I need another option than Photo bucket

[WVZR-1]

Originally Posted by 5ABI VT

I'm struggling to find another as well. Been using pb for many years with write ups and posts on many forums over the last decade and a half. Don't blame them for changing their policy and i was happy to pay monthly or yearly but to ask what they have and how they have done it.. I will be deleting my accounts.

I almost feel like a web noob all over again ! Any suggestions on sites that provide an [img] link ?

I don't believe I'd "DELETE ACCOUNT" the hosting is still FREE up to a limit and still available to the USER. I would think that if you wanted you could actually DOWNLOAD the images back to you if you've no image retained on your HDD.

[QB93Z]

Another test post:





Jim

[WVZR-1]

Originally Posted by QB93Z

Another test post:





Jim

Can you resize that to 1000 X 1200? That would I believe MAX the forum's restrictions OR were you just interested in making the IMAGE work?

[QB93Z]

Originally Posted by WVZR-1

Can you resize that to 1000 X 1200? That would I believe MAX the forum's restrictions OR were you just interested in making the IMAGE work?

Right now I am investigating how to replace the images in a post if I decide to sever my ties with PB.


Jim

[WVZR-1]

Originally Posted by QB93Z

Right now I am investigating how to replace the images in a post if I decide to sever my ties with PB.


Jim

I assumed that when I looked at the "image properties" but thought I'd ask.

[WARP TEN]

So am I correct I understand that with Photobucket your photos do not belong to you and can't be used as you wish? I would think that a storage medium has no rights whatsoever to your photos and should make them readily available for return to you. As I noted earlier, Gmail has a great utility that can retrieve all the emails and contacts from AOL to relocate them onto Gmail. One would think some alternative photo hosting site should have such a utility. Or at least one would think you should be able to retrieve all the photos you created and own from PB without a big hassle. Glad I keep mine on my computer and various backups. How to make sure all the right photos are in out many posts is a trickier issue I would imagine, Jim. --Bob

[QB93Z]

Bob, I have not worried about who "owns" the images that I place on PhotoBucket. I do know that many other Cloud storage services have user agreements that claim ownership of any posted material. I have all of my images on HDD's that I control.


Last night, I tried to download one of the many albums that I have on PB as a way to keep all of the images from a given trip or post together so I can relocate them to a subsequent server. I clicked Download this Album from PB and nothing happened, so I might not be able to easily keep the organization and I will have to go back to each trip source folder and figure out all the image numbers again.


I have the option of using the server that hosts my website (www.GizmosArt.com) and do the third-party hosting from there. The down side of that plan is that I use an FTP program to transfer the files to the host server and the interface is not great. Does anyone know a better way.


Jim

[Gunny]

My .02 (adjusted for inflation) with a huge caveat ... I don't like & refuse to use a photo host that assumes ownership of my copyrighted property.

If you have more than a few photos consider hosting yourself.
What do you need? a domain name and a web host plus a little time/effort on your part to learn how to manage your photos. If you can download your photos from your camera to your computer and then organize them in folders, you're already over half way to doing this entirely yourself. It's not rocket science ... or to be blunt, it's easier than pulling the plenum.

Cost:
domain name should not cost over $10 annually
web hosts are available for less than $5.00 a month - some include a free domain name when you sign up for a year or more
I prefer to use a dedicated domain name registrar and keep my domain name separate from my web host giving me the flexibility of changing web hosts if/when their service becomes unsatisfactory.
PM or email me if you want/need additional information including recommendations for registrar and/or web host. There are some good, affordable companies and there are some that are just rotten and should be avoided. Most web hosts offer unlimited storage for your website but NOT storage for other files - use DropBox, GoogleSpace, Amazon, etc. for file storage.

Pros:
total control of your photos, web pages, design, etc.
no advertising
unlimited space (generally)
email that you control & generally more private than gmail, hotmail, etc.
cost is easily $80 or less depending on how well you shop
Cons:
a small learning curve at the beginning

I currently design/develop/maintain 3 personal websites plus 1 for my wife's organization. My websites are almost exclusively about photos with very little "other" content. The software that I use for the photos is free (with advertising) or very reasonable (no advertising plus more features). The software is extremely easy to use but also affords a good bit of customization for those who want to do so ... yes, I do a lot of additional hard coding for the "look" that I want, but it's not necessary - just one of my hobbies.

Recommended software: jAlbum. Everything you need to build nice looking web pages to display photos.

Links to my sites: You can email me from any of these sites by clicking Info on the home page (icon in upper left corner or on the menu bar)
ZRWON.com 10,000+ Corvette related images, mostly ZR-1.
TUBAND.com almost 20,000 images - family, travel, bands I play in, etc.
JRET.net selected images dealing with my photography hobby. I have a good bit of extra hard coding to customize this site including the homepage slideshow that changes every hour.

Jim V - if you haven't already considered self hosting you might want to check to see if you have an unlimited plan with gismos art. If you do have unlimited it should be a simple matter of going into the control panel and creating a single folder, hopefully in the root directory such that your photo album address would look like: gismosart.com/photos. The photo album would never appear on your main gismos website but would be "self contained". Another method is to use this address: photos.gismosart.com - assuming your web host allows the use of sub-domain names. Once you have "built" your photo web pages on your computer it is a simple matter to upload everything to your photo folder using the FTP protocol. Contact me if you have any questions.

So what is my total cost for the three websites described above?
3 domain names @ $8.50 each per year (I usually pay for 5 years at a time)
1 web host account that allows multiple domain names with unlimited webspace, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited email addresses - $7.95 monthly

fwiw, my wife's website costs her $8.50 annually for the domain name plus FREE unlimited web hosting because her organization is a 501c3. This website is more traditional but it does have a photo section ... here's the LINK if you're interested.

My observation is that the various photo hosting companies are looking at all the photographers as cash cows and at the same time want to impose unrealistic "rules of usage". I find that totally unacceptable.

Since it's becoming difficult to find acceptable "free" photo hosting I recommend that anyone, especially those with large photo collections, consider self hosting.

Apologies for the long post (and a couple of rants), but I wanted everyone to know that other alternatives are available that work as well or better than the dedicated photo hosts.

[Roadster]

I also have the Plus 20 account. I'm sure we can find an option within the next 18 months....
I won't pay $399 a year....I'll just use my smart phone and computer storage as I already do now for my pics. If I use my smart phone to post on the forums, I upload my pics right from the phone. Which I have done many times, doing that, there isn't any need for Photobucket at all.

[Gunny]

Actually, you might be able to use the jAlbum software to generate your web pages and utilize space provided by the jAlbum folks. I don't think it requires a domain name or anything like that. It's fairly basic and may have a free trial period. You can read more about it at jAlbum's site ... should be a better alternative than the more "mainstream" photo hosts. Just a thought.