Rob, I thought your post was beneath your usual standards of fairness and open-ness(is this a word?)
I too was fed up with Photo Bucket, but for an entirely different reason. It was so packed full of advertising it loaded so slowly I often thought it was locked up. I was using the free version and it became useless to me. Before dumping it completely, I decided to buy a one-year membership for $15.
Bingo. It now runs quickly and I personally find it far easier to use than imgur.I don't use it as a cloud host for all my pictures. They are loaded on my hard drive and backed up on a separate, stand-alone hard drive before they are ever uploaded to Photo Bucket. I find it a handy and useful host for posting pics to forums like Tradgang who do not host pictures. No $400 bill - just $15 and it works great for what I want it to do.
In my opinion, doing a one-sided review as you did and then using your admin privilege to lock the post was, as I said way beneath your usual standards of fairness.
since PB went AWOL i haven't posted a pic anywhere, simply because i can't and mainly because i can't be bothered to invest time and effort to research an alternative then learn how to use it.
QuoteOriginally posted by ozy clint:
since PB went AWOL i haven't posted a pic anywhere, simply because i can't and mainly because i can't be bothered to invest time and effort to research an alternative then learn how to use it.
That's my plan as well for now, I'm kinda waiting them out to see if they'll change the tune and offers something free again. As of right now all my pics are hijacked.
I would probably do the membership if they were more reasonable about it like for instance making me pay to load more pics but still allowing me to utilize what I had. This holding of my photos hostage isn't going to work for me!
I must be lucky. I have never had a problem with Photobucket
QuoteOriginally posted by Bladepeek:
Rob, I thought your post was beneath your usual standards of fairness and open-ness(is this a word?)
In my opinion, doing a one-sided review as you did and then using your admin privilege to lock the post was, as I said way beneath your usual standards of fairness.
IMO it is beneath
any member of the brotherhood here (including me) to address a personal post like this to an open forum. You apparently have no idea how Chum-bucket has
decimated many years of history posted by thousands of members since the inception of Trad Gang.
i dunno the the law as it applies to this situation, but i believe what photobucket has done to its members borders on criminal, if not actually being criminal. this disservice is not only to the millions of pb members, but to the thousands if not millions of sites where the affected user images are displayed, or used to be displayed. this is pure hostage extortion and if there isn't a law that applies to pb, there oughta be one. until this nonsense occurred i could have cared less about pb, but because of their ads and links and popups and banners and other nonsense, i would never recommend their "service" to anyone. mind y'all, i promoted their service when it first came out as the next best thing to sliced bread.
why anyone would want to pay for image hosting service when it's offered free by many other competing online image archival services is their own business. remember one great truth about "cloud services" - you will ALWAYS be at their mercy, whether paid or free.
so, no apologies coming from me about my stance concerning "scumbucket" - they're truly THAT bad, and i'm not the only person castigating them for their reckless stupidity. y'all need to do yer do diligence homework concerning online image archival services.
don't think for a minute all this bad press isn't hurting scumbucket's bottom line ROI ...
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/30/photobucket_charging_400yr_3rdparty_pgs/
https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.photobucket.com
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.photobucket.com
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/4/15919224/photobucket-broken-images-amazon-****-etsy-paid-update
https://www.complaintsboard.com/photobucket-b121708
http://www.hobomama.com/2017/06/photobucket-phail-or-how-to-ruin-hosting-site.html
https://photobucket.pissedconsumer.com/
i've got at least a few dozen more, but reading the above link pages is just the tip of the scumbucket blackmail saga. here's a company that missed shooting themselves in the foot and hit their head instead. phooeybucket.
Thanks Rob.
Thanks all. I am thinking like Michael - I am not opposed to paying for a service but feel the rules of the game have been changed many years after I started playing. I appreciate Rob's original post and this follow up. Most members do not know but I have a private section here and we lost about 11 years worth of what amounts to a log book - now without pics. I'll get them back up eventually. I have enough hot humid afternoons I might get stuff downloaded. Then onto a new host - then back onto tradgang.
<><
<------------------<<<<<<<
I am not willing to pay a ransom. Said goodbye to pb.
cory - you have an incoming pm, sir ....
I think bladepeek has a good point in terms of his charitable outlook but, note Rob's point about the many forums that have been decimated by their move.
Think of the value lost that may never be replaced. We and other forums have had high value info and photos posted here by folks who have met an untimely death. That stuff is lost forever!
PB should have at the very least given a 30 day notice to all users but they didn't. That would have undermined their coercion card.
QuoteOriginally posted by Roger Norris:
I must be lucky. I have never had a problem with Photobucket
I hadn't until a couple weeks ago, now all I get is this:
(http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b351/osminski/DDCEC6A3-7BCD-4BE4-9130-3AE71E5E9BAB_zpsdgk9hyo0.jpg) (http://s23.photobucket.com/user/osminski/media/DDCEC6A3-7BCD-4BE4-9130-3AE71E5E9BAB_zpsdgk9hyo0.jpg.html)
What I can't figure out is why my avatar still shows up on this site.
I don't care to speak out for or against Photobucket or Rob. That said, I think the WAY Photobucket conducted their business to be shady.
I get that it takes time, money, and resources to offer hosting services to the public. I'd be willing to pay for that service as it's something I can't set up on my own. With that said, I don't believe in paying ransom to extortionists which is exactly what Photobucket has done. If they said the "free" accounts were financially draining on the company and they need to charge for hosting services then that's an issue of basic economics. However, they choose to extort people, hold accounts under ransom, and block a wealth of information to millions of posts/users out of greed with no forewarning then I see them as an internet bully.
They could have blocker farther uploading in free accounts, given a warning, made a public statement, or something. Now they just locked us up and said "pay up or go home." Their business move there didn't follow common courtesy as I see it and I don't do business with folks that don't value my business enough to at least be courteous.
QuoteOriginally posted by Blackstick:
What I can't figure out is why my avatar still shows up on this site.
simple - because your avatar image resides on trad gang's server.
the only thing that matters is that clearly pb could have done the right thing by their clients.
but they didn't. still haven't, even after the deluge of public outcry and resentment.
instead, they did the dumbest thing they could have possibly done to alienate their customers and the customers of their customers.
no, i give them no quarter for the act they perpetrated on more than just their direct clients.
the fact that pb was a free service should not give them the unconscionable right to pull the image rug out from under millions of people, and tens of millions (billions?) of publicly posted images on 3rd party sites.
i will not make excuses for their selfish actions, nor offer any defense for such an unethical action on their part. they deserve my wrath. no apologies.
time to move on ....
QuoteOriginally posted by Bladepeek:
I too was fed up with Photo Bucket, but for an entirely different reason. It was so packed full of advertising it loaded so slowly I often thought it was locked up. I was using the free version and it became useless to me. Before dumping it completely, I decided to buy a one-year membership for $15.
Bingo. It now runs quickly and I personally find it far easier to use than imgur.I don't use it as a cloud host for all my pictures. They are loaded on my hard drive and backed up on a separate, stand-alone hard drive before they are ever uploaded to Photo Bucket. I find it a handy and useful host for posting pics to forums like Tradgang who do not host pictures. No $400 bill - just $15 and it works great for what I want it to do.
I don't have the time or desire to figure out everything that goes on on the internet, so I just read the posts and decided that $400/yr was ridiculous, and until a better way to post pictures came along, I just wouldn't post pictures. But is this a $400 problem or a $15 problem? For me, a raise from zero to $15 isn't a big deal; a raise from zero to $400 is. Which is it?
Same question as McDave above. I'd pay the lesser amount just so I could have my friend steal my pics back then flip 'em the...
Kinda bummed to check it out, I haven't been on there lately. It would be pretty sucky to lose hunting pics of my brother and daughter let alone all the other ones on there.
My android phone app is still automatically uploading them to PB as I take them. Strange, but if they're screwing folks over likes been said then wow...
Class Action? I am surprised corporate lawyers haven't already started litigation against PB. They very well may have.
I am in agreement with Rob. It borders on criminal. If nothing else it is a poor, very poor, business tactic.
I too will eventually download all mine and re-establish photos where I wanted them to remain Many others are not that big of a deal.
QuoteOriginally posted by McDave:
QuoteOriginally posted by Bladepeek:
I too was fed up with Photo Bucket, but for an entirely different reason. It was so packed full of advertising it loaded so slowly I often thought it was locked up. I was using the free version and it became useless to me. Before dumping it completely, I decided to buy a one-year membership for $15.
Bingo. It now runs quickly and I personally find it far easier to use than imgur.I don't use it as a cloud host for all my pictures. They are loaded on my hard drive and backed up on a separate, stand-alone hard drive before they are ever uploaded to Photo Bucket. I find it a handy and useful host for posting pics to forums like Tradgang who do not host pictures. No $400 bill - just $15 and it works great for what I want it to do.
I don't have the time or desire to figure out everything that goes on on the internet, so I just read the posts and decided that $400/yr was ridiculous, and until a better way to post pictures came along, I just wouldn't post pictures. But is this a $400 problem or a $15 problem? For me, a raise from zero to $15 isn't a big deal; a raise from zero to $400 is. Which is it? [/b]
That confused me too. I think he is grandfathered in for the rest of the year at $15...I just tonight looked into this garbage and the lowest cost monthly plan that allows you to use PB to "host" photos is $39.99 a month. Someday when I have time, I'lll have to look into the Imigur thing. It's a shame all those great pics will be missing from so many threads here.
I'm very computer illiterate. It took me about 20 minutes to sign up for Imgur. After Photo Bucket deleted all my photos on my stock bow page I reloaded and posted them with Imgur. It took 15 minutes. It was much faster to upload pictures to Imgur then Photobucket. With photobucket I sometimes had to wait hours for pictures to upload, Imgur took seconds.
So really, other than temporarily, the only way you can continue to use Photobucket is $39.99/month, which is actually more than $400/year, which is BS. It would appear that the only long-term way forums such as Trad Gang can protect themselves would be to host their own photos, which I'm sure involves some extra cost. But any other 3d party photo hosting service could end up doing the same thing as Photobucket down the road, leaving forums with the same problem. I guess my original thought was right: just post words until this whole thing gets sorted out.
^^ yep, as McDave says, the lesson here is that anything can happen. no one expected PB to do what they did which means any other hosting site could do something unexpected too.
the cavalry is on the way to save the day.
trad gang is in the process of changing its forum software.
*IF* we can accomplish this without too much blood loss, it'll take at least a few months. our short term goal is october of this year.
the new forum software would/will allow you to easily upload images for posting here at trad gang - and SO much more.
the new forum software will function almost exactly as this old software, only with greatly enhanced functionality. there will be no steep learning curve for posting or adding images right from your own computer, iphone, tablet, etc.
the images will reside on the trad gang server, and be here for the life of this forum.
this is a very complicated and tricky move to both effect and accomplish, and has been attempted more than a few times over the last decade. we think we now finally have the resources and smarts to make this happen.
this current conversion task testing started over a month ago and we've been working on it every day since. it is not an easy row to hoe. it also requires new hardware we need to purchase that includes a new server, new drives and triple our current system memory.
in the interim, posting images here at trad gang will require hosting your images elsewhere on the internet. during this transition, please choose your image host vendor carefully and wisely.
:bigsmyl:
This is great news!
:thumbsup:
"remember one great truth about "cloud services" - you will ALWAYS be at their mercy, whether paid or free."
removing the counter party risk sounds like the way to go rob. hats off to you for working behind the scenes to make it a possibility.
From what I can see is that the first 10 gigs are free and then for more storage you have to pay? am I correct?
QuoteOriginally posted by Mint:
From what I can see is that the first 10 gigs are free and then for more storage you have to pay? am I correct?
if yer talking about the bucket, you really need to directly inquire with them. there have been a number of different p-bucket pay-to-play scenarios abounding, and some are just false.
It sure sounds like Rob and Terry are moving Trad Gang in the right direction-- a direction that is best for the members. The effort and expense of doing so is pretty formidable.
I, for one, thank them for what they are doing for the good of all of the members and for the good of our sport. The internet is an ever-changing and developing world-wide behemoth, and keeping up with it is remarkably difficult. The P-bucket fiasco is just one example of a net-hosting service taking advantage by changing the game on customers. It won't be the last.
I work in IT so I know how difficult of a task it is to switch from one system to another. It's even harder when it's not your full time job. I want to thank Rob, Terry, and everyone else who makes this site the best traditional archery site on the Internet. I'm been flinging arrows for going on 45 years now and have learned more about archery since I've been a member here than in all the years before that. Thanks again and good luck with the conversion. :thumbsup:
OK, got caught with egg on my face again. Sorry Rob, but as a paying member of PB, I had not seen any of the effects you were talking about. It appears my $15/year has bought me hosting privileges for the duration of my membership. At that point, exactly what you described will take place. Shame, because I really enjoyed using them.
My apologies.
Ron
no apologies needed or wanted, ron! i just want everyone to know what the deal is with that outfit and their severe pitfalls to negotiate. what a mess. it's hurt trad gang big time, and thousands of other web forums and blogs and social media sites. i'll be SO relieved when (and *IF*!) trad gang can host images for posting in our own threads. amen.
What photobucket is doing is extortion. "Give us your money, you don't want nothin bad happening to your photos do ya".
QuoteOriginally posted by SpikeMaster:
I work in IT so I know how difficult of a task it is to switch from one system to another. It's even harder when it's not your full time job. I want to thank Rob, Terry, and everyone else who makes this site the best traditional archery site on the Internet. I'm been flinging arrows for going on 45 years now and have learned more about archery since I've been a member here than in all the years before that. Thanks again and good luck with the conversion. :thumbsup:
Here here. Best site going
QuoteOriginally posted by smokin joe:
It sure sounds like Rob and Terry are moving Trad Gang in the right direction-- a direction that is best for the members. The effort and expense of doing so is formidable.
I, for one, thank them for what they are doing for the good of all of the members and for the good of our sport.
Me too!
Think about it. The dedication is non-stop. Terry and Rob are both literally glued to this effort, every day...of every week...year after year. :notworthy:
I'm guessing that the expense of a major transition to new hardware that can support Trad Gang, Black Powder Gang, and have the capability of hosting all of our images and videos will be significant!
A few things I hate...Gnats , skeeters , Days over 100 degrees...photobucket. I have probably 300 pics on different sites that now cant be veiwed. I wont be paying them a dime. Thats no way to do business. RC
I have to say...I can't even think about it....I'm afraid to even go to some of the annual 'group hunt' threads and see the photos missing....what a shame...a crying shame. Memories tossed aside by the photo mafia.
I think I mentioned the in-house photo hosting a couple of months ago when Terry asked for suggestions regarding the upgrade... then this Pukebucket thing happened. What a coincidence. And what a relief. If the Pukebucket debacle helped you guys decide, thank you Pukebucket! lol
I will definitely spend more time here, especially in the Bowyer's Bench, once this becomes available. The 3rd party thing has always been an aggravation.
Thanks fellas.
No,...the photobucket debacle had nothing to do with it...PHOTO IMAGING SIMPLIFICATION was and has been on the table for years...that was the MAIN issue we wanted to address....but we are addressing MUCH more than just that as we see things becoming an issue farther down the road.
There are 2,008,687 posts on the PowWow alone!!!
It's going to cost...a LOT...but we have no choice or see all this info drift away....and Trad Bowhunting doesn't need that.
Thxs so much terry I am so pissed to see all the great articles and info with pics getting throwed out the door!!
I stand with Rob on this issue...while PB probably has the "right" to do what they are, it is definitely morally and ethically WRONG and smacks of extortion and blackmail. It's not just this forum...the PB "clock of death" has appeared in many thousands of forums and public media sites all over the world. I sincerely wish all the management become jobless in the next 30 days and choke on their own gluttony.
Alrighty then. Good luck.
. No $400 bill - just $15 and it works great for what I want it to do.
In my opinion, doing a one-sided review as you did and then using your admin privilege to lock the post was, as I said way beneath your usual standards of fairness.
'
'
I don`t see how paying the $15.00 would solve anything.
If I paid $15.00 I still couldn`t post pics on any Forums, and My hundreds of pics that I posted over the past 12-13 years would still held hostage by Photobucket.
Trying to steal $400.00 bucks is bad enough.
It is bad to charge that crazy price to posts pics, BUT what is worse is that Photobucket went back well over a Decade and deleted Millions of pics that people had posted over the years.
I was lucky, everything that I had on PB came from backed up hard drive, so I just deleted my PB account.