Huge issue with Photobucket and photos in XMarks threads

[Barb T]

I've Googled the whole Photobucket thing, and, wow, there is a LOT of anger out there on the Internet. And yes, it did happen earlier this week when Photobucket very quietly changed its terms of use with no advance warning for users. Users' images just simply, and suddenly, stopped appearing, which was exactly my experience. I thought I might have missed some alert email about changes in terms of use, but, no, apparently that's not what happened.

My favorite quote in reaction to this is, "Not surprisingly, the new rules went over with users about as well as a rattlesnake in a pinata...". I don't know who the quote came from originally, but it's a good one and pretty much sums up the reactions of thousands of users who have used Photobucket for photos over the past 10 years on everything from eBay to Etsy to an untold number of blogs and forums like XMarks. Apparently PhotoBucket hosts over 10 BILLION images.