richmc

Posted this yesterday on the UK forum-

Having logged on this morning I find my photos no longer appear on the web site, why? Because photobuckets free hosting service has suddenly without warning been ended.
To be allowed to continue using photobucket it will now cost $39.99 per month. It seems that advertising revenue must be dropping.
Why photobucket hasn't allowed existing uploaded pictures to be posted and charge for those uploaded from today onward can only be a matter of pure greed, extortion and blackmail..
This is a ransom ware type action, "pay up or the hundreds of pictures you are sharing on web sites will never be seen again."

I will probably switch to another hosting service and pay for the privilege, but after the shoddy behavior of photobucket I will never use then ever again, even though it will mean hours of transferring the images, but sifting through S2Ki for my posts with pictures will be totally impractical so that useful content will be lost forever.

I would urge the owners of the S2Ki to protest to photobucket and demand existing photos uploaded be allowed to be shared, this action is disgusting.

sam_spider

They're working on something, Internet Brands that is.

ISADE

They're services went downhill over the past few years, it used to be intuitive, quick, and easy to do multiple things, resize, change settings, move from one folder to another, upload, copy links etc. They made everything harder over the years and made it so you're more likely to click on an ad. Very annoying, haven't used them in over a couple years due to that, now this, psh.

HatTrickHokie

I use Imgur on other sites. It's free, so may be another option for you?

richmc

I will be using other sites, but the big point is the millions of forum users on thousands of forums around the world have now had archived posts that need those photos are now rendered useless.

j0oftheworld

Deleted all my photos and then my account.. their site was pure crap the last 8-10yrs.
Was using google picasa but they now hide the direct linking addresses..
Oh well, back to printing pictures off the disposable camera!

HatTrickHokie

Great point, thanks. I am new here and have noticed that while doing some research.

JamesD89

I've had issues using Imgur on forums with a classifieds section. They (imgur) weren't allowing direct image hosting for some reason.

dwb993

Eff PhotoBucket.

Unfortunately, I think this is just the first of many. There is no such thing as "free" anymore. I suspect all of the "free" image hosting services will begin charging in some form or another.

richmc

Well they rather fu*ked up your progress thread, OK if they feel the need to start charging for their "service", but a before and after cut off date would have been fairer than a blanket pay up or shut up attitude.