Photobucket image problems

#1

Since the new forum was completed, we haven’t had to worry about hotlinking images from places like Photobucket, however many of the old threads from before the changeover have images linked from people’s photobucket accounts. I do, and all of my images are fine (I guess because I have a paid account at photobucket?), but many others are not. I am not sure exactly what the problem is, other than maybe a policy change at Photobucket where free-user’s images are blocked if they exceed a certain amount of activity or hotlinking? I don’t know, but some of the images are fine, and some are not. I suspect this to be a ploy by Photobucket to get more paid members since paying their annual fee seems to alleviate this concern. The need from this as far as they probably feel is that they are continually losing revenue due to so many new forums like ours having built-in photo hosting, which is the standard these days. Glad we have it now anyway.

It has been suggested that users should download their album ASAP lest photobucket crash and your images are lost. They also apparently have some issues with malware, viruses, or other things at their site.

Why do so many forum pictures have this message
#2

The letter I received from them follows.

To download your album log in, go to My Library & look for the download My Album button, (the instructions Photo Bucket gives below is for just one photo) it will gather your album & when ready you can download all of it to your computer with one button push. Just be sure you check the destination of the downloaded.

The next problem would be to restore the missing photos to the proper IAA Threads. How does one do that without spending hours / days?

Jon suggested we wait until some one asks & then re-post. But perhaps Aaron could talk to the provider & find a simple & easy method & we can again have a complete forum?

WE NOTICED THAT YOU HAVE BEEN USING
PHOTOBUCKET FOR 3RD PARTY HOSTING*

PLEASE UPGRADE TO A PLUS 500 PLAN.

Our Terms of Service does not allow 3rd party hosting with your current account level.
UPGRADE NOW
*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 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.
Why Photobucket?
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.
Easy to Use – Upload a photo from any device and copy the embed code with one click to host a photo with no development or technical knowledge required
Competitive, fixed pricing Offers the only unlimited 3rd party hosting plan (Commercial and Personal Use)
Are my pictures still safe?
Yes! All your photos are still available by logging into your Photobucket Account. Photobucket has only restricted the ability to view your photos on 3rd party sites.
Can I download my Photos?
Absolutely, at any time. It is an easy four step process:
Step 1. Login to your Photobucket Account
Step 2. Navigate to your library page
Step 3. View a photo and click the download button
Step 4. The picture will be saved to your computer

#3

Yeah, I’m not paying photobucket $399/yr for an account. I downloaded all of my images and will be finding a new place for them.

#4

Hmm, I’m confused about their whole issue. I definitely have loads of images on photobucket which are linked here on old forum posts, but I have only ever paid around $20 per year for whatever I am paying for there (I guess the quantity of images I have uploaded and the fact that they are 3rd party hosted).

On the downloading of the album option - I have tried that several times on multiple computers and different browsers, and every which way I try it, it has never worked. It pops up a window which shows a spinning wheel as if it is working, and a message telling me that I can navigate away from the page and it will continue working, but it never actually does anything.

#5

I only ever used Photobucket to host pictures and to provide a link so I could use them here, all the pictures from my various Forum posts are still stored on my computer and backed up several times on different external hard-drives … so were it to become possible to resurrect ancient posts with pictures directly embedded here, it would be relatively simple, although quite time consuming process.

I’m certainly not paying Photobuckets impost, it smacks of highway robbery.

#6

My understanding was that the new forum came about largely
so that pictures could be posted directly to the Forum, and not
have to go thru anything like Photobucket. Was I wrong? Honest
question, not sarcasm. I would like to know, because if I ever get
my computer up and running in ways that I can use it, I would like
to be able to post pictures once in awhile. I would have no interest
though, if I have to go thru an intermediary site to get them on
the Forum.

John Moss

#7

Yes John, you are correct, but all of the forum posts from before this new forum have thread messages constructed with embedded photo links (when everyone was linking their photos from places like photobucket). People could change their photos in those messages, to be directly on the forum, but to go back and do it would be tedious & time consuming. I’m still not totally clear on why some have a problem and others don’t

#8

I noticed a few days ago that all my pics are not blocked from the Forum because it is a 3rd party link. I have downloaded most of my photos but not all, In some cases I just copied the photo and pasted it into the Forum which is very easy

John, All photos that have been posted on the Forum since we went to the new one are saved on the IAA files. The problem is the photos that were posted on the previous versions of the Forum which are stored somewhere else and there is only a link to that “somewhere else” that is on the forum. When we went to the new forum there was no known method of automatically downloading the photos from all these links and posting them into the postings in place of the links. As far as i know that is a manual job and I don’t have the lifespan left to do it on all my old posts.

I know we have already lost images from people who closed there photobucket account or where ever their images were stored. I don’t know of n answer.

Cheers,
Lew

Added in Edit. I went to Photobucket to see how I could pay for 3rd party linking-hosting and unless I am wrong it would cost me $400/year!!! Instead, I copied my photos with Snagit and posted them into the thread on German 9mm color coded rounds. I was surprised that when i copied one of the photobucket files and returned to the Forum post, most of the images that were blocked showed back up again! I repasted them anyway.Something must be screwy with photobucket.

I would strongly suggest you download all your photos because the site looks very slow and shakey. They may be having problems-perhaps $$$ or software but I no longer trust it!

Lew

#9

Matt
The spinning wheel will stop & you will get an e-mail telling you to push a button on it & then it will download to your computer

#10

Lew,

I still don’t understand this. If you don’t need photobucket to be an
intermediary to putting them on the Forum, why were the pictures on
a very new posting blocked? It should only apply to pictures posted
before the new forum was created, and that has been quite some time
now? I know I am simply missing something, but so far, it just doesn’t
make sense to me. Either photos can go straight from the person posting
them right into the Forum, or they can’t. Which is it?

John M.

#11

John,
To put a picture on the new forum all you have to do is copy and past it, or click and drag it into the post you are creating. If you so that then the image is in the IAA Forum file and won’t be blocked. I just tried to link an image into the new forum (see below) and you can link an image into the current forum, If you post an image this way, then the person that controls the site you linked from can always delete it or block it. I don’t know of a recent post that has an image sent to the IAA file that has been blocked!

Cheers,
Lew

PS: the round posted is an experimentl Swedish squeeze bore from 9mm to 6.5mm. It is one of the two known (to me) variations.

http://gigconceptsinc.com/images/Swedish_SB1.jpg

#12

Lew - where you are confusing this addled old man is when you say
things like “…if you post an image this way, then the person that controls
the site YOU LINKED FROM can always delete it or block it.” I take that to mean
the the picture is not coming from the posting party direct. Now, does that simply
mean he is choosing to post a “borrowed picture” rather than one of his own? If
so, than I guess I understand it.

I guess the thread I am thinking of, which I don’t recall the subject of since, after
all, it was probably a week or more ago and that is beyond my current range of recall,
that had all of the opening pictures blocked, were borrowed from another site, or put
thru another site because the person didn’t know how to put them on directly. It was
not an old site.

that Swedish round you posted, if it is from Karlsborg date “57” is identical to mine.
The second type, which I also have, is also in a Karlsborg case, but with “58” date.
Like you, they are the only two variations of these of which I am aware. I have had
mine for years. Don’t know if they are scarce or common, not that it matters. At
the time, I had excellent contacts in Sweden. I think you remember all the different
headstamps you got from me out of my 5,000 round shipment from Sweden (actually
sent from Denmark, since my source was worried about shipping them from Sweden).
To this day, I still have some of those left, although probably less than 100. I found
my first and only blank “6 SM 6 9mm” in there, and it took me another ten years
or more to get an original ball round, which came out of Uruguay. There was only one
of the blanks of that headstamp in the whole shipment - the very last one I pulled off
of the last 36-round charger to be looked at!

John M.

#13

20141220_145532.jpg5312x2988 4.4 MB

This is my first test of the forum drag and drop system. It works well, but takes a while to upload. Enough of photobucket.

#14

Just got an email from our friends at Photobucket same as what Pete posted. While my old pics are still showing, I would guess it’s only a matter of time before they are blocked. The only reason I ever used the (free) service was to post pictures on this forum. Going forward, this will obviously not be an issue but I will be glad to re-post any of my pictures if asked in the future.

Dave

#15

Photobucket has a new policy which only allows third party posting to people who either pay $39.95 per month, or $399.95 per year for their top tier membership. I now call them “Ransombucket”. With that said, thanks to a member on the SKS Forum, there is another free image hosting site which I now use. The url is: www.imgbb.com. It does not have any real whistles and bells like photobucket, however, it is free and easy to use. I hope this will be of help to someone.

James

#16

I did the same thing, however, when I attempted to post a downloaded image on another site I just got the upgrade your account logo. I think that they have embedded code somewhere that will prevent you from any third party posting of any image that is on their site.

James

#17

James
I wasn’t trying to post anything, it’s just that the e-mail instructions were for downloading one photo at a time onto your computer. But that the download album button allowed the whole album to be downloaded.

As for posting on this side all you need to do is drag it into the reply window.
Here is one from 2012 that was posted on Nov 3 via P.B. but here straight from the download on my computer without even a name change.

20mmoa.jpg750x171 30 KB

#18

I just have deleted my account there!

#19

Me too.
Zac

#20

I have done the same. No more need for the P Bucket.

Dave