I've officially cut the cord with Photobucket. Replace the B with an S...

They kept sending me notes that I was over storage capacity and wanted me to send them money.  Turns out I wasn't over actual capacity but apparently they have a hosting limit too and I was capacity for that.

Considering the entire reason of Photobucket for me was hosting pictures, I found that ironic.  Anyways, since Photobucket broke the internet several years ago many sites are hosting the pictures for us, so I don't really need them anymore.  I will be sad to see all the broken photo links on some of my old, larger threads, but I wasn't going to give them money.  The real loss is my LSx swapped 951 thread, that's by far my thread with the largest amount of views.

I was able to download all my pictures onto my laptop and then told them to nuke the account, which they did immediately...

Another time gone by...

You're generous... I usually replace the B with an F.

Imgur hasn't gotten that bad yet, but they are doing seriously dumb things with their UI.

Yeah, that's one reason we offer free photo hosting (just drag and drop, or click the image icon and then upload). We hate seeing build threads lose their pictures!

In reply to Tom Suddard :

As if I didn't have enough reasons already to be stoked on GRM...you folks rock! The photo hosting is only one of the awesome things about this forum, but I don't know that I have passed along my appreciation until now. Thanks for all that GRM does and provides.

Photobucket?

I was too lazy to migrate all my pictures and fix all my old build threads. I just paid the $5 a month or whatever it is. I know, I shouldn't feed the trolls, but I do.

I've had a paid-for Photobucket account since well before they got strict. I have about 6000 images on there. I haven't had any issues with them other than their website sucking at times. Their current setup is much better than their old one. 

That said I also have a Smugmug account and like everything about it better. Any new images go on there. The only reason I still have the Photobucket account is for the build threads. SanFord, the JetBoat, the gas turbine, and several others that are scattered all over the internet.

Photo hosting and storage is one of those things where you actually get what you pay for. If you aren't paying, you are still getting what you paid for. 

Also have a long time paid Pbucket account since the early 2000's, waaaay before the big mess a few years ago. Over 10,000 pics and haven't had to put up with advertising, free account limits, and the other things people complain about. Economics 101 , no such thing as a free lunch. I do use other services for video and 360 stuff. 

While some forums (like this one) host pics, others do not so folks might still need a third party host to post pics elsewhere.  AND, if/when something goes wrong all the pics hosted by a forum can be lost. Same thing if your computer (or other devices) die and you don't have your pics stored somewhere else. Pbucket has learned they need to be autonomous with back up power supplies etc. and pay for the employees, hardware, software, etc.   They specialize in storing pics which has a cost.

When they went pay I lost it all. I refused to pay them for my photos. I lost sone good stuff that was lost on old desktops/laptops. Since that moment ALL photos get backed up on two external HD's and I'll host wherever I need to but keep my originals 

MadScientistMatt said:

There was a forum I had a SanFord build thread on that did this. They refused all new photobucket links. My last post to that forum was a link to the GRM SanFord thread for the people that wanted to keep up to date. 

Used PB for SO long...then they started charging. I wasnt upset they wanted some coin, but it was AMOUNT of coin they wanted. It was a ridiculously high monthly/yearly rate. No.

Ive moved to imgur and am happy with it, no issues for me.

As for forums and PB - Im not going to state that it's ruined some forums, but it sucks when youre researching something and you find 10 year old threads where ALL the pics are now blank.

Im an MR2 guy, first joined the OC in 04 (bought the car in 01). Lots of stuff going on back then, so many posts per day. Well, those guys sold their cars and now it's not as moving. Lots of informed posters who are gone, some with knowledge on a limited topic and now they AND THEIR PICS are gone. It just sort of sucks.

I get it.  I'm running into the same issue looking up old corrado threads on vw vortex.

photobucket wanted too much money to host the pics for me.  It just wasn't worth it...

And I know it's silly to say 'too much money' or 'ridiculously high' in regards to their pricing...its five bucks a month. But why pay it when other places are still free and, I think, better. I like the app way better for imgur than the PB app they had, it was buggy. But yes, it's screwed up many forums.

In reply to hybridmomentspass :

I suppose it'd be better for me to say I couldn't see the value in it.  I can certainly afford the $5/month but it rubs me the wrong way to pay it

In reply to hybridmomentspass :

To me the issue isn't that it costs money.  Its the bait and switch.

They lured in tons of people with free hosting for years then suddenly demanded money for photos they hosted for free up to that point.  That's what broke everything.

In reply to ProDarwin :

Yep and if I recall it was a pretty good amount of money too...

In reply to ProDarwin :

It wasn't a bait and switch, but more of a change in direction, or (really) bad management decision. A decision so bad they've probably lost most of their customers purely out of spite.

In reply to Mr. Peabody :

Well that and most of the forums realized they had to put in place a way for their members to host pictures directly with them.  Once that happened, for free, why pay Photobucket?

hybridmomentspass said:

And I know it's silly to say 'too much money' or 'ridiculously high' in regards to their pricing...its five bucks a month. But why pay it when other places are still free and, I think, better. I like the app way better for imgur than the PB app they had, it was buggy. But yes, it's screwed up many forums.

They did not start at $5/month. They started at $399/year. The $5/mo only happened when approximately nobody took them up on the "offer."

That's good to know they do the $5/month thing now. I might sign up just to download some old pictures, then cancel it.