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Photobucket Again

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PAUL161

PAUL161

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Really tics me off when for a long time we were using pbucket for free, stored a ton of photos on site, as allowed and now our photos are locked up by the site unless we pay a large fee to retrieve them. It's almost like blackmail to me. I can't be convinced that they just decided to do this in the past couple of years. My theory and could be wrong, is they made the free site as a come on, where folks accumulated a large photo base and then they come up with a high price membership fee to get your photos back. I have a few photos in there that are irreplaceable. There should be something illegal about this. Not a happy camper!
:soapbox:PJ.
 
Yep, everythings free...as long as you pay. :thirsty:
 
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There was probable something in the fine print about it being free for a while. Or that they could change the rules without notice.

Verizon cloud storage use to give you 5Gb free now you have to buy storage at $4.99 per month for 500Gb

David
 
PAUL161 said:
and then they come up with a high price membership fee to get your photos back. I have a few photos in there that are irreplaceable. There should be something illegal about this. Not a happy camper!
Click to expand...
Ok, I started to post about this before, but decided it was too complicated and perhaps not useful to others.

With the help of the Internet, I came up with a Windows batch script that, with some side effort, was able to copy all my photos back out of PB and onto my hard drive; including the directory structure I had set up in PB.

The idea and process is the same as described here https://gist.github.com/philipjewell/a9e1eae2d999a2529a08c15b06deb13d
I just encoded the process in a batch file (rather than bash script) and added my own twists to change the '%20' strings back to spaces; create the directory structure, and remove the '~original' from the file extension. I didn't get an accurate time, but I'd say it was less than 15 minutes for the entire 1100 photo process. (It doesn't always work, sometimes PB gives you a zero length file, so I had to run the script several times.)

To use it, you'll have to make a small change to my script, to reflect the length of your user name on PB (and perhaps which of their servers has your files on it). You'll also need to download and manually install an old shareware program; which probably means modifying environment variables and such.

Does this sound useful? Or am I off in geekville again?

If you're interested in taking a look, the script is at https://drive.google.com/open?id=16FGqBYFdCQ5BiuFvJm4br1BLFlhDIjne
In line 42, the '51' is the magic number that you'll (probably) have to change.
 
elrey said:
Yep, everythings free...as long as you pay. :thirsty:
Click to expand...
Or slightly restated:
Everything costs money. If you're not paying for it, you're the product.
 
From free to pay, or perhaps a host just goes away for some reason. And I have had old files, since that all a photo or video really is, no longer work when some feature is no longer supported. For now I keep things myself at home and still prefer actual film and paper for passing down the generations.
 
TR3driver said:
Ok, I started to post about this before, but decided it was too complicated and perhaps not useful to others.

With the help of the Internet, I came up with a Windows batch script that, with some side effort, was able to copy all my photos back out of PB and onto my hard drive; including the directory structure I had set up in PB.

The idea and process is the same as described here https://gist.github.com/philipjewell/a9e1eae2d999a2529a08c15b06deb13d
I just encoded the process in a batch file (rather than bash script) and added my own twists to change the '%20' strings back to spaces; create the directory structure, and remove the '~original' from the file extension. I didn't get an accurate time, but I'd say it was less than 15 minutes for the entire 1100 photo process. (It doesn't always work, sometimes PB gives you a zero length file, so I had to run the script several times.)

To use it, you'll have to make a small change to my script, to reflect the length of your user name on PB (and perhaps which of their servers has your files on it). You'll also need to download and manually install an old shareware program; which probably means modifying environment variables and such.

Does this sound useful? Or am I off in geekville again?

If you're interested in taking a look, the script is at https://drive.google.com/open?id=16FGqBYFdCQ5BiuFvJm4br1BLFlhDIjne
In line 42, the '51' is the magic number that you'll (probably) have to change.
Click to expand...

Thanks Randall, I will surly give it a try.
When I started using Photobucket around 10/15 years ago, it was free, no mention that 10/15 years later they are going to charge for the service, had I known that, I never would have gotten involved with them. A few bucks is not a big deal, but what their asking is a commercial fee to home computers. PJ
 
I know I've said this before, but if you want to make sure pictures you post on BCF stay here, just upload them straight from your computer. Not suggesting this as a way to store all your pictures, just when you want to "share" a picture with BCF members.
 
hmmm - what am I missing. Photobucket is *still* free. No charge to use it (altho' the ads will drive you nuts).

But if you want to link your Photobucket photos to another website ... that's where the $$$ comes in.

Or did something just change?

TM
 
NutmegCT said:
hmmm - what am I missing. Photobucket is *still* free. No charge to use it (altho' the ads will drive you nuts).

But if you want to link your Photobucket photos to another website ... that's where the $$$ comes in.

Or did something just change?

TM
Click to expand...

For a long time, BCF had a (rather sharp IMO) limit on how many photos you could post here without paying. (*) So one way to be able to post freely (without having to choose which old posts to destroy) was to upload photos to PB and put a link here. There were other advantages too, like it being easier to re-use the same photo in other posts (both here and on other fora).

Then they suddenly changed their policy and 'broke' all those old posts; not just on BCF but all over the Internet; requiring users to pay $400/year just to preserve old posts.

More or less at the same time, they first 'broke' and then deleted the ability to bulk download your photos; adding to the "ransom effect".

Not too unusual on the Internet, "free" things often become "paid" once they suck in a large enough user base. No doubt better than the alternative; where "free" turns into "non-existent" (like Google Reader). But still probably not the best move, jumping from "free" to $400 for something that others are still giving away "free".

And so it goes.

(*) Ok, I'm cheap. I like helping people with their TRs; but I'm not willing to pay for the privilege.
 
Randall, thanks for the history reminder. I was just checking that posting and viewing photos on Photobucket is still "free". Sounds like it is. But linking to Photobucket photos is a convenience, and they're sure charging for it!

Probably just the tip of the iceberg, as websites we think we can't live without, continue to add charges for services. I swear some folks check websites every few minutes, so they "don't miss anything". Nothing wrong with that at all, but it sure shows how the "addiction" is spreading.

TM
 
I now have a 500 gig external HD that I keep all my photos on and update whenever I get a few more pics I don't want to loose. Most all of them on car stuff are also in my computer. I now don't have to worry about someone closing up shop and taking my stuff with them, or charging me to get them back! I can live with what I lost to Pbucket, only a couple pics I'll miss. PJ
 
Paul - as long as you keep a backup of your data, you're "made in the shade" and copacetic.

(Amazing to think about it, but as we used to say in the 1980s, the only safe backup is a piece of paper.)
 
TR3driver said:
For a long time, BCF had a (rather sharp IMO) limit on how many photos you could post here without paying. (*)

(*) Ok, I'm cheap. I like helping people with their TRs; but I'm not willing to pay for the privilege.
Click to expand...

The amount of space allowed with a free membership is 20MB. While that may not sound like a lot, keep in mind that when you upload an image, it gets re-sized. For example, an image that is 2MB on your computer, will likely end up being less than 100k when you add it to a post. Keep in mind, too, BCF uploads are not intended for mass high-resolution photo storage (That would require huge amounts of hard drive space), but rather it is to allow you a way to conveniently attach images to posts. The average image size, once a picture is uploaded, is around 60k. At that size, you could upload well over 300 images before you would run into an issue and have to delete some older photos to make room for new ones. I've been uploading images for 17 years and still have not even hit the 60MB limit of a Gold membership. For most people the ability to upload over 300 images is usually all they will ever need.

Also, the fact that you can link to photos from other sites (assuming they allow hot linking) is a feature that I did not have to enable, but I did. I have that capability enabled because I know some people, like you perhaps, may run out of space if 300+ images isn't enough and they perhaps can't afford or don't want to pay for an upgraded subscription. So, as long as you have a place to host your pictures and they will allow hot-linking, you can continue to add unlimited photos to posts here, even as a non-subscribing member. If that hosting site suddenly decides to stop allowing hot-linking, I have no control over that obviously.

For the first 5 or 6 years, I did not even have paid subscriptions and absorbed the entire cost of running BCF myself. Then, as the forum grew, I moved to a leased dedicated server with dedicated bandwidth and the costs increased. I started offering optional subscriptions as a way to help offset the cost of keeping the forum online and to provide some (very minimal) compensation for the tremendous amount of time and effort I have put into keeping BCF a fun, friendly place (trust me, it amounts to way less than minimum wage).

As you know, I do not require anyone to be a paid subscriber here and I will continue to allow linking of images from other sites. But if truth be told I would have shut down BCF long ago if there were not folks willing to support us. It's nice when things are free, but sometimes we forget that a heck of a lot of effort and expense goes into providing what is free. FaceBook is free too, but they track your every move and sell your personal info to the highest bidder. A apologize if I sound defensive.
 
We are glad that you are defensive and feel strongly about your site. You run a tight ship, of great value, and we benefit from your mastery of the intricacies. Thank you immensely, Elrey. :bow:
 
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My apologies, 'Basil', did not mean to be attacking you; although I can see how it could be taken that way.

But according to the counter under my name, I've made some 17,866 posts on BCF. If only a tenth of those have had some sort of photo attached, that would be nearly 1800 photos. So even with a 400 image limit, that would be some 1400 posts that I would have had to delete photos from, in order to make my next post with a shot from the workshop manual or whatever.

And, at least the evidence I've seen, suggests that some people do go look at those old posts and so at least some of those photos still have value to someone. Just this morning, someone posted a copy of one of my photos (on another forum); that I posted so long ago I don't even remember why I did. (That TR3A got totaled in 2005 after being in a 4 car chain collision.)

I understand your situation, I am NOT lodging a complaint nor questioning your authority; just stating the facts as I see them.
 
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