Rabbit
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Posts: 7,087
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Post by Rabbit on Jul 7, 2017 7:07:55 GMT
Photobucket are now disabling third party links and demanding payment. They can get stuffed. I deleted my account where they allowed me to tell them why. So I did.
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Javier
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Digital bytes
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Post by Javier on Jul 7, 2017 9:12:29 GMT
This is the beauty of the "Cloud", once they got you by the short hairs the extortion begins. Don't get me started on this "Cloud" fashion or should I say religion? This is not the 1st time something like this happens and it certainly won't be the last nor the worst. Always have a local backup of your gmail/hotmail/etc, music, pictures or even any other files for that matter. IMO the Cloud should not be considered one's main storage but the backup/shared copy.
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Rabbit
Administrator
Posts: 7,087
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Post by Rabbit on Jul 7, 2017 9:42:49 GMT
Horrible isn't it? You can download your albums as a zip file so I did before I deleted my account.
They could have left anything already there and then charged for anything added, but to allow you to use it for nothing and then say that you now need to pay is not very nice really. What's to stop them doing another round, where they decide to raise the fees charged to whatever they want?
Luckily, I never left anything important on it anyway.
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Javier
Administrator
Digital bytes
Posts: 987
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Post by Javier on Jul 7, 2017 10:21:32 GMT
As individuals we are lucky in most cases we can move our data somewhere else but for some companies with large amounts of data it can be impossible. Think of a 25,000 employees company that has all its email at Microsoft's Office365. After several years one day MS says not only they are reducing capacity because they can (has already happened) but they also award you with a, for example, 30% increase on the price. With many TBs worth of emails and a complex system how on earth is one supposed to move all this data somewhere else without losing highly valuable information? suddenly you find you are tied to them for life and will have to comply with whatever they come up with, you are rollaly sc***ed.
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solderdude
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measureutternutter
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Post by solderdude on Jul 7, 2017 10:48:19 GMT
Fixed the issue that arose with my avatar (a cartoon character) by uploading it again to another host.
As long as the pictures originate from yourself and aren't plucked off the web then Photobucket works fine. Cloud ... yeah... I only use it for stuff I want to be public anyway (website material etc). I won't ever store music or personal stuff in the cloud though.
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Rabbit
Administrator
Posts: 7,087
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Post by Rabbit on Jul 7, 2017 15:55:54 GMT
I just uploaded my avatar direct for here and it came back again. I don't leave anything important in the cloud tbh. Gives someone else control which I don't like. I have Amazon music files stored there, but with backup copies here on a hard drive.
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Post by ronzo56 on Jul 7, 2017 17:29:07 GMT
Sounds like an old time racket to me. Offer a certain amount of storage for free, then hold it hostage by asking for money later. I use the Apple cloud just as a backup. That and it is convenient to have my video's and photos available on all our iPads. This Photobucket thing could spread I fear.
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solderdude
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measureutternutter
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Post by solderdude on Jul 9, 2017 19:26:22 GMT
photobucket seems broken .. at least all my links are not working anymore.
I have 514 pictures there linked to this website. Bummer. The pics are still there.
Trying to download the whole bucket and make a backup so I can move to another host.
What an annoying site Photobucket has become. It already became increasingly difficult to upload pictures and link them. It seems it is still getting worse.
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Rabbit
Administrator
Posts: 7,087
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Post by Rabbit on Jul 9, 2017 19:29:21 GMT
The pictures come down as a Zip file Frans if you offload them to your computer. They send you an email when it's ready for download, with a link. I took my pictures down and closed the account giving them an earful in the feedback section when they asked why I wanted to close the account.
Mine's gone now.
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solderdude
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measureutternutter
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Post by solderdude on Jul 9, 2017 20:57:26 GMT
I am going to go with Imgur.
I wonder how many paying Photobucket users will remain there.
Now I have to edit hundreds of posts that to these ph*to*uckers. I guess I won't be doing that though unless it contains vital info of sorts.
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solderdude
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measureutternutter
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Post by solderdude on Jul 10, 2017 11:46:37 GMT
I just had a quick look what it would cost to 'update' the account so pictures will show again. $399.99 / Year. !!!
Yes ... from hosting pictures for free to $399.99 each year !
Talk about ransomware... Pay us $399.99 a Year or you have to redo about 1000 links on your website. Eat that suckers...
Lets ponder about this:
Photobucket is the global destination for linking and 3rd party hosting. In Photobucket’s 14-year history, the Company amassed over 100 million registered users, over 15 billion images stored, 2 million daily uploads and 10 billion photos accessed monthly.
Lets just assume that just 1% is using it as 3rd party hosting the rest to store their family pics. That's 1million potential paying custormers. Let's assume that 1% of those people take the bate and 99% searches for another host. That's 10.000 people forking out $ 400.- each year. That's $ 4 million revenue where this would be far less in case some people used paid accounts anyway.
Yep... ransomware ... legally done.
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Rabbit
Administrator
Posts: 7,087
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Post by Rabbit on Jul 10, 2017 12:37:02 GMT
They're not concerned at all about free user accounts. They are indeed holding people to ransom. I'm guessing that all of the pictures on your blog site are going to get messed up Frans?
For me, it's no biggie because I didn't use it that much tbh. Only a few bits on here and I'm certainly not forking out a subscription to them.
Imagine what they could do once they have payers .....
If they need 10% more profit next year, just raise the subscriptions and those poor buggers get in even deeper.
I don't trust them.
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Javier
Administrator
Digital bytes
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Post by Javier on Jul 10, 2017 13:18:41 GMT
I think Wordpress saves a local copy of the uploaded pics or at least all are still OK in my pages.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using proboards
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solderdude
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measureutternutter
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Post by solderdude on Jul 10, 2017 15:46:52 GMT
Wordpress hosts the pictures themselves as I upload to them. Those plots and pics are safe.
It's most of the pictures used on the forums. As well here as at Changstar and RG will all be gone. Those cannot be fixed unless you cough up $ 400 each year.
Will download all pics from Photobucket and host them at Imgur. Whenever a thread calls for pictures to become visible or people ask I can edit those posts.
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Javier
Administrator
Digital bytes
Posts: 987
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Post by Javier on Jul 10, 2017 16:10:47 GMT
I'll do the same. Not bending over to these people.
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