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[Bob K]

Many of us use Photobucket to store the images we use to illustrate our postings on Mayhem.  There has previously not been a problem with this.  Their site is free for the purpose of storing images for sharing photos.

However, I have just received notification that they have changed their terms of service to disallow "3rd Party Hosting" unless you upgrade your previously free account to one costing $99.99 a year.

The new message on Photobucket states . . .

"We have noticed that you have been using Photobucket for 3rd Party Hosting.
Our Terms of Service does not allow 3rd party hosting * for your current account level.

*What is 3rd Party Hosting?

Alternatively referred to as inline linking, "hotlinking" is the action of linking to an image or object on another server. An example of hotlinking would be using an <img> tag to display a JPEG image that you uploaded to your Photobucket account so it will appear on a different website like Etsy, eBay auction listings, blogs, forum messages, etc. "


Does this mean that Photobucket will now pull the plug on any "member" that links their photos on Model Boat Mayhem unless they agree to pay almost a hundred US Dollars a year for the privilege?

Most of the photos on Mayhem could suddenly disappear ?

[ballastanksian]

If 'customers' who use the service do not pay up then it is likely that images above a certain number will dissapear. I have been paying for my Imageshack account for about three years now and so far the price has not increased hugely, but obviously one keeps an eye out periodically. They said that you can store up to a certain number of images for free, but that naturally means you have to ration out your storage.

[Bob K]

It is not the quantity. I am only using one percent of my free hosting account.  It is that they appear to have decided to inflict a heavy surcharge on anyone using Photobucket for anything other than private use.

Many of us use Photobucket.  Even if I agree to this new "ransomware" charge a large number of postings on Mayhem could suddenly be devoid of photographic illustrations.

Once one major image hosting site is seen to be getting away with this all the others will follow suit.

[Bob K]

Well, that's it.  All the images I had previously posted on Mayhem have now been replaced by an illustration saying I have broken their new terms and conditions, and thus the image intended will not be displayed.

Damned Ransomware   

There is no way I know to retrospectively edit every post with a new image hosted elsewhere.

What do we all this of this conduct ?

How many others are / will be affected ?

[Baldrick]

Well, that's it.  All the images I had previously posted on Mayhem have now been replaced by an illustration saying I have broken their new terms and conditions, and thus the image intended will not be displayed.

Damned Ransomware   

There is no way I know to retrospectively edit every post with a new image hosted elsewhere.

What do we all think of this conduct ?

How many others are / will be affected ?

Google: photobucket 3rd party hosting, their is pages of it !  Also Google photo bucket Alternatives.
 Photo bucket will have gone down the tubes in short time

[Bob K]

Sorry guys, but what really bugs me is that out of just over 3,000 postings on Mayhem about a third have had photographs, hosted on Photobucket - now effectively destroyed by their greed.

The whole point of using Photobucket was to share photos with friends.  Mayhem is not a huge commercial web site.

If I switch to another site for new images, what is to stop them jumping on the same Ransomware stunt ?

According to some of the Googled sources about this new policy (new terms from 28th June) is that if you refuse to pay, after a certain time, your hosted images may be replaced by advertisements.

[derekwarner]

 .......Norton is OK and protects from the same Ransomware stunt ...........Derek

[Baldrick]

Doubt if it will do much for the Photobucket version, my account still seems OK  but I have not upload for a while.Suppose soon as I do it will zap me as well.

[tigertiger]

There are forum discussions about this 'monetizing'of your images. Some think that Photobucket (PB) will take down your images if you don't pay the fees. The other thing to notice in the T&Cs is that if you make your photos public, then you lose all copyright, and say in how the images are used; in other words they are indeed no longer private.

Some forum posts recommended moving to flikr, but I am not sure of their T&Cs.


Some alternative photo sharing sites listed here https://www.techlicious.com/guide/best-sites-for-sharing-photos/

I am very suspicious of 'free storage' offers. I have seen free storage offers, but in the small print it is time limited, after that you pay. In the PB case, they just change their ToS.

Paid storage used to be US$70 per Tb. I can buy storage for that. Yes I know discs go down, but it is rarer than some people would have you believe. I have been storing photos and music files electronically for 12 years now, and apart from cheap thumb drives, and my own stupidity, no problems.
What is to stop any cloud storage solution from changing their 'free' status. If you have more than a few hundred Gb of data stored, that is a lot to download and transfer; if you have more than a Tb....
If you are storing copyrighted data, even digital copies of CDs, books, etc. that you have actually bought, you can be hit by that one. At least one cloud service was taken down for that reason, with a total loss of data stored. The company's answer to angry ex-customers was, 'you should have had a back up.'

With new advances in, and abuses of, the use of 'big data', I can only say I am cynical. I have been tempted to go 'off the grid', but the internet is too useful. However, I do try to minimize my 'footprint'. All my data, photos, and other files are stored locally.

[Tug Fanatic]

This is ugly.


All my photos are posted as attachments directly to the site. It limits the size of the image but works just fine if you edit your photos to suit. My backup storage is all local and duplicated.

[grendel]

and they advertised the 'cloud' as the answer to keeping backups, the cloud was supposed to be your backup.
I have heard nothing from photobucket, yet I have images there hot linked to various forums, I only use it for forums where there is no local photo hosting though. then again I have not logged into photobucket for an age, and any hosted pictures will be well in the past of the forums I had them, so if they change they probably wont get noticed.

[Bob K]

At least I still have all the photos I posted on Mayhem, all double-backed up.  I realise now that even if I had paid Photobucket a monthly fee they would still have done the same.  Any other photo sharing web site is very likely to do the same  at some point.  I have managed to avoid the "cloud" as Microsoft could pull the plug on that whenever they choose, and the actual destination remain hidden.

When you add a post to Mayhem you have a limited period of time in which to "modify" your post, but after that it cannot be edited.  I wish that there was some way that I could be allowed to "modify" my many now-corrupted postings to re-apply my images, but in practise all my carefully laid out build histories over almost seven years have gone forever.

For some reason images will not load directly into Mayhem using the "attachment" option on the post facility.  I have tried many times over the years.  All are under 100kb and 640 max physical size.  For some reason thumbnail Avatars seem not to be affected by this limitation, just the main posting routine.  Why? 

Moderators:  Should I try to create complete new versions of my complete build threads?  I still have the text available to copy, and I have the images.

[Colin Bishop]

Photobucket certainly seem to have behaved badly over this but everything you store on the net must be regarded as ephemeral. Nothing is 'free'. All these so called free hosting companies have to make money one way or another and they will always have their best interests at heart - not yours.

Even Mayhem is vulnerable. Suppose Martin were to unfortunately fall under a bus (God forbid!). Mayhem could just disappear overnight and the vast amount of stored wisdom along with the corny jokes could disappear forever. Remember that Mayhem was set up to replace the old Model Boats forum when the then owners pulled the plug on it and all the data was lost.

New is not always better. Every single article published in the modelling magazines going back to 1950 and before is still readily available because the material was published and actually printed - some lessons there I think.

If you have a complex and interesting build log it is better to make make a bit more effort and have it published. That way it will actually reach more people and, more importantly, it will remain available for posterity far longer than anything posted on a model boating forum.

Forums certainly have their uses but not as substitutes for conventional publishing.

Colin

[C-3PO]

Bob - do you know what conditions you "broke" - why this is happening to your account? -oops just read your first post - must be on a case by case basis as I have images linked from my account to several forums....

[Tug Fanatic]

and they advertised the 'cloud' as the answer to keeping backups, the cloud was supposed to be your backup....................

You believe advertising?


The cloud is/was never going to be a secure place to store anything and you are putting yourself completely in somebody else's hands if you believe that it is. They can destroy your data and there is nothing that you can do about it.


If you want file security back it up properly at home. I back up to 2 external hard drives - for when one fails - and then keep in separate places. Some will say overkill but my files matter to me.


I do have some pictures on Vimeo & various forums but that is for fun & not storage.


I also have doubts regarding security of the cloud for storing documents

[mrlownotes]

http://photobucket.com/terms

Not a nice read !

[Martin (Admin)]

My Avatar is on Photobucket..... I see that's changed!   

[Baldrick]

My Avatar is on Photobucket..... I see that's changed!   

If you still have the original link your avatar direct to that. I always thought cloud was dodgy to store on. You only have to go into a thread on any forum that is a few years old and you will find half the images gone and just an icon in it's place

[Martin (Admin)]

Just been there, Ad, after Ad, after Ad..... It's actually unusable!   

Well that's that site dead within  6 months.

[dreadnought72]

One practical option would be to buy a domain name and rent server space. You could then host/store/share anything you want to anywhere you want to post it. Cost? Under £100 a year for plenty of space.


Maybe worth considering for total control and no adverts.


Andy

[Tug Fanatic]

My Avatar is on Photobucket..... I see that's changed!   

I wonder if they have some sort of unofficial limit on how many times a third party source can try & access your photos before all the c..p kicks in. The clock on the image above suggests that this might be true. That would mean that those who have most access attempts hit the problem first.


This is beginning to sound like the second great loss in Mayhem history.         

[Tug-Kenny RIP]

It will be TRAGIC for all Forums.

This sign is appearing all over the place.  I expect it to reach huge proportions

ken

[Tug Fanatic]

Oddly enough I have just looked at the Springer thread on RC groups which has nearly 11000 posts and 5000 images but appears to be intact.


I think the scale of this disaster is at the present time difficult to calculate.


What matters now is what we do about it. It may well not be possible to anything about the loss but I do think that we should learn from this and have all future images posted to the forum and not linked to a third party cloud storage. What do you think Martin?


As we are having a discussion about disasters I just wondered what would happen if Martin was unable to continue. As I understand it this is Martin's forum & it lives or dies on his choice alone. This is in no way a criticism of Martin who does a fantastic job - thank you so much - but is there any plan for continuity and have measures been put in place to guard against the previous great data loss recurring on what is such an important resource for model boating?

[grendel]

You believe advertising?


The cloud is/was never going to be a secure place to store anything and you are putting yourself completely in somebody else's hands if you believe that it is. They can destroy your data and there is nothing that you can do about it.


If you want file security back it up properly at home. I back up to 2 external hard drives - for when one fails - and then keep in separate places. Some will say overkill but my files matter to me.


I do have some pictures on Vimeo & various forums but that is for fun & not storage.


I also have doubts regarding security of the cloud for storing documents

definitely not, this is why the microsoft cloud keeps asking for my password at home (and it wont be given it) windows 10 will by default try and save your file to the cloud first, I dont give it that opportunity.
everything at home is backed up on a 2Tb hard drive and a further backup of important files on another 1Tb hard drive, on a different computer. if its really important it goes on a 500Mb hard drive that travels with me and is rarely plugged into a computer.

[Tug Fanatic]

definitely not, this is why the microsoft cloud keeps asking for my password at home (and it wont be given it) windows 10 will by default try and save your file to the cloud first, I dont give it that opportunity.
everything at home is backed up on a 2Tb hard drive and a further backup of important files on another 1Tb hard drive, on a different computer. if its really important it goes on a 500Mb hard drive that travels with me and is rarely plugged into a computer.