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.

[Mike in Dayton]

I have started to use Dropbox for image/document storage but I have all of my "hosted" photos on still on Photobucket. I have thought about moving those but going back and figuring out where I put them is going to be a pain. I am surprised Photobucket did this as they are kind of old news now and probably not far from going into survival mode. I don't know of any of my friends that still use that service. They have moved to other services such as Flickr.

Add another thing to my "to do" list. Fix the photobucket damage.

Mike

[Barb T]

Have to say, after this, that I'd be worried about ANY photo hosting service doing the same thing in the future...

[cessna152towser]

I had the same problem today with my photos. Wondering if its a scam because the link they gave doesn't work and you have to physically type in the new web address to discover that they are asking you to pay $399.99. Truly an exorbitant amount, since the whole original point of Photobucket was as a photo hosting site and their software is specifically set up to facilitate linking your photos to third party sites. The only pics which I have on Photobucket are the ones which I wanted to share on other sites, I have many more pics on my Flickr account which anyone can view by visiting my Flickr home page.

[Kilted cabin boy]

So how is the best way to add photos to post?

[CameronCat]

Naturally, X-Marks isn't the only site affected by this. On another forum with the same problem(s) and equally irate members, I read that Photobucket's recent maneuvers were forced by a huge influx of "corporate" photo storage. That is, various companies on-line and otherwise storing huge volumes of their art and photos free on the site and the servers. This of course used up space that you or I might use for our measly couple-hundred photos.

Yet another reminder that somebody will always try to game the system. That usually spoils it for everybody else.

[thecompaqguy]

I googled free photo hosting and found one called imgbb. Much less clunky than PhotoBucket as well

[Barb T]

What I'd be worried about it that imgbb will some day go the route of Photobucket....

[Barb T]

So how is the best way to add photos to post?

Upload them directly in the message box using the "Insert Image" icon in the 2nd row.

[Jock Scot]

Upload them directly in the message box using the "Insert Image" icon in the 2nd row.

Alright, the situation has been identified and it appears that it is not going to change anytime soon, if ever.

My problem now is two fold.

Firstly. Is there any way to rescue ones pictures from photo bucket, say onto a memory stick?

Secondly. With the greatest of respect to Barb and her computer skills and her oh so simple sounding instructions to upload a picture to this website, the trouble is that I don't understand a word of her instructions! I suspect that I won't be the only one. So is it possible that even simpler instructions could be made available for the technodunces here? Are there differences in instructions between Apple and Windows for example?

Thank you.