Photobucket has changed its Terms of Service

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  • #1527561
    siberakh1
    Participant

      Photobucket has changed its Terms of Service.  It will no longer offer free third party image hosting.

      I came across this announcement on another forum I am on this morning and wanted to make people here aware of this.  I have no problem paying for a service, but $399.99/year is exorbitant and I know not everyone can afford even a nominal fee.  Here is the information that was posted from another forum, to make people here aware.  Also, suggestions for members to other places that allow third party hosting would be helpful for many.  I do know Imgur does not allow third party hosting in their terms of service.  Affected images will show up with some image by photobucket

      The mod team believes it prudent to share with the forums that Photobucket has changed their Terms of Service.

      Particularly of note:
      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.
      To summarize, Photobucket is now completely disallowing 3rd party image hosting (with the exception of a $399.99 per year plan). This means that unless you pay Photobucket $399.99 per year, you will no longer be able to use Photobucket to host images and share them on other websites.

      Many people have used Photobucket for hosting images here for quite some time, so we have already started to see broken image links all across the forum.

      #1527563
      siberakh1
      Participant

        Found a post from someone that Flickr is an option, with their free account offering:

        • 1 TB of photo and video storage
        • Upload videos of up to 1GB each
        • Upload photos of up to 200 MB each
        • Video playback of up to 3 minutes each
        • Limitless downloads of your original photos

        Other options people can suggest/recommend?

         

        #1527573
        pipsxlch
        Participant

          Someone on another forum I frequent has recommended postimages.org to me. They said it was free and simple to use (simple is a BIG requirement for me). I haven’t tried it yet, hoping to see more responses myself.

          I did see a good idea (here I think?)- you can copy your Photobucket folders to your computer, it may make it easier to reload them on another site should you wish.

           

          #1527575
          GardenNinja
          Participant

            NONE of the free image hosting sites allow it in their terms of service more than as an occasional thing. Not one (that I have found). Imgur’s terms of service actually do not ban it in all cases. They ban using Imgur to host “image libraries you link to from elsewhere, content for your website, advertising, avatars, or anything else that turns us into your content delivery network”. They do not say you cannot link to your images on Imgur from other websites, and they provide links that allow you to do so. What they ban is using Imgur to host content intended for other websites and not for Imgur.
            Flickr’s terms of service specifically ban it beyond an incidental amount, too. Additionally, flickr’s terms of service say that when you do, you must always include their link-back to the flickr site. You cannot copy an “embed” link without getting their code with it. However, WordPress (which is what this website runs on) will not accept flickr’s code. I have to manually delete flickr’s special addition. Therefore, linking to flickr images from here is against their terms of service in all cases.

            My keyboard is broken. I keep pressing "Escape", but I'm still here.

            #1527576
            GardenNinja
            Participant

              I just checked out postimages.org. In general, they come a lot closer to what I need because they exist specifically for 3rd party linking. However, most of their terms of service are word-for-word same as Imgur’s (they say theirs are “inspired by Imgur”), and they want you to provide link-back “when possible”.
              They also say:
              “However, disk space and bandwidth are not cheap, so if you use REALLY much of either, and your usage pattern does not allow us to recover our costs (e.g. you do not publish your images embedded into links leading back to our site, thus stripping us of any potential advertising income from them), we reserve the right to contact you and discuss possible ways to satisfy your needs while allowing our project to make ends meet.”
              In other words, if you host lots of images without providing the link-back, they are going demand money. At least their link-backs don’t require using a custom script that WordPress doesn’t support.

              This is a problem for the eBay pictures, because the link around the picture is to the eBay auction.

              But for most people they should be fine.

              My keyboard is broken. I keep pressing "Escape", but I'm still here.

              #1527580
              Ela_Hara
              Participant

                I haven’t had an issue yet with PhotoBucket but it sounds like it’s coming. So, what would you suggest for someone who only sends links of posted photos to friends for viewing or to use for posting on the WS Forum threads and Classifieds? I’ve heard of Imgur but not of postimages.org. And like others noted, I’m not using a ton of space only about 5% of what PhotoBucket allows as a free account.

                IN SEARCH OF MY NEXT GRAILS:
                Zeppard Adult Poads
                Kickstarter 'Rainbow Tiger' Bantam Dragon

                *~*~*~* Ela_Hara: The DragonKeeper *~*~*~*
                *** Come visit me on deviantArt at http://ela-hara.deviantart.com

                #1527585
                Kim
                Blocked

                  I was actually so angry that photobucket just up and decided to do this after I have posted 5 years worth of pictures on this site with their links and none of them work anymore!  I don’t have time to transfer all my photos to another site for another week or so so it makes me mad.  But can’t you just insert pictures on here directly now on threads?  Can you do multiple pictures at a time?  Testing pictures…

                  Looking for rainbow or pink & teal grab bags!

                  #1527592
                  Ela_Hara
                  Participant

                    I think that I’ll look into both Imgur and postimages.org and see which one I like better, then close my PhotoBucket account all together – I don’t need more than one photo site. If PhotoBucket is going to be more difficult than it is now, they don’t need my little account to get in their way of their riches.

                    IN SEARCH OF MY NEXT GRAILS:
                    Zeppard Adult Poads
                    Kickstarter 'Rainbow Tiger' Bantam Dragon

                    *~*~*~* Ela_Hara: The DragonKeeper *~*~*~*
                    *** Come visit me on deviantArt at http://ela-hara.deviantart.com

                    #1527595
                    etruscan
                    Participant

                      For those who missed it, instructions for uploading photos to the Forum directly from your computer are in the “New Website Concerns” thread, page 19.

                      https://windstoneeditions.com/the-windstone-forum/topic/new-website-concerns/page/19/

                      #1527658
                      dragonmedley
                      Participant

                        This has nothing to do with Photobucket or hosting sites, but I wanted to test what Etruscan mentioned with a pic that had me laughing out loud at work. I’m sorry about the political content.

                         

                        Read my books! Volume 1 and 2 of A Dragon Medley are available now.
                        http://www.sarahjestin.com/mybooks.htm
                        I host the feedback lists, which are maintained by drag0nfeathers.
                        http://www.sarahjestin.com/feedbacklists.htm

                        #1527659
                        dragonmedley
                        Participant

                          Plus the insert pic feature (thanks, Etruscan) works awesomely.

                          Read my books! Volume 1 and 2 of A Dragon Medley are available now.
                          http://www.sarahjestin.com/mybooks.htm
                          I host the feedback lists, which are maintained by drag0nfeathers.
                          http://www.sarahjestin.com/feedbacklists.htm

                          #1527672
                          GardenNinja
                          Participant

                            Oh, now that brings back sad and funny memories from my first two cats. Velvet, my avatar, was terrified of vacuums. I am way too lazy to vacuum often. The first time I vacuumed after getting her was when I was moving out of an apartment I shared with my brother our last year of college. I put on her harness and leash, and looped the leash over the front door inside knob to keep her out of the way as I was cleaning (never lose a deposit!). After I had been vacuuming a while, my brother went to the kitchen (by the front door) and was like “hey, look at your cat!” She was absolutely terrified and trying to run away by leaping and twisting in the air. I put her in the hallway on the other side of the door to finish. The next day, I found she had little scabs all over. She had been fighting to get free so hard she had gotten abrasions all over from the harness.
                            Cat #2 handled her fear a little differently. I was in a larger apartment, and I made sure Velvet had access to another room to hide in without having to go past the vacuum cleaner. Ginger saw that horrible, loud monster and decided it had to be attacked!!!! She got in front of it and arched her back and HISSED and SNARLED and SMACKED IT OVER AND OVER, all while backing up. I have to admit, I started following her with it. Yeah, I’m bad. It’s a pity nobody else was there to video it.

                            My keyboard is broken. I keep pressing "Escape", but I'm still here.

                            #1527673
                            Ela_Hara
                            Participant

                              LOL! I have a funny pet vs vacuum story too…
                              My dog Sean (2 dogs ago) was like your cat #2 when he was a puppy – at first. Barking and trying to get the big Vmonster until he decided to go under the living room table. Well that table is high enough to vacuum under, and Sean thought the Vmonster was coming after HIM! I wasn’t, I swear! I was at the other end of the table…
                              Well, you’ve heard of getting the sh** scared out of you – right? Sean ran out from under the other end of that table with little poops following. From that point on he hide in another room when the Vmonster came out of the closet.

                              IN SEARCH OF MY NEXT GRAILS:
                              Zeppard Adult Poads
                              Kickstarter 'Rainbow Tiger' Bantam Dragon

                              *~*~*~* Ela_Hara: The DragonKeeper *~*~*~*
                              *** Come visit me on deviantArt at http://ela-hara.deviantart.com

                              #1527704
                              tig3r06
                              Participant

                                Along with taking away the embedded, Photobucket is now not letting me individually or by album “save to device” or download. Im super angry and thankfully only have a few pics in there that i now have to screenshot and then edit to get them back. 😠

                                #1527705
                                Ela_Hara
                                Participant

                                  l noticed that too. If you go to your desired photo and right click on your mouse you should see a menu that includes “save image as” where you can save it to your computer and not need to do a screen shot. Although it appears it will have to be done to each individually.
                                  I’m going to save my files I want to keep, and then I think I’m going to close my PhotoBucket account. Since I can upload from a device/computer to this site, or for eBay, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I think I’ll check out and use imgur instead.

                                  IN SEARCH OF MY NEXT GRAILS:
                                  Zeppard Adult Poads
                                  Kickstarter 'Rainbow Tiger' Bantam Dragon

                                  *~*~*~* Ela_Hara: The DragonKeeper *~*~*~*
                                  *** Come visit me on deviantArt at http://ela-hara.deviantart.com

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