Photobucket has pulled the plug!

[Lynnedean]

If, like me, you've been using the image hosting website Photobucket to post images on this forum, you'll have been shocked by the recent announcement that PB is now to charge an annual subscription - a ridiculous amount of around $400 - for the 3rd party hosting facility that was previously available with the basic free account. PB will block the images until the customer coughs up the subscription. When I first heard about this, I didn't believe it was true, because it was so outrageous, but it seems that it is indeed a real change to PB's terms of service.

Personally, I have no intention of submitting to what I see as blackmail, and I do not have the time, or at present the energy, to transfer everything I have on PB to Imgur, so all the images I have posted on the board over the years will soon disappear, including my avatar!

[kitchentease]

Legal ransomware? Agree entirely with your signature, Lynne.

[hazeleyes57]

Sorry to lose the pictures, but I agree, the cost is ridiculous. I would not pay it either.

I wonder if it is a deliberate tactic to 'dismantle' photobucket in order to restart as another company. Deliberately run it into the ground?

[Lynnedean]

Well, all my posted images have now been blocked. My avatar disappeared, too, but I've replaced it with the one in Lesley's gallery. Can't do without my beloved Alibi avatar, which is the one I've used from the earliest days of Fiona's first message board.

I'm now going to edit all my posts that contain images, and remove the image refs, as the ugly PB blocking notices are extremely annoying to see.

[starlight]

Sorry to lose the pictures, but I agree, the cost is ridiculous. I would not pay it either.

I wonder if it is a deliberate tactic to 'dismantle' photobucket in order to restart as another company. Deliberately run it into the ground?

You mean repeal without replacement? Sad

[Lynnedean]

As I've been editing my posts to remove the image links, I've noticed that Jewell and Chris have been hit by it, too!

I'm furious with Photobucket! I've now deleted all my images from the website, and closed the account. When closing the account, I was asked to give a reason - and I jolly well did!

[Sunshine]

You tell 'em, Lynne!

[Samfan]

I sat down today to load photos onto QE from my computer that I previously had loaded through Photobucket. Lo and behold, my Photobucket photos are now back! I went to the site, and found an update. Apparently Photobucket is under new management, and the free accounts are back, at least for now. I was able to login with my login information, and find my photos.

https://support.photobucket.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004314254-Welcome-to-the-New-Photobucket-

Samfan

[Lynnedean]

Apparently Photobucket is under new management, and the free accounts are back, at least for now.Samfan

Thanks for the info, Samfan. I see that the free account doesn't allow 3rd party image hosting, so is no good if you want to post any pics on the message board. For a limited time the new Photobucket is making a special offer of an account which does include 3rd party hosting for a very low subscription fee. The blurb says that the cost is likely to increase after the limited time offer but only slightly. Depends what is meant by "only slightly", of course.

[Samfan]

Does anyone know how to get photos off of Photobucket? I had saved all my Photobucket photos onto an external hard drive, but lost all the files on that hard drive (and like a dummy, did not back them up). I tried to download one photo, but it saved as a PDF. Any way to do a whole album at a time? I have the free version of Photobucket.

Thanks for any help!