The Photobucket thing

[Pine]

Am I missing something ?
Didn't the Trad Gang administrators​ mention that there will be updates to this site , and possibly be able to upload pictures directly ?
I'm not hearing anything about that anymore .
So any news about that ?
As far as my Photobucket account , I think I'm just going to leave and just no use it anymore .
All the pictures I have on there are on a flash drive anyway .

Dale,
You are fortunate to have saved your pics from this Chum Bucket fire drill.  Many are not so lucky.

Good question!  From what I gather, "changes" are in the works....down the road a ways.  

Beyond that, I think that Rob should be answering this question.

Tony

[Rob DiStefano]

thank you for your concern and interest, graps.

we are still working on moving trad gang to a new house.  it is not an easy task.  in fact, it's close to impossible due to issues with our current house and because we have so many people, threads, posts, pm's, images, and much other stuff to move.  

currently, new testing has been underway for nearly a month.  it looks promising but is very difficult to effect.  that's all terry and i can say for now.  we've been working on this 7 dayze a week, it's that important.

thank you,
rob.

[Ken Taylor]

I was just wondering about this.
 
Ive been holding back on posting my local annual spring bear hunt story and pictures since I wanted to know if things had changed yet.

I used to use Photobucket just for the pictures I posted on Trad Gang but I will no longer.

Good thing I always kept all of my pictures stored on my computer. I'm pretty sure that I really don't lose anything at all by quitting Photbucket.

Thanks all.

Ken,
You're one of the lucky ones.... have you been able to get used to IMGUR yet?  Now is the time to become familiar with that.

Post away brother!

[Terry Green]

Ken....go ahead and post your bear hunt pics....its going to be a couple more months probably

[Ken Taylor]

Thanks Tony and Terry, I'll try tomorrow for sure.

I'll sign up with "IMGUR" tomorrow morning.

I've been fighting an intestinal infection due to Diverticulitis for more than ten days and feel a little down right now.

[Captain*Kirk]

What PB is pulling is nothing less than 'ransomeware' in a new dress...fortunately, I switched to Flickr a few years back and all my archery pics are on Flickr.
What they have done might be technically 'legal' but it's sure as hell neither ethical nor moral.
$400.00? To post my own photos on a forum? Really?

[nineworlds9]

I think Rob was talking about 400 for Tradgang to be able to host pics, as in the fee for the site itself.

I have been paying only $29 a year to host my pics on Photobucket with more gigabytes of space than I will probably ever use, but I save family pics on there and bow pics since I move a lot of bows.

For my family pics it's invaluable since I can make private albums and my family who lives across the country can log in and see hundreds of family photos whenever they want.

I frankly don't understand why so many people think they deserve any service for free.  Honestly it's amazing Photobucket was able to do it free for so long, do some of you guys realize how many MILLIONS of pics they have stored for people over the years?

Originally posted by nineworlds9:
I think Rob was talking about 400 for Tradgang to be able to host pics, as in the fee for the site itself.

I don't think that is what Rob was conveying...a $400 fee for saving hundreds of thousands of images that permeate the threads here would be a bargain..

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally posted by nineworlds9:
I think Rob was talking about 400 for Tradgang to be able to host pics, as in the fee for the site itself.

NO NO NO NO !!! somehow you totally got that wrong, sir. we don't take money for storing user images, never have, never will.

• trad gang is NEVER gonna charge anyone for posting pics, that would be insane and SO wrong.
• chumbucket wants yer $400 annual to post images, and is currently holding all posted images hostage until to pay them.
• there is NOTHING of added value that "chumbucket" is giving you for $400 a year.  almost all the free online image archive services have albums and more.  imgur even allows downloading all your images off their server and back to your computer.
• chumbucket is *SLOW* and chock full commercial ads and links - does anyone need that?  really?  NONE of that comes with  www.imgur.com  - there are no ads and they DO NOT want your money, you can't even pay them if you wanted to and their imaging service is top shelf.
  
• will imgur stay true to its guns as a premier free online image archival service?  who knows for sure?  i was registered with chumbucket when it first opened its doors and it was really a great thing that i crowed about here at trad gang and advised all about its merits.  that was well over a decade ago.
• we are building a new house for trad gang and it will allow uploading copies of images on your computer/iphone/tablet/whatever right into your posts.  this is currently months away from coming to fruition.
• there is always the alternative of acquiring and using your own slice of interweb cyber space to store your own images - but it will cost and you do need to know what yer doing, so not for everyone, and in fact only gonna happen for a very few number of folks

sticking with chumbucket, and paying them for a service anyone can get for free, makes absolutely no sense to me ... but heck, what do i know, maybe some folks do find some personal merit it, beats the heck outta me ......

[jonwilson]

Rob, I agree with most of what you are saying. Great points!

I just get nervous about using a free solution. If it takes Imgur a decade to go sour, then we will be right back here talking trash about them in 2027. Where do they get their funding? How can they sustain their current model?

I know there is not a 100% "bulletproof" way of going about this, but the closest you can get is as you said in your last bullet-point. That is why I have started hosting my own pics on my own hosting account with Siteground hosting company (there is a boatload of options, that is just the one I use... but please stay away from GoDaddy!    :eek:   ).

We have a cloud hosting account, which is more expensive, for hosting our client websites, but you can get away with only spending a few bucks a month to get some of the same benefits. You are right in that there is a learning curve though. I'm willing to help anybody here learn how to do this.

[Rob DiStefano]

jon and all trad gangers,

all that should matter to a forum user is that they archive their images locally, and do it to multiple back up sources for their own peace of mind, and posterity.

the cloud stuff will always be a gamble, no matter WHO owns the cloud, and that means online storage vendors such as photobucket or imgur or google are a crap shoot 'cause yer at their mercy.  

this is also true of a paid image archive service - can they be trusted?  probably, but not absolutely-iron-clad for sure. it is what it is.  it's all a gamble of sorts.

as to trad gangers getting their own server space for "cloud storage" - for the very very most part that just ain't gonna happen because why pay for something that's free and it's too tech oriented, and that's the reality of that.

the answer for trad gang is to host member images on our server, so that they'll be part of threads and posts for as long as trad gang is online.  we've had unlimited server space and bandwidth for well over a decade.  we're working towards our own image hosting ... it's a complicated and difficult set of tasks.

r.

[jonwilson]

Yes, I do agree that images should be backed up in multiple places, not just on someone else's servers. However, that is not the only issue PhotoBucket has caused. As you know, all of our images that we have embedded into forums across the web are no longer viewable ON those forums. That is the main reason why I am not going to use a free service.

I know that the majority of people will not want to set up their own hosting environment, but I just wanted to throw that out there for anyone who might.  

I also agree that the answer for Trad Gang is to host member images on your server. I'm looking forward to that. It will simplify the process tremendously!    

[Rob DiStefano]

jon -

YES, of course, the BIG problem is the EXTORTION that photobucket is guilty of for holding hostage everyone's posted images that have been online for over a decade.

YES, ***ALL*** online image services will be a gamble for future retention of yer images.  

HOWEVER, given a choice of not posting an image or using a free image service, that should be a no-brainer to anyone.  life is fulla gambles, eh?

r.

[jonwilson]

Yes. Absolutely!

Thank you guys for working to make Trad Gang even better!