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1 hour ago, Artemis said:

I haven't paid them and all my photos are watermarked.

Can you show us what that looks like?

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Sure, here's an example:

fallroad-1.jpg

 

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Thanks, but I'm sorry to tell you that's apparently their old, civilized watermark.  It may soon get worse.  They're now saying that anyone who exceeds 20 (or maybe it's 25, I've seen both) meg per month will have their photos blurred and watermarked (see example  partway down the page here).

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Why am I not surprised.  <_< 

 

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Big problem as I see it is that if you post your photos on a website that's open to the public (such as this one), you really have no control over how many people are gonna look at your pictures, or how many times each.  It could go along at, say, 10 meg / month for a while, but then all of a sudden jump to 100 meg one month, and they'd blur your pictures.  I wonder what they'd do if usage fell back down to 10 meg the next month?  (Somehow, I'm not optimistic.)

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I wonder if I should leave up the one I posted and see what happens to it over time, lol.  I don't use Photobucket anymore since the debacle 2 years ago, and I never will again.

 

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Please do -- in the interest of science!

For the record, what I'm seeing there now is a somewhat hazy (but not blurred) photo of trees in autumn and a road.  When I look at it on the forum page, there's a small (but tasteful!) watermark covering maybe 5 or 10 percent of the photo.  When I go to your Photobucket page, there's no watermark.

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I think the haze is the photo itself.  It was a drizzly day plus I took that picture on an old flip-phone camera in 2009, so there's pixelation too.

 

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That's kinda what I thought, so Photobucket hasn't messed with it (so far) other than the small watermark.  Nice picture, by the way.  I can see why you took it.

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  • 9 months later...

This was me last year:

On 5/9/2019 at 9:26 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

  Their new pricing structure appears to allow hotlinking with even their basic (free) service, which allows up to 20 meg of bandwidth per month.  I have no idea whatsoever how much bandwidth I'm currently using, but they say that starting in June, I can monitor my usage on their website.  Their lowest paid subscription is now $6.99/month, which is $83.88/year, a damn sight higher than last year's $19.99.

I just checked that email, and it says " Next Billing Period: $19.99 will be charged on 05/20/2019."  So I guess I'll just wait and see what happens a week from next Monday.

 

On 5/22/2019 at 10:52 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

They've billed me $19.99.  They haven't said anything about repeating that price next year, though.

Well, they *said* I'd be able to monitor my usage, but every time I've tried, it says something like "sorry, that's not working right now."

That has become fairly irrelevant, though, because their website now displays this warning: "Effective March 9th, 2020, hosting bandwidth is no longer available for Free or Paid Beginner plan members."  I was momentarily worried that I might currently be on the Beginner plan, but the forum is still hotlinking to my photos just fine, so I'm apparently on the Intermediate plan.  *whew*

In order to get hosting (i.e., hotlinking) capabilities now, you have to pay at least $7.99/month, or $95.88/year.  There's a special on right now, offering that plan for a "mere" $5/month, but I still have three months to go on my current plan, so (depending on how/whether it would apply) it probably wouldn't be that good a deal for me.

Of course they might extend my current rate of $19.99/year, but I haven't smoked that stuff in ages!

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On 5/29/2019 at 12:01 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

When I look at it on the forum page, there's a small (but tasteful!) watermark covering maybe 5 or 10 percent of the photo.

You'll notice now that the watermark is plastered across the middle of the photo, taking up about a third of the picture.

 

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I logged in for the first time in a long time.  They updated their interface a bit, so I was finally able to download my photos.  That's a relief.  Deciding now whether I want to delete them from Photobucket, or just leave them.

 

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53 minutes ago, Artemis said:

They updated their interface a bit, so I was finally able to download my photos.  That's a relief.  Deciding now whether I want to delete them from Photobucket, or just leave them.

I've just about decided to leave mine.  I'm not planning to download them directly from PB, because I've had trouble using that site lately.  In fact, the last straw was that I wasn't even able to log in the other day, in order to change to my new email address.  I'll try again in a few days, but even if I fail again, I can use the method below, as long as I complete the first step before May 20th (when my current paid membership runs out).

Fortunately I don't have all that many photos on PB, so I plan to go through the forum looking for photos I've posted (this is about the only place I've done so), and when I find one, do a right click and Save As to a new "forum photos" folder on my computer (naming them according to the thread & page they belong on).  Then I'll upload them to my new Imgur account and change the BBCode in my posts accordingly.

The reason for leaving them on PB is so if later on I discover that I've neglected to transfer a photo, I should be able to tell what it was, even if it's been blurred by then -- and I can hunt for it in our enormous regular photo folders.

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I've got nearly 6,000 photos on there (not all of them my own).  I'd mostly been using Photobucket to post them on a few forums I no longer frequent, and in my online journal (when it still existed), which I have downloaded elsewhere.  So my only reason for leaving them on Photobucket would be so I can see which photos are in a particular journal entry, should I choose to reread them.  But if I deleted the photos, the link would still remain.  So if I really wanted to, I could just look at the name of the photo in the link and then find the corresponding photo in the folder I've just downloaded.  Leaving them would be easier, but I'm frustrated with Photobucket and a little uneasy about leaving them sitting there.

 

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6 minutes ago, Artemis said:

Leaving them would be easier, but I'm frustrated with Photobucket and a little uneasy about leaving them sitting there.

Are you concerned that they might make unauthorized use of them -- e.g., sell a somewhat-personal picture for use in an advertisement?

7 minutes ago, Artemis said:

I've got nearly 6,000 photos on there (not all of them my own).

Wow!  I've got more like a couple hundred.  Thank goodness!

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1 minute ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Are you concerned that they might make unauthorized use of them -- e.g., sell a somewhat-personal picture for use in an advertisement?

A little bit... I'm more concerned about losing access to them altogether, unless I pay.  Like they might lock them up, or something.  It's more what I don't know they'll do that worries me, I guess.  I'm intensely private, not least of all with my creative property, and I don't trust them anymore because of the stunt they pulled.  It's just an uncomfortable feeling.

 

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15 hours ago, Artemis said:

I'm more concerned about losing access to them altogether, unless I pay.  Like they might lock them up, or something.

Ah -- I thought you had already downloaded them, but apparently you meant that you are now literally able to do so.  You might consider beginning a download project -- say, so many per month.  With any luck, you would finish while that's still possible.

At this point I'd recommend keeping your options open.  If you delete your photos then you've lost all your options.

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13 minutes ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Ah -- I thought you had already downloaded them, but apparently you meant that you are now literally able to do so. 

No, you were right the first time.  I have downloaded them, but I still don’t like the thought of leaving them in a place that might restrict my access to them on their website in the future.  I want control over my stuff, and I don’t trust them to let me keep it.  Does that make sense?  Maybe it doesn’t, lol.

13 minutes ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

At this point I'd recommend keeping your options open.  If you delete your photos then you've lost all your options.

That’s probably what I’ll do.  Boo on Photobucket though.  <_< 

 

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.

On 3/26/2020 at 10:29 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

... their website now displays this warning: "Effective March 9th, 2020, hosting bandwidth is no longer available for Free or Paid Beginner plan members."  I was momentarily worried that I might currently be on the Beginner plan, but the forum is still hotlinking to my photos just fine, so I'm apparently on the Intermediate plan.  *whew*

 

Looks like I spoke too soon!

 

DSCN7287_zps78d46e0b.jpg

 

I'm tempted to write them pointing out that I'm paid up till May, so would they please honor their contract with me -- but why bother trying to reason with these people?  They apparently follow whatever whim strikes them.  As if I needed convincing, this is the *very* last straw!

 

On 3/29/2020 at 12:45 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

Fortunately I don't have all that many photos on PB, so I plan to go through the forum looking for photos I've posted (this is about the only place I've done so), and when I find one, do a right click and Save As to a new "forum photos" folder on my computer

 

So much for that idea!  I was finally able to get logged in the other day, though, so I can presumably download my photos directly from their website, which I'll make a point of doing by May.  At least they haven't blurred my photos (thank heaven for small favors!), so no great rush copying the photos into my new Imgur account.

.

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???

I'm seeing two perfectly clear, unwatermarked images on this page (and I know the top one had a watermark before.) 

I'm presuming it was otherwise when you made your last post, Carol? Otherwise I don't understand.

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1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

I'm seeing two perfectly clear, unwatermarked images on this page (and I know the top one had a watermark before.)

That's odd.  :blink:  I see the watermark on both images.  Do you have a PhotoBucket account that you're paying for?  Maybe that removes the watermark on all images in your browser, rather than just your own.  I have no idea though...

 

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2 hours ago, Arcadia said:

I'm seeing two perfectly clear, unwatermarked images on this page (and I know the top one had a watermark before.) 

I'm presuming it was otherwise when you made your last post, Carol? Otherwise I don't understand.


You're talking about Artemis's autumn color and my 221B door?  Yup, and they're still watermarked here.
 

1 hour ago, Artemis said:

Do you have a PhotoBucket account that you're paying for?  Maybe that removes the watermark on all images in your browser, rather than just your own.


Do you, Arcadia?  (But I don't think she does, Artemis.  Curiouser and curiouser....)

I'm still fed *way* up, in any case.  They said the payment I made last May 20th would cover hot-linking for a full year -- meaning that by rights I have another six weeks to go.  And they didn't even email me about this unilateral change, they just suddenly had an irresistible urge to hold my photos for ransom.  Again.

 

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I don't see any watermark and I don't have a photo bucket account.

To get around paying for photo hosting you could set up a free wordpress blog. Multiple ones if you need to. I think you get 5 gigs of storage and put all your photos there. All linkable and no watermarking.

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That's really weird.  Why do you suppose you and I are the only ones seeing it, Carol?

 

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