Blogging - The Photobucket issue

[Connectamabob]

The biggest surprise in all this affair for me was discovering just how many people were actually still using Photobucket at all.

I used to use them way back in like 2005 or so, but stopped when they reinvented their site as a broken hellhole of excessive scripting and ads. They've been a sketchy bottom tier option for photo hosting for a decade or more. I'd been assuming this whole time that the only people still using it were the sort of tech illiterate folk who use bare browsers with no plugins and all the security/privacy settings turned off.

Now this ransom thing drops, and suddenly it turns out half the internet was actually still using this shitty service the whole time. I was and still am kinda horrified by the implications.

[Dr. Zombie]

I'd been assuming this whole time that the only people still using it were the sort of tech illiterate folk who use bare browsers with no plugins and all the security/privacy settings turned off.

That certainly describes me - I think.

[Cait Sidhe]

The biggest surprise in all this affair for me was discovering just how many people were actually still using Photobucket at all.

I used to use them way back in like 2005 or so, but stopped when they reinvented their site as a broken hellhole of excessive scripting and ads. They've been a sketchy bottom tier option for photo hosting for a decade or more. I'd been assuming this whole time that the only people still using it were the sort of tech illiterate folk who use bare browsers with no plugins and all the security/privacy settings turned off.

Now this ransom thing drops, and suddenly it turns out half the internet was actually still using this shitty service the whole time. I was and still am kinda horrified by the implications.

The thing is, their site might have been a broken hellhole of scripting and ads, but I have ad blocker and script blocker so don't see that crap. When you're just hotlinking no one sees them either, just the photos, so it wasn't an issue for me and I liked their ability to have sub-albums and such. I never paid them a penny though and luckily my painting and modelling output being very low is a boon in this case since I didn't end up with 1000s of photos to move like other folks. 

[Connectamabob]

The thing is, their site might have been a broken hellhole of scripting and ads, but I have ad blocker and script blocker so don't see that crap.

The problem is the opposite: I've been using script and ad blockers for pretty much as long as they've been available, and they always without fail break Photobucket so badly that the only way to see the pics is by completely disabling all the blockers. I've gone though multiple bowsers and numerous plugins on multiple OSs in the past decade, but it's always the same. Literally anything that modifies how the pages display will FUBAR the pics. I can systematically go though and turn on or temporarily whitelist stuff one bit at a time, and piece by piece restore the site's appearance and functionality more or less entirely EXCEPT for the pics. Given PB's extreme focus on ads, I half suspect that to be a deliberate attempt to strong arm users into turning off their ad blockers and privacy features.

The fact the PB was willing to screw up their site in that way said a lot about their priorities and business model. Even if they were still OK for hosting imbedded images, the way they ran their site implied that it was only a matter of time before something like this latest BS happened: either the hosting functionality would finally break under the weight of the site's massively bad coding, or their shady business model would eventually intrude onto the hosting features. It's jaw dropping to me that this link breaking ransom stuff was a surprise to anyone. If anything, I'm surprisd it took this long to happen.

Pretty much every photo hosting site allows you to make subfolders and host hotlinked/imbedded images. Those are standard basic features, not special Photobucket features.

Also, "It works for me" is bad reasoning when it comes to sharing servics. The whole point is to display your media to others, so what's actually important is how many of your viewers can see it. If it works for you, but not for any noticable amount of your viewers, it's a bad service. There are plenty of sevices that don't have these issues at all, so anyone who uses one that does is advertising that they did not/do not actually think about their hosting choices.

[Cait Sidhe]

Also, "It works for me" is bad reasoning when it comes to sharing servics. The whole point is to display your media to others, so what's actually important is how many of your viewers can see it. If it works for you, but not for any noticable amount of your viewers, it's a bad service. There are plenty of sevices that don't have these issues at all, so anyone who uses one that does is advertising that they did not/do not actually think about their hosting choices.

Well I was more just responding to your surprise on people using photobucket. 

I never had issues with adblock plus and NoScript and my "viewers" weren't affected since I don't exactly use direct links to photobucket albums (did anyone?), it was just hotlinked images on forums. It's moot now as I long since switched to imgur.

Pretty much every photo hosting site allows you to make subfolders and host hotlinked/imbedded images. Those are standard basic features, not special Photobucket features.

Imgur doesn't, it's just a single album level and I'm not going to pay for a fancy hosting service to just link the odd pic of painted minis on forums. If I was running a business or something sure I'd go for something more robust, but I'm not so I just want a simple free service.

[Connectamabob]

Flickr is the one I switched to back in the day when PB went rotten. I haven't actually used my account there in a while, but it's free and has the album/gallery features you're looking for.

[Wookington]

Imgur doesn't, it's just a single album level and I'm not going to pay for a fancy hosting service to just link the odd pic of painted minis on forums. If I was running a business or something sure I'd go for something more robust, but I'm not so I just want a simple free service.

Imgur now does have folders and sub-folders they were added last week, I would recommend it as an alternative. 

[Viruz]

If you type '~original' after the jpeg in the photograph address on PB the photo will still show.

Unfortunately, no.
Not with me and in a Neighboring-forum, unfortunately not.
I had to download 2500 Pictures individually.Picture by Picture.  
My PB account is deleted,my Photos are on my Forum-Server.
In my Forum no Photos from Photobucket may be linked or or from a Photobucket subsidiary.
Never again Picture Hoster.
My Members are welcome to upload ,but not 3rd party image hosting .

Edit :
Tiny Pic it as not Alternative:

TinyPic® ist im Besitz und wird betrieben von Photobucket.com, einem Unternehmen für kostenlose Bild- und Videospeicherung.
Verwalten Sie Ihre Bilder und Videos mit Photobucket
©. 2004-2009 TinyPic®, ein Unternehmen von Photobucket zur gemeinsamen Nutzung von Videos und Fotos.2017
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