Anyone Using Photobucket to Host Pictures?

January 30, 2022, 08:11 PM

I had used Photobucket to host pictures for a long time until they pull their stupid stunt of going from free to an absurd amount. I still have an account with them but it is the free account and get daily emails to upgrade. I have a lot of pictures there that are tied to this forum.

It looks like they now offer $8 a month with hosting. Although I am not happy at what they did in the beginning by trying to price gouge, I wouldn’t mind going with them since I already have so many pictures with them linked here that right now don’t show since I don’t have a paid account.

I am curious if anyone is using them for the $8 a month and if they are happy.

January 30, 2022, 08:14 PM

mark123

For $8/month you can rent server space and your own domain name. Added benefits are that it won’t go defunct and you control everything. And you get private email accounts (not gmail).

January 30, 2022, 08:15 PM

bigdeal

Nope. Ditched them a long time ago. Do you still have all the pics locally on your PC? If yes, I'd tell Photobucket to go get stuffed, shut down the account, and use PostImage whenever I needed to post something to the board or elsewhere. I've also got a whole bunch of pics backed up to MicroSoft OneDrive because I have a free subscription for 1TB of space.

January 30, 2022, 08:37 PM

StorminNormin

quote:
Originally posted by mark123:
For $8/month you can rent server space and your own domain name. Added benefits are that it won’t go defunct and you control everything. And you get private email accounts (not gmail).

I do have my own domain name for my side private investigator business. I guess I could use it to host pictures?

January 30, 2022, 08:39 PM

StorminNormin

quote:
Originally posted by bigdeal:
Nope. Ditched them a long time ago. Do you still have all the pics locally on your PC? If yes, I'd tell Photobucket to go get stuffed, shut down the account, and use PostImage whenever I needed to post something to the board or elsewhere. I've also got a whole bunch of pics backed up to MicroSoft OneDrive because I have a free subscription for 1TB of space.

Yes I have all the pictures on my local pc. Just figured it would be a long pain to go back and re-link all pictures.

January 30, 2022, 08:47 PM

mark123

quote:
Originally posted by StorminNormin:
I do have my own domain name for my side private investigator business. I guess I could use it to host pictures?

Do you have hosting for the site and email? If so, you’re most of the way there. Have you used an FTP client?

January 30, 2022, 09:10 PM

StorminNormin

quote:
Originally posted by mark123:
quote:
Originally posted by StorminNormin:
I do have my own domain name for my side private investigator business. I guess I could use it to host pictures?
Do you have hosting for the site and email? If so, you’re most of the way there. Have you used an FTP client?

Yes to each of those. I just never thought of using it to host pictures and I have not done anything with the site for a long time as I have had to put my PI work to the side for a while now since working for a state agency. I will look into this deeper.

January 31, 2022, 04:10 AM

mark123

quote:
Originally posted by StorminNormin:
quote:
Originally posted by mark123:
quote:
Originally posted by StorminNormin:
I do have my own domain name for my side private investigator business. I guess I could use it to host pictures?
Do you have hosting for the site and email? If so, you’re most of the way there. Have you used an FTP client?

Yes to each of those. I just never thought of using it to host pictures and I have not done anything with the site for a long time as I have had to put my PI work to the side for a while now since working for a state agency. I will look into this deeper.

You’re good to go then. What I do is make a folder called something like “external” then sub folders for pictures, documents, music, etc. Then I point a sub-domain, for example pix, to the folders.

Then do this https://pix.yourdomain.com/awesome.jpg

The sub-domain just prevents you from having to type out the entire path with sub folders every time such as:

https://yourdomain.com/secret-folder/SIGforum/pictures/awesome.jpg

You probably already know all that but it may help someone else.

January 31, 2022, 05:16 AM

downtownv

I've been using this for years still not charged me a dime
https://postimages.org

January 31, 2022, 06:56 AM

Tirod

Historical note for lurkers: When photobucket changed their terms of service, it was unannounced, they locked the accounts if not paying, and a lot of threads on gun forums with pics became useless. There was a brief explanation of the pic and a blank box.

Most didn't restore their service and that era of pics in the threads are largely destroyed.

Therefore, a lot of older posters treat photobucket like a fram filter. If you depend on it expect it to blow up.

And yes, one did blow up my motor and attempted to destroy my replacement motor.

Pepperidge farm remembers.

January 31, 2022, 07:12 AM

redlickranch

Imgur is free and easy to use.

January 31, 2022, 07:47 AM

mark123

quote:
Originally posted by Tirod:
Historical note for lurkers: When photobucket changed their terms of service, it was unannounced, they locked the accounts if not paying, and a lot of threads on gun forums with pics became useless. There was a brief explanation of the pic and a blank box.

I've been preaching to the wall ever since Steve Jobs promised free email and document hosting FOREVER and then said you had to pay for it a year or so later. Free things tend to go defunct or they turn into paid services.

My prediction is that postimages.org is the next to disappear. But, hey, it's free. :shrug:

If the images or documents matter to you, a domain name and a web host can be had for as little as $3/month and you control it completely. Plus you get a snazzy email address (ie. one that doesn't have yahoo.com or gmail.com at the end).

I still find websites with photobucket overlays on all the images. Mostly schematics and technical images that are most likely lost forever.

January 31, 2022, 08:21 AM

V-Tail

quote:
Originally posted by mark123:

a domain name and a web host can be had for as little as $3/month.

Where? I could use one.

January 31, 2022, 08:27 AM

mark123

quote:
Originally posted by V-Tail:
quote:
Originally posted by mark123:

a domain name and a web host can be had for as little as $3/month.
Where? I could use one.

Just search for "cheap web hosting" and then choose one you like.

Personally, I use inmotionhosting.com for hosting and Epik for domain registration.

I suggest not using a hosting company that was purchased by Endurance International Group. I had site5 for years with no issues and good service and then EIG bought them and customer service went down the tubes. Someone on my shared server got put on a blacklist and caused issues with my email. site5 didn't care.
https://www.thewebmaster.com/w...red/site5-reviews/2/

Here is a list of hosts owned by EIG (NOT recommended): https://www.webhostingsecretre...rnational-group-eig/ (there's also a list of non-EIG brands at the end that I can recommend).

January 31, 2022, 09:43 AM

smschulz

I was a longtime customer of Photobucket since 2006.
I still have an account and still have many images that I need to archive.
Once I get them off I will close it.
It wasn't any price issues that has caused my ill will ~ it is the lack of performance that was the final straw.
Slow to upload, download, phone apps not working, web interface getting complicated and not working.
I just have to muscle up the energy and patience to archive all the old images off, it is going to be a pain.
I moved to a photographer oriented hosting site but that was only incidental, I just liked the interface, speed and how it all worked.
It isn't cheap but works very well.
Smugmug.com is the site.

January 31, 2022, 09:50 AM

RogueJSK

Nope, nor would I ever pay them to host my photos.

I used Photobucket back when it was free and everyone used it. When they suddenly pulled their "Pay us $500/year or else" bullshit and broke the internet, I immediately downloaded every photo I had from my Photobucket account (which you can do in one big zip file with a few clicks), and signed up for Imageshack instead.

I pay Imageshack $19/year for photo hosting. That's like $1.58/month. And their interface and service is leagues beyond Photobucket's.

January 31, 2022, 09:56 AM

tiwimon

ImageShack has been my go to for years now - their price continues to go up a bit but I caught a sale last year and renewed for basically same cost as prior year. For me their interface and app has been crucial to continued use

I also use OneDrive for photo backups but for sharing ImageShack is G2G

/ETA RogueJSK price above is what I paid for renewal last year - its 37.99 on their website right now for annual but I bet deals are out there if you look

January 31, 2022, 09:57 AM

Pyker

quote:
Originally posted by smschulz:
I was a longtime customer of Photobucket since 2006.
I still have an account and still have many images that I need to archive.
Once I get them off I will close it.
It wasn't any price issues that has caused my ill will ~ it is the lack of performance that was the final straw.
Slow to upload, download, phone apps not working, web interface getting complicated and not working.
I just have to muscle up the energy and patience to archive all the old images off, it is going to be a pain.
I moved to a photographer oriented hosting site but that was only incidental, I just liked the interface, speed and how it all worked.
It isn't cheap but works very well.
Smugmug.com is the site.

Went to get mine off the site yesterday, and I can't even do that without paying the $7.00 a month first.

January 31, 2022, 10:21 AM

Rey HRH

There's a Chrome extension called "Photobucket Downloader. It was under $5 like maybe $3. It downloads all your photobucket pictures to your computer so you can upload it to someplace else like imgur.

"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.

January 31, 2022, 11:30 AM

smschulz

quote:
Originally posted by Rey HRH:
There's a Chrome extension called "Photobucket Downloader. It was under $5 like maybe $3. It downloads all your photobucket pictures to your computer so you can upload it to someplace else like imgur.

It looks like the extension is not available anymore.
Good thing I looked at my account - it was getting ready to expire in two days (it was a paid account set to expire).
Surprisingly the download went pretty quickly albeit the file size is small but the pics look fine.
Too little too late but the site did seem to work much better than when I abandoned it.
I downloaded everything and .... bye bye PhotoBucket.
Going to reload to SmugMug but a lot of old sites will have broken links I will need to fix.
Good timing on this thread.