicked in a little would we be able to store new photos on the site? I would be happy to pay for the first year anyway.

I understand that the old Photobucket links won't work. Is there a way to fix Chrome to work with these links?

In addition to all the current issues with FB, good posts disappears down the feed very fast with likes, comments, etc. I find it much more difficult asking folks to create and upload files with embedded photos to the file section.

[bikerphil]

I understand that the old Photobucket links won't work. Is there a way to fix Chrome to work with these links?

Here is the fix for Chrome....

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...pkaon?hl=en-US

[Aches n Pains]

Thanks Phil. Can always count on this site.

Doug

[Jerry]

According to VBulletin (https://www.vbulletin.com/en/features/) hosting attachments is optional:

Attachment images (.gif, .jpg., etc.) stored on filesystem (optional, via Admin CP)

I think they are referring the current version (5) but is this something a moderator could look into? I don't know if this applies to the version this site uses, 3.7.3.

[dansmith65]

It looks like the url to your photo is no longer valid. I did a little digging on this post: http://www.xs11.com/forum/showpost.p...5&postcount=50

It looks like the image was originally hosted at: https://s17.postimg.org/bvkwq6d0v/Yamaha_seat_79.jpg

But postimg.org is down. I fiddled around a bit and found that replacing the root domain works: https://s17.postimg.cc/bvkwq6d0v/Yamaha_seat_79.jpg.

Sounds like you should ask post image what their plan is for the postimg.org domain.

But really, using another free hosting service puts you in the same position as when everyone used photobucket... you're relying on a company offering a free service to host your data and they may or may not be around tomorrow, or offer that service tomorrow. If, on the other hand, you were to host your own photos, you could guarantee they will always be around, as long as you're willing to keep your domain name/pay your hosting bill!

Personally, I've been using Amazon S3 for my own personal permalinks, so a url to one of my photos looks like this: https://s3.amazonaws.com/dansmith65....0+SX1100SG.jpg
Now that I'm talking about it, I'm realizing I should probably by routing these through my own domain so the hosting provider could change, if I wanted, in which case the link might look like: http://permalink.dansmith65.com/xs11...0+SX1100SG.jpg

I know it's not easy or convenient, but it is what it is.

[dansmith65]

Another good option for image hosting is https://www.backblaze.com/b2/cloud-storage.html I haven't tried it for that purpose, but it's pretty much the cheapest storage option and is generally easier to setup than Amazon Web Hosting.

[Jerry]

If, on the other hand, you were to host your own photos, you could guarantee they will always be around, as long as you're willing to keep your domain name/pay your hosting bill!

That is what I do. Hosting costs around $100.00 per year with domain registration and hosting fees, single domain. I just acquired a 2nd domain, appleattic.com, to go with my appleattic.net. (The .com points to the .net since I had the .net earlier.) Cost of the 2nd domain was about $70.00 per year through Network Solutions and includes the redirect but not any hosting fees.

Link to a photo on my domain looks like this:
"http://www.appleattic.net/xs11_files/image012.jpg"



This approach is not for everyone; I would not do it except that I wanted a blog page that is now in its 7th year. It is also a good spot to put rally pages and galleries.