Photobucket... the New Red X - Animations & Smilies

There is a new menace around the graphics community.

Is it a spammer?

Is it a troll?

What is it??

It`s the dreaded third party hosting graphic that Photobucket (Pb) replaces your wonderful images with

now that they changed their TOU. In this message I will refer to it as the "party" image

Remember the old days when we would complain
about seeing the red Xs?

I did a test today to see if my siggy would appear

if I hyperlinked it to Pb. I thought I read somewhere that this is how Pb wanted images shared. That didn`t work

; my siggy was still replaced with the party image.

You can still see the siggy (or image) if you really want to. Just right-click on the party image and choose "View Image". You`ll end up going to the Pb gallery view and you`ll probably still see the party image. Right-click and choose View Image again and you`ll leave the gallery view. The party image will still be visible, but if you refresh the page (F5), the actual image will appear. If you don`t see the image, try refreshing again.

This is a long and drawn out process just to see one image at Pb, but if you are determined to see something, at least there is this option.

I visited a Pb account while I was looking for something, and I could see thumbnail images on the main page where the images are stored in an album. When I clicked on one of the thumbnails to view it full size, Pb took me to the gallery view and the party image was displayed. So even though I could see the thumbnail view in the album, Pb still tried to prevent me from seeing the full-size image. My instructions above will allow you

to see it in full size if you follow the steps.

I think this may be helpful for people who have PSP tubes in their accounts that they are sharing for challenges. In a roundabout way, you can still get access to them.

These instructions are for how I was able to view an image in a "partied" account. I am using Firefox and Windows XP, so these instructions may or may not work for you as they work for me.

As always, I`d love to hear your feedback on whether these instructions work for you in whatever browser or operating system you use.

Here is what photp bucket said:

A Free Account provides a Member with 2 GB of free storage or space available for their original photo files or videos that are under 10 minutes. A Free account does not allow any image linking or 3rd party image hosting.

That’s fine for people who are brand new to Photobucket, or who have less than 2 GB of content on it. The change affects people who already have been using Photobucket and who have put more than 2 GB of content on it. The Terms of Service says that Members who have Free accounts, and who exceed their content limit, will have their account immediately suspended and will need to become a “Paying Member” in order to continue accessing their account.

This explains why so many Photobucket images “broke”. It also explains why people are upset about this new change. Petapixelincluded some tweets from disgruntled Photobucket users in their article about the situation.

Photobucket Members who have more than 2 GB on Photobucket will need to pay money for a subscription plan. There are three plansto choose from.

PLUS 50 costs $5.99/month (or $59.99/year). It gives you 52.0 GB of storage. It does not allow linking or 3rd Party Hosting.

PLUS 100 costs $9.99/month (or $99.99/year). It gives you 102.0 GB of storage. It allows Unlimited Linking, but does not allow 3rd Party Hosting.

PLUS 500 costs $39.99/month (or $399.99/year). It gives you 502.GB of storage. This Plan allows both Unlimited Linking and Unlimited 3rd Party Hosting.

In short, some Photobucket Members found that their photos were “broken”, and then discovered they could not access their account until they spent money. Those with more than 102.GB on Photobucket are looking at having to pay about $40.00 a month for a service that used to be provided for free.

Photobucket has every right to charge for their service, but this was not the best way for the company to go about doing it. This situation is a good example of why you shouldn’t host your content exclusively on a site that you do not own

Thanks for all that info, Sharon.

I never came close to using all my available storage, but I direct linked to my content all the time. I am glad we have storage here for our stuff. I still haven`t found another place that I like to upload anything to. Did you say you were using Fotki?

I just found that that Fotki is only free for 2 weeks and then you have to pay. Try using tjis free oe called: postimg.org

Thanks for all yu do for us. Much appreciated.

I am seeing and saving images I thot were lost forever!

I can not right click and get "view image"

this is really frustrating. I will have to work with the instructions more

so see what I can do.

thanks for the info!!

Jossie, if it`s your account, then just sign in.
When I am signed in I can see everything.

What browser do you use?

Don`t get discouraged with Photobucket.
I`m still using it and I can help you.