Photobucket and NO 3rd party linking

[TonyT]

Well I have looked but I cannot find a thread on the subject, Photobucket have changed their terms, so no third party linking of images to any sites unless you pay for their top $399 a year service... and lets face it, what is the point in storing pictures on line if you cannot link them, the other enhanced pay services under the top one are also blocked from linking too.

I had an account with a 20GB limited and have contacted them to close it. I hope the world over everyone does, because if they don't you can bet other companies are looking to see the fall out and any loss of revenues that Photobucket incurs before following suit.

https://www.ghacks.net/2017/06/30/photobucket-now-charges-399-for-third-party-hosted-images/

If you have any images on there site and published elsewhere or on here, you will find they have gone and are replaced with a no 3rd party linking logo, though your images are still on Photobucket.

..

[AndyMulhearn]

Re: Photobucket and NO 3rd party linking

That seems a bit, err, mad to me. Who on earth is going to stump up $400 per year to allow images to be shown on other sites, when you can get exactly that from Flickr for free? OK so Flickr may change policy but at the moment there's no sign I've seen of that coming.

[TonyT]

Re: Photobucket and NO 3rd party linking

Yep, I did put in my cancellation email that I had never seen a company commit commercial suicide before and this should be fun to watch.

Another pet hate.. you can sign up on the site, but have to email them to cancel, well my pay-pal payment has been cancelled as of today, though it has a year to run being Bi-annual. Apparently it happened with no warning to anyone either, so one day your own web page would be full of images, the next none.. I must admit they were getting bad for years, hence my move to Flickr, this is just another nail in their bloated coffin.

[ctrollen]

Re: Photobucket and NO 3rd party linking

If you have any images on there site and published elsewhere or on here, you will find they have gone and are replaced with a no 3rd party linking logo, though your images are still on Photobucket.

That hasn't yet happened to the couple that I have linked here:
https://www.eos-magazine-forum.com/s...e-Saddle/page2

[TonyT]

Re: Photobucket and NO 3rd party linking

Sadly I think it is just time

http://photobucket.com/terms

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#ixzz4obUFYq6p

[TonyT]

Re: Photobucket and NO 3rd party linking

Just bumping this as users on here might be unaware.

[TonyT]

Re: Photobucket and NO 3rd party linking

Someone on another site I use came up with an interesting view on it all

was thinking last night that PB just might break all it's competitors in the free hosting market with this move. My thinking is that by pulling this outrageous stunt with no market warning there will be the ineffable rush to host on the other free services. Those poor sods are being deluged with a massive influx of new traffic, in essence a denial of service attack, without warning and probably breaking their services. Whereas PB has server space to burn. I would say this was another factor in PB reasoning to not announce the changes to terms of service ahead of time. Why allow a smooth transition when you can at a stroke destroy any chance of making a profit from the free hosting business model. So there really was no reason for PB to announce their plans beforehand.

[AndyMulhearn]

Re: Photobucket and NO 3rd party linking

I think your mate is wide of the mark there. Large sites like Flickr will almost certainly use autoscaling techniques so that not only can they scale up when additional users access the site but scale down when usage drops. OK so Flickr doesn't necessarily stand out as the epitome of a well run site but they, and others, should be doing this stuff. It's become bread and butter..

But then my first thought was that he had is tongue firmly in his cheek...

[El Sid]

Re: Photobucket and NO 3rd party linking

I stopped using Photobucket ages ago as the site had become increasingly slow to operate and so ad riddled as to be unpleasant to access - even then it was clear that pocket raiding was of considerably more importance than service provision.

Serve 'em right if they go down the pan...