PSA: Regarding Images Hosted on Photobucket

[Kinsie]

As of earlier this week, Photobucket has updated its terms of service to remove the ability for free users to hotlink images (which is to say, to post Photobucket-hosted images on other sites, like here). This functionality is now locked behind a "PLUS 500" subscription plan, which is priced at US$400/year.

Photobucket images now look like this, as observed in the Russian Overkill thread:

Uhm, guys, am I the only one who's seeing this in the OP?

If you use Photobucket, please instead use a different image host, such as Imgur, or your own web hosting. If you have used Photobucket for images here recently, it would be VERY much appreciated if you could replace them so that your threads can remain legible.

Thanks!

[Enjay]

I'd actually just picked this up via another forum. I don't use Photobucket (I've always thought it to be an awkward and intrusive way to host pictures) but I was surprised when I saw people talking about the price. Seems very high for what they are offering, especially as it can be done for free elsewhere.

[Kinsie]

I'd actually just picked this up via another forum. I don't use Photobucket (I've always thought it to be an awkward and intrusive way to host pictures) but I was surprised when I saw people talking about the price. Seems very high for what they are offering, especially as it can be done for free elsewhere.

Judging by the reactions spotted by El Reg, this is to capitalize on folks who have been using the service for a decade+, forcing them to cough up or effectively lose all their hotlinked images.

[Mikk-]

I quit using Photobucket years ago due to their bandwidth limit. Which if said limit is hit, all of your hotlinked photos would get nuked until you bought more bandwidth.

[Enjay]

Judging by the reactions spotted by El Reg, this is to capitalize on folks who have been using the service for a decade+, forcing them to cough up or effectively lose all their hotlinked images.

Oh, I can see why they would do that. It's nasty, but I see the logic.

[Jimmy]

This is why I've always preferred imgur.

Heck I preferred imageshack over Photobucket 10 years ago.

[AvzinElkein]

...and this is why I use imgur.

[Major Cooke]

Worse yet, they swarm you with ads like none other, making it all the more annoying to work with.

[xenoxols]

Photobucket is now requiring its users to upgrade (from free to $399) before they can embed images. This applies to everything that has already been posted. Just look in the spriting carnival for evidence.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/4/15919224/photobucket-broken-images-amazon-ebay-etsy-paid-update
http://lifehacker.com/back-up-your-photos-so-companies-like-photobucket-cant-1796726043

[Rachael]

It happens with all image hosts. Either they feel they're losing too much money (in some cases, they're right), or they simply want to make more money. It'll happen with imgur too, down the line, and they'll just be replaced by something else.

[Nevander]

Photobucket sucks anyway. They sucked for years before they did this, now they just mega-suck. I hope it doesn't happen to Imgur because they are really good.

[Project Dark Fox]

$399 a year? Are they out of their minds?! Complete and total website hosting plans cost about 1/3rd that price and they include a domain name to go with it!

[Enjay]

As Kinsie said in the other thread...

Judging by the reactions spotted by El Reg, this is to capitalize on folks who have been using the service for a decade+, forcing them to cough up or effectively lose all their hotlinked images.

[Rachael]

Yeah if there's another topic on it there's no reason for it to remain separate.

(Merge done, now)