So from my last post, I got the following comment from Alex:
Nooo, can’t see them! Something about Photobucket demanding an update to enable 3rd party hosting – just in case you don’t see it from your end.
hmm… so I found this in my Spam Folder:
Some features on your account have been disabled.
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Inbox
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14:16 (9 hours ago)  |
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So… what the fuck does all this mean?
I went to Photobucket to find out.
I see that their Terms of Service have just been updated, as of 28th June, 2017. And their plans have changed on us.
———————-
52.0 GB Storage
$5.99 / MO
Billed Annually
$59.99 / YR
Plus 50 offers 50GB of Storage and No Linking or 3rd Party Hosting
102.0 GB Storage
$9.99 / MO
Billed Annually
$99.99 / YR
502.0 GB Storage
$39.99 / MO
Billed Annually
$399.99 / YR
Plus 500 offers 500GB of Storage, Unlimited Linking and 3rd Party Hosting*
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So… if I – or any one of us hobbyists – wants to be able to host photos on Photobucket and use them on our blogs, or post them on forums, they expect us to pay US$400 a year.
I have two things to say to that:
- HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH
- FUCK PHOTOBUCKET
So with this in mind, normal service is going to be pretty much disrupted for a little while, as I move all my photos to (most likely) IMGUR. Since I’ve got 5 years worth of Blog, that’s going to take some time. So I’ll start with my next post, and work backwards, uploading photos and changing links. It’s going to be a right pain in the arse, but unfortunately it’s the only option open if I want to retain my blog and its history and posts. My Dakka thread is also going to be proper fucked.
Some of you can apparently still see my images, but it seems from some googling that PB has been rolling this out over a period of time, so it’s only a matter of time before others can no longer see my images. I can, but I’m presuming that’s because I can see the images in my own account, but if they remove that, then even I’m going to be unable to properly rebuild my page without even more difficulty. Either way, it’s going to be a ton of time wasted.
I’m not even personally opposed to paying them for the hosting. I’m lucky enough to be able to afford to do so, though it pretty much kills younger hobbyists who are still living at home or at school as well as others who might be studying at uni or out of work. You’ll notice that the $60 and $100 plans state
No Linking or 3rd Party Hosting
Unlimited Linking and No 3rd Party Hosting
And that apparently means:
*What is 3rd Party Hosting?
Photobucket defines 3rd party hosting as the action of embedding an image or photo onto another website. For example, using the <img> tag to embed or display a JPEG image from your Photobucket account on another website such as a forum, Etsy, eBay auction listings, a blog, etc. is definitively 3rd party hosting.
Oh, and as far as my bandwidth and storage use, here’s my stats, since I drop the size of my images to make them easier to load and don’t store all (any) of my personal photos on there:
