Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 19

Thread: Lost Pictures

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    Punta Gorda, FL
    Posts
    3,028

    Lost Pictures

    Not sure if this even the place to post this but many of the pictures I posted here were hosted on Photobucket. I think all the guitar threads had photos stored there and there were hundreds.

    Today I received an email from Photobucket saying they changed their rules and now require members to pay $400/yr to allow 3rd party hosting. All pictures I posted here that have a dummy image in place of the picture I posted were hosted on Photobucket.

    I can't go back and edit the threads to remove the dummy image and replace it with an image from my personal website without assistance. Many of the threads I have here will be without the original picture. I apologize. And since I can't always tell what picture was originally there, it may be impossible to return all the threads back to what they were.

    The Conduit 101 sticky in Workshops may be one of those threads, too. I will be happy to restore pictures to any threads I can but it will take some time and the help of the mods. Just let me know...

    Julie
    “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain

  2. #2
    Yes, Photobucket has changed its terms of service again and no longer allows third party hosting except for the premium accounts. This is causing a lot of interesting conversation on other discussion boards. So much for the free image hosting.

    If this change in business doesn't backfire on Photobucket, I wouldn't be surprised if Flickr follows suit. I still use Flickr for the images I don't care about, but for everything else I use my Smugmug account. The Smugmug annual fee for the Basic account is $48 and offers unlimited image uploads and unrestricted third party hosting. It's not free, but you do get what you pay for.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,675
    I got hit with the same horrible news from Photobucket, myself, which means a decade and a half of my threads will have the photos magically disappear. Honestly, I suspect there are many of us in the same boat and it's not really going to be possible to have any moderators help with editing hundreds, if not thousands of older threads. I'm re-hosting my photos on my Office 385 subscription at this point, but I have no real plans to go back and edits past threads.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Yorktown, VA
    Posts
    2,754
    Haven't we always encouraged posters not to use hosting services, but rather post pics directly to this site so things like this don't happen?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    In the foothills of the Sandia Mountains
    Posts
    16,619
    Quote Originally Posted by Ted Calver View Post
    Haven't we always encouraged posters not to use hosting services, but rather post pics directly to this site so things like this don't happen?
    Yes.
    On the plus side, the new forum software that we will likely be switching to later this year makes it extremely easy to post pictures. Hopefully, people will choose it over an off-site hosting service.
    Please help support the Creek.


    "It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone."
    Andy Rooney



  6. #6
    I use Photobucket at the moment and I went to a photography site that I'm a member of and checked back a few years at my posts and so far all the pictures still show...

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    McKean, PA
    Posts
    15,591
    Blog Entries
    1
    When I first got Verizon as my ISP they offered "free" web pages. I used to link to photos on my website when I would post photos here. Not too long ago, Verizon decided to discontinue web page hosting and parts of my web page which was mostly at earthlink disappeared as did any verizon based photos I had posted here. Now I upload photos for my posts to SMC and encourage everyone to do the same.
    Lee Schierer
    USNA '71
    Go Navy!

    My advice, comments and suggestions are free, but it costs money to run the site. If you found something of value here please give a little something back by becoming a contributor! Please Contribute

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,675
    Barry, I don't think they are doing a "hard cutoff" because they just changed things and are trying (desperately) to get folks to subscribe under the new sky-high rates. I suspect that after some period of time, however...chop, chop...
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    E TN, near Knoxville
    Posts
    12,298

    Uploading photos

    Quote Originally Posted by Lee Schierer View Post
    ...Now I upload photos for my posts to SMC and encourage everyone to do the same.
    I have never felt comfortable with linking to photos on another web site for the very reason of the chance of what just happened. For the same reason, I will never trust any "cloud" service with any important reasons.

    For an associated reason, I keep files with copies of all threads I find useful on this and other forums. I got into the habit of doing this decades ago when I moderated a 3D modeling/graphics forum. Besides the archival value, a file with a header/title/keywords for each message is so quick to search. (The search features of most web boards leave something to be desired.)

    For those who want to be kind to the servers, consider resizing photos before uploading. I don't know how SMC handles photos or if it automatically resizes them to preserve space, but I know that some forums do not. I resize almost everything to 640 to 800 pixels in the largest direction then JPG compress them to less that 100k. This makes upload quick as well. If anyone wants to know how to do this just ask. Or maybe there is an easy-to-find message about this somewhere.

    If you like to link photos so you get an inline image larger than the thumbnail, there is a way to do that too. For example, instead of displaying an upload like this:

    carved_bowl_IMG_4195.jpg

    display it like this:



    JKJ

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    McMinnville, Tennessee
    Posts
    1,040
    This is from a update June 28, 2017.


    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.




    Sid Matheny
    McMinnville, TN

  11. #11
    I've seen a lot, and I mean a LOT of trashed threads on forums because of this new rule. It's happening for people that have over 2GB of photos on Photobucket. If you have less than 2GB, everything seems to remain in tact. The vast majority of forum owners won't even consider paying for the extra storage or bandwidth to allow people to upload their photos directly to their forums. SMC does that at their own cost. I see a lot of people scrambling now to register their own personal sites just so they can upload the photos to forums. The minimum cost associated with doing that is about $5 a month. So people will spend $60 a year or more to be able to upload photos to forums so they remain in tact, but they won't pay $6 a year as a contributor to have their photos uploaded directly on the forum! News flash, if someone had their own domain and they upload their own photos to link to, they can still stop paying for that hosting, have all their photos show as broken links on forums, thus trashing all the forums again.

    The best and cheapest solution is to upload photos directly to the forum. We are LUCKY that SMC allows and encourages it! You don't have to be a contributor ($6 a year) to make that happen either. However, before paying someone else $60 a year to put your photos out there, consider paying SMC $6 a year to show your appreciation for them being smart enough to see the problems associated with linked photos and put the tools in place to reduce the site's exposure to the problem.
    Lasers : Trotec Speedy 300 75W, Trotec Speedy 300 80W, Galvo Fiber Laser 20W
    Printers : Mimaki UJF-6042 UV Flatbed Printer , HP Designjet L26500 61" Wide Format Latex Printer, Summa S140-T 48" Vinyl Plotter
    Router : ShopBot 48" x 96" CNC Router Rotary Engravers : (2) Xenetech XOT 16 x 25 Rotary Engravers

    Real name Steve but that name was taken on the forum. Used Middle name. Call me Steve or Scott, doesn't matter.

  12. #12
    ::::correction::::: I'm now seeing reports of people with less than 2GB of photos getting hit with the same thing. It's always been said that it was because of 3rd party linking to other sites (which is bizarre because in their own site, they give you a button to click to grab the link so you can paste it onto other sites). It was thought that as long as you were under 2GB, the linking issues wasn't going to be a problem for you. However, people are now seeing their accounts locked and all their photos being unavailable with accounts having less than 2GB worth of photos.

    If you have a Photobucket account and you link photos to other forums or sites, you might want to get to your account while you can because they are locking the accounts up pretty quickly. Asking people to pay $400 a year to get access back is just nuts.
    Lasers : Trotec Speedy 300 75W, Trotec Speedy 300 80W, Galvo Fiber Laser 20W
    Printers : Mimaki UJF-6042 UV Flatbed Printer , HP Designjet L26500 61" Wide Format Latex Printer, Summa S140-T 48" Vinyl Plotter
    Router : ShopBot 48" x 96" CNC Router Rotary Engravers : (2) Xenetech XOT 16 x 25 Rotary Engravers

    Real name Steve but that name was taken on the forum. Used Middle name. Call me Steve or Scott, doesn't matter.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    22,492
    Blog Entries
    1
    I often preach the wisdom of posting your pics into the forum site to assure thread and post integrity. I know a lot of folks think posting pics into the forum is a hassle and fraught with procedural problems but, it's easier than mass recovery efforts that many will not undertake. This means there is a lot of history here that will at least lose value and at most become useless. However this Photobucket thing works out, I will again wave the flag for posting into the forum site going forward. You can not control what a third party will do on the internet. It is a convenience service, not a publicly regulated utility .
    "A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".


    – Samuel Butler

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    In the foothills of the Sandia Mountains
    Posts
    16,619
    Quote Originally Posted by Bruce Page View Post
    Yes.
    On the plus side, the new forum software that we will likely be switching to later this year makes it extremely easy to post pictures. Hopefully, people will choose it over an off-site hosting service.
    Quote Originally Posted by glenn bradley View Post
    I often preach the wisdom of posting your pics into the forum site to assure thread and post integrity. I know a lot of folks think posting pics into the forum is a hassle and fraught with procedural problems but, it's easier than mass recovery efforts that many will not undertake. This means there is a lot of history here that will at least lose value and at most become useless. However this Photobucket thing works out, I will again wave the flag for posting into the forum site going forward. You can not control what a third party will do on the internet. It is a convenience service, not a publicly regulated utility .
    As I mentioned above, the new forum software we are moving to (xenForo) makes picture posting very easy. You can even drag & drop your photos directly into it.
    Please help support the Creek.


    "It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone."
    Andy Rooney



  15. #15
    As a photographer, I prefer to keep the majority of my images on my Smugmug site where I have complete control of them. If I decide later that I don't want my linked images displayed, and can't edit my posts to remove them, it is fairly easy to break the link at the host site and without affecting the text content in the post.

    The offer of using SMC as the image host will likely appeal to the majority of the members, and is certainly easier than maintaining a separate hosting account. Since I already have the host account for other purposes, I am content to continue using it.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •