Why I DO use Photo Bucket

[Bladepeek]

Rob, I thought your post was beneath your usual standards of fairness and open-ness(is this a word?)

I too was fed up with Photo Bucket, but for an entirely different reason. It was so packed full of advertising it loaded so slowly I often thought it was locked up. I was using the free version and it became useless to me. Before dumping it completely, I decided to buy a one-year membership for $15.

Bingo. It now runs quickly and I personally find it far easier to use than imgur.I don't use it as a cloud host for all my pictures. They are loaded on my hard drive and backed up on a separate, stand-alone hard drive before they are ever uploaded to Photo Bucket. I find it a handy and useful host for posting pics to forums like Tradgang who do not host pictures. No $400 bill - just $15 and it works great for what I want it to do.

In my opinion, doing a one-sided review as you did and then using your admin privilege to lock the post was, as I said way beneath your usual standards of fairness.

[ozy clint]

since PB went AWOL i haven't posted a pic anywhere, simply because i can't and mainly because i can't be bothered to invest time and effort to research an alternative then learn how to use it.

[Michael Arnette]

Originally posted by ozy clint:
since PB went AWOL i haven't posted a pic anywhere, simply because i can't and mainly because i can't be bothered to invest time and effort to research an alternative then learn how to use it.

That's my plan as well for now, I'm kinda waiting them out to see if they'll change the tune and offers something free again. As of right now all my pics are hijacked.
I would probably do the membership if they were more reasonable about it like for instance making me pay to load more pics but still allowing me to utilize what I had. This holding of my photos hostage isn't going to work for me!

[Roger Norris]

I must be lucky. I have never had a problem with Photobucket

Originally posted by Bladepeek:
Rob, I thought your post was beneath your usual standards of fairness and open-ness(is this a word?)

In my opinion, doing a one-sided review as you did and then using your admin privilege to lock the post was, as I said way beneath your usual standards of fairness.

IMO it is beneath any member of the brotherhood here (including me) to address a personal post like this to an open forum. You apparently have no idea how Chum-bucket  has   decimated  many years of history posted by thousands of members since the inception of Trad Gang.

[Rob DiStefano]

i dunno the the law as it applies to this situation, but i believe what photobucket has done to its members borders on criminal, if not actually being criminal.  this disservice is not only to the millions of pb members, but to the thousands if not millions of sites where the affected user images are displayed, or used to be displayed.  this is pure hostage extortion and if there isn't a law that applies to pb, there oughta be one.  until this nonsense occurred i could have cared less about pb, but because of their ads and links and popups and banners and other nonsense, i would never recommend their "service" to anyone.  mind y'all, i promoted their service when it first came out as the next best thing to sliced bread.

why anyone would want to pay for image hosting service when it's offered free by many other competing online image archival services is their own business.  remember one great truth about "cloud services" - you will ALWAYS be at their mercy, whether paid or free.

so, no apologies coming from me about my stance concerning "scumbucket" - they're truly THAT bad, and i'm not the only person castigating them for their reckless stupidity.  y'all need to do yer do diligence homework concerning online image archival services.

don't think for a minute all this bad press isn't hurting scumbucket's bottom line ROI ...

  https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/30/photobucket_charging_400yr_3rdparty_pgs/  

  https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.photobucket.com  

  https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.photobucket.com  
 
  https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/4/15919224/photobucket-broken-images-amazon-****-etsy-paid-update  

  https://www.complaintsboard.com/photobucket-b121708  

  http://www.hobomama.com/2017/06/photobucket-phail-or-how-to-ruin-hosting-site.html  

  https://photobucket.pissedconsumer.com/  

i've got at least a few dozen more, but reading the above link pages is just the tip of the scumbucket blackmail saga.  here's a company that missed shooting themselves in the foot and hit their head instead.  phooeybucket.

[JimB]

Thanks Rob.

[Cory Mattson]

Thanks all. I am thinking like Michael - I am not opposed to paying for a service but feel the rules of the game have been changed many years after I started playing. I appreciate Rob's original post and this follow up. Most members do not know but I have a private section here and we lost about 11 years worth of what amounts to a log book - now without pics. I'll get them back up eventually. I have enough hot humid afternoons I might get stuff downloaded. Then onto a new host - then back onto tradgang.
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[katman]

I am not willing to pay a ransom. Said goodbye to pb.

[Rob DiStefano]

cory - you have an incoming pm, sir ....

[monterey]

I think bladepeek has a good point in terms of his charitable outlook but, note Rob's point about the many forums that have been decimated by their move.

Think of the value lost that may never be replaced.  We and other forums have had high value info and photos posted here by folks who have met an untimely death.  That stuff is lost forever!

PB should have at the very least given a 30 day notice to all users but they didn't.  That would have undermined their coercion card.

[Steve O]

Originally posted by Roger Norris:
I must be lucky. I have never had a problem with Photobucket

I hadn't until a couple weeks ago, now all I get is this:

 

[Blackstick]

What I can't figure out is why my avatar still shows up on this site.

[Gdpolk]

I don't care to speak out for or against Photobucket or Rob.  That said, I think the WAY Photobucket conducted their business to be shady.  

I get that it takes time, money, and resources to offer hosting services to the public.  I'd be willing to pay for that service as it's something I can't set up on my own.  With that said, I don't believe in paying ransom to extortionists which is exactly what Photobucket has done.  If they said the "free" accounts were financially draining on the company and they need to charge for hosting services then that's an issue of basic economics.  However, they choose to extort people, hold accounts under ransom, and block a wealth of information to millions of posts/users out of greed with no forewarning then I see them as an internet bully.

They could have blocker farther uploading in free accounts, given a warning, made a public statement, or something.  Now they just locked us up and said "pay up or go home."  Their business move there didn't follow common courtesy as I see it and I don't do business with folks that don't value my business enough to at least be courteous.

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally posted by Blackstick:
What I can't figure out is why my avatar still shows up on this site.

simple - because your avatar image resides on trad gang's server.

[Rob DiStefano]

the only thing that matters is that clearly pb could have done the right thing by their clients.

but they didn't.  still haven't, even after the deluge of public outcry and resentment.  

instead, they did the dumbest thing they could have possibly done to alienate their customers and the customers of their customers.

no, i give them no quarter for the act they perpetrated on more than just their direct clients.  

the fact that pb was a free service should not give them the unconscionable right to pull the image rug out from under millions of people, and tens of millions (billions?) of publicly posted images on 3rd party sites.

i will not make excuses for their selfish actions, nor offer any defense for such an unethical action on their part.  they deserve my wrath.  no apologies.  

time to move on ....

[McDave]

Originally posted by Bladepeek:
I too was fed up with Photo Bucket, but for an entirely different reason. It was so packed full of advertising it loaded so slowly I often thought it was locked up. I was using the free version and it became useless to me. Before dumping it completely, I decided to buy a one-year membership for $15.

Bingo. It now runs quickly and I personally find it far easier to use than imgur.I don't use it as a cloud host for all my pictures. They are loaded on my hard drive and backed up on a separate, stand-alone hard drive before they are ever uploaded to Photo Bucket. I find it a handy and useful host for posting pics to forums like Tradgang who do not host pictures. No $400 bill - just $15 and it works great for what I want it to do.

I don't have the time or desire to figure out everything that goes on on the internet, so I just read the posts and decided that $400/yr was ridiculous, and until a better way to post pictures came along, I just wouldn't post pictures.  But is this a $400 problem or a $15 problem?  For me, a raise from zero to $15 isn't a big deal; a raise from zero to $400 is.  Which is it?

[wooddamon1]

Same question as McDave above. I'd pay the lesser amount just so I could have my friend steal my pics back then flip 'em the...

Kinda bummed to check it out, I haven't been on there lately. It would be pretty sucky to lose hunting pics of my brother and daughter let alone all the other ones on there.

 My android phone app is still automatically uploading them to PB as I take them. Strange, but if they're screwing folks over likes been said then wow...

[Bud B.]

Class Action? I am surprised corporate lawyers haven't already started litigation against PB. They very well may have.

I am in agreement with Rob. It borders on criminal. If nothing else it is a poor, very poor, business tactic.

I too will eventually download all mine and re-establish photos where I wanted them to remain Many others are not that big of a deal.

[Steve O]

Originally posted by McDave:
 

Originally posted by Bladepeek:
I too was fed up with Photo Bucket, but for an entirely different reason. It was so packed full of advertising it loaded so slowly I often thought it was locked up. I was using the free version and it became useless to me. Before dumping it completely, I decided to buy a one-year membership for $15.

Bingo. It now runs quickly and I personally find it far easier to use than imgur.I don't use it as a cloud host for all my pictures. They are loaded on my hard drive and backed up on a separate, stand-alone hard drive before they are ever uploaded to Photo Bucket. I find it a handy and useful host for posting pics to forums like Tradgang who do not host pictures. No $400 bill - just $15 and it works great for what I want it to do.

I don't have the time or desire to figure out everything that goes on on the internet, so I just read the posts and decided that $400/yr was ridiculous, and until a better way to post pictures came along, I just wouldn't post pictures.  But is this a $400 problem or a $15 problem?  For me, a raise from zero to $15 isn't a big deal; a raise from zero to $400 is.  Which is it? [/b]

That confused me too. I think he is grandfathered in for the rest of the year at $15...I just tonight looked into this garbage and the lowest cost monthly plan that allows you to use PB to "host" photos is $39.99 a month. Someday when I have time, I'lll have to look into the Imigur thing. It's a shame all those great pics will be missing from so many threads here.