Photobucket ToS changes

Well, after this whole fiasco with PB, I am keeping all my photos in zipped albums in a separate folder on my computer (I actually used Flickr to organize and re-download them so it would be faster and easier than finding all the photos in the folders they are in on my computer, copying them into new folders, and then zipping up those folders). So if that ever happens to me, at least it would be quick to re-upload all my photos (although I assume it would still break all the previous links).

Might not be a bad idea for everyone to do this.

I also am doing what some people are doing, and using two different photo uploading websites for my doll photos (three sites total if you include imgur for some of my non-doll stuff). All my box opening photos are on Postimage.org and most of the rest of my BJD photos are on Flickr. Actually, if you include my two deviantArt accounts (my best BJD photos and my non-BJD photos), and the website I use for my BJD profiles (Elftown), my photos are in a variety of places now.

 

Egh, just checked one of my photostory threads here, and it uses photobucket so I'm gonna guess they all do. Being as I don't have proper PC access currently, it's gonna be a while before I can fix that. The images still work as I type this but I did only just get the warning email two days ago, so they'll probably break soon. I was gonna check dollyboards too but the url doesn't seem to work anymore. O.o I'll check again later in case it's a hiccup, otherwise I needa edit my siggy again. I already pulled the image I had in my siggy here cuz it's on photobucket as well.

I have my own webhost, which was Yahoo small business hosting because it was the cheapest plan after they had a revamp ($14 a month), but after another revamp it's called Aabbaco now. Some ridiculous corporate decision, wasn't the smoothest of transitions either. I've used them for a tiny bit of third party image hosting but I kinda think their TOS says not to do it. I'll have to look again once my living situation settles down.

Edit: Eh, I had a quick look at the Aabbaco TOS, and while a search for "image" came up with nothing, I did find this line: "Using an account as an online storage space for archiving electronic files is prohibited." So I am going to guess that is a no, for an image storing solution.

 

Photobucket says ad-free accounts will work for 3rd party hosting until the end of your service period and until the end of 2018 if you keep the account paid. Ad-free price has gone up, but not too bad if you don't have the time to deal with it now.

 

So for those of us who just use regular Photobucket, is there a definitive date before our photos stop working? I'm trying to fix all of my links, but I'm so busy with life stuff I don't really have much time to do much (only a handful a day and I'm still at over 500 images).

 

OMG I went to the Photobucket Facebook page LOL The internet is basically exploding over this! I feel really lucky to have dual accounts & most of my pics on my computer as well! There are some pitiful tales of woe out there!
BTW apparently those of us who've paid PB for one of their services get a reprieve until the end of next year...So I've plenty of time to migrate to Flickr.

 

Most regular PB users' images stopped working from day 1. It seems like there may be a few who were "spared" (so to speak)? I don't know why... but I would try to get them done asap, because if you just have a regular account, your photos could be disabled from 3rd party hosting anytime. :/

 

If you have a FREE account, you are in danger of getting the images blocked at any time, if they haven't been already. I don't think PB is actually telling anyone about their actions. Just from the ToS changes and the "coercion icon" and the secondary announcement that those with paid accounts would have 3rd Party images until the end of 2018, we just have to assume the free accounts will all be blocked from 3rd Party at some point.

PB keeping the paid people around for a while isn't a surprise. They are probably hurting for money and won't mind getting some income over the next year (as people swap out photos and close accounts!). I'll keep my account until I'm done fixing a lot of links... I hate paying PB more, but at least it isn't the $400 ransom...

 

Curious, my images are still working for now. I really am trying to move everything over as fast as I can, but things are busy with work and general "life" things. Hopefully they stick around a little longer.

 

You can check your renewal date in photobucket:

Mouse over the profile picture to the right of the search box and select Settings

Click on Account on the far right of the selections

You will get a display like this:

Account Type PlusAdFree — Get More Storage

Member Since
Aug 01st, 2004

Your account is set to recur payments
Yearly — Your next payment is on Sep 24th, 2017
​

 

The thing that makes me saddest about this is not the effort I'm going to have to put into moving all of my pictures - I'm still in the hobby, so I'm still around TO restore my stuff. What makes me sad is all of the pictures from people who are no longer in the hobby or no longer around that are just going to be gone forever.

Not just for BJD but other hobbies I'm into as well. As people move on it doesn't seem likely most of them will return to re-upload pictures from a fandom or hobby they haven't thought about in years.

I likely won't be fixing any of my meet-up photo threads though because I no longer remember which dolls go with which pictures and which owners. I may re-upload older meets to Tumblr at some point without captions but that would be about it. When I get the chance I'll just have to mark them for deletion.

 

Oh, wow! Thanks... I was wondering where that info was hidden! It looks like I'm paid up until next year...! We'll see if PB lasts that long!

That's the sad loss for everyone online... the loss of information and images... It makes me sad. I'm a bit of a history buff, and very visual, so images going away like this, along with the threads that are no longer useful without the images, is kind of a nightmare...

I wasn't going to try and fix my meet-up photo threads, but I have fixed some and will try and fix others if possible. I just hate to see all that stuff disappear!

(I've been fixing the threads one at a time. It's easier to find the right photos that go with the threads that way, and I don't have to upload images that aren't linked anywhere important that way.)

 

just spent the last hour downloading my pictures and then I deleted my photobucket account....I'm really sorry they did this....well I guess it's time I upgraded to flickr

 

I am worried that flickr will have a bad reaction to all the people transferring to flickr hosting.

 

I've been uploading to Flickr, too, and it also worries me that all the file transfers will be bad. I've also been using imgur--same thing! (both free accounts. I paid for PB.)

 

Hm... Pony, from a Central NJ meet from a couple years back, right? It might be a longshot, and it might only help to see if your stuff is 100% gone, but do you remember if you commented on and/or favorited some photos of mine in the past? Probably of the meet you came to? If you see your name on one of those photos, try following it and see if you see your photos there. My idea is that you might technically be logged into a different account right now. Finding your potential different account might give you a clue to find out how to access it.

Edit: Well, I went digging, and I don't think it looks promising. The only person I didn't recognize that faved or commented on any of the pics was tornadowitch, and I don't think that was you. If you think I can help you some other way, please let me know. Anyway, this is the meet I was thinking of: https://denofangels.com/threads/abjd-meet-9-13-15-central-nj.687704/#post-11699362 Good luck to you!

 

OK, weird... some of my photobucket links here are showing as broken, but I can see them in the Editor... sometimes. Sometimes they aren't showing up there, either. The actual links still work to find the image on PB, but PB is a mess to access right now, so I was trying to save images that were posted on 3rd party sites... and I can barely download from PB. EDIT: sometimes I get the broken image icon on PB, too...!

No 'coercion icon' or PB missing image icon... Just the broken image icon. ! I have a paid account so my links should still be working. ---LOVELY!

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I was also trying to search my pb photos on DoA... I could find SOME via searching the partial URLs... but not any of my Gallery threads show up that way... I'm not sure why! So now I'm searching out the Gallery threads by user name, but that's pretty awful--comes up with posts and stuff that doesn't have photos in it...!

 

Ugh, super hacked off by PB's changes!!! I can't even put into words how completely annoyed I am by it! (primarily because most of those words really aren't suitable for polite conversation...)

Trying to go back to some tutorials and experiments I've come across in the past about customising OT dolls (fashion dolls like MH dolls etc.) and pretty much 9 times out of 10 the images are all messed up with PB's big ugly 'give us your money' image. I imagine most of the other bookmarked links I have for various crafting hobbies are also pretty useless now...
Years ago I used to be in the habit of taking screenshots/copying & pasting tutorials into word documents and storing them on my pc so I could access them offline, since my internet was super unreliable. I really should have kept doing that...

I dread to think of how many other pages for various hobbies and interests they've effectively killed off by this move. Some of these things are years old and practically abandoned, so they'll likely never be updated again.

I have backup versions of all my images that are on my PB account so I don't have to worry about losing anything, but I do need to upload some of them to flickr and get some of my posts updated, especially my sales threads.

Question: can delete my PB account, or do I just have to abandon it? (Forget that, I'll email them and ask them to delete it if I have to.) EDIT: It's alright, I found the 'delete account' option!
I don't want anything to do with them anymore - I really don't approve of companies who just bring in changes overnight and don't announce them or inform people to give them a chance to plan ahead. IIt's underhanded and I'm pretty disgusted by it to be honest.

Perhaps I'm overreacting to this, but... UGH

 

Well PB is doing a jerkface thing so being angry is a proper response. I am agonizing over my two really photo heavy project journals.
Not sure what to do about them. I don't remember the exact photos to replace them. The comments in those journals are so funny and kept me going so I don't want to lose that connection.
Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi you're my only hope.

 

I'm having a hard time even rt-clicking my photobucket photos to download them. JERKS! They are supposed to honor the 3rd Party hosting for paid accounts, but many of my images are broken and I can pull the images up on their site but can't download them. GAH.

I really, really hate PB. I'm paid up until next year, but will dump them as soon as I can get some images off. (I have copies of my images--I'm just trying to get the same images I've posted in threads replaced... but PB makes even that nearly impossible!)

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Those on autopay... double-check to make sure that's turned off. (I haven't tried that yet.)

 

I find to works better to download things late in the evening when many other areas have gone to bed. If you can, try about 9pm.