Ace-Garageguy Posted November 6, 2017 Posted November 6, 2017 I just received this...I will not pay their extortionate rates, so the photos in most of my old posts will shortly disappear. As I have all the photos on my own drive, I will replace the P-bucket blocked images as I update the build threads with new content."This message is to inform you that we discontinued the Plus 20 plan in June of this year. We have grandfathered your expired plan for several months as a convenience.In order to keep your account current and all of your content available, we are asking that you migrate over to one of our current Plus plan offerings: PlansFailure to do so within 30 days will result in your billing to be suspended, and your account will be reverted to a free account.If you have any questions about your account or which of our current offerings is right for you, please don’t hesitate to reach out.Thanks,Sebastian,your personal account manager"
Casey Posted November 6, 2017 Posted November 6, 2017 I received it, too, and the previous e-mail stating PB would support existing Plus accounts in good standing until December '18...will see what the reply is regarding the 30 day notice. Needless to say it's time to download all vital images to COYA.
afx Posted November 6, 2017 Posted November 6, 2017 (edited) Fotki (which I use) was actively perusing PB user to transfer to their service . Maybe they have tools or offer assistance to help transfer all your data? Edited November 6, 2017 by afx
Spex84 Posted November 6, 2017 Posted November 6, 2017 Aargh. I'm using Fotki, seems to work just fine. Photobucket is unbelievable. They must be getting enough hostage payments to stay afloat.I guess the silver lining (for us) is this means you'll have to update some threads, Bill!
JTalmage Posted November 6, 2017 Posted November 6, 2017 I give up on free image hosting. I don't have the time to mess with it anymore. One reason I don't post much here too. I post on facebook for by builds now.
Casey Posted November 6, 2017 Posted November 6, 2017 I give up on free image hosting. I don't have the time to mess with it anymore. One reason I don't post much here too. I post on facebook for by builds now. You can copy the image address from facebook and post it here, too. Works fine as sort of a default (and very basic, very public) image hosting service.
Ace-Garageguy Posted November 6, 2017 Author Posted November 6, 2017 I give up on free image hosting. I don't have the time to mess with it anymore. One reason I don't post much here too. I post on facebook for by builds now. In case you didn't get the memo, Gregg & Co. were good enough to allow free image hosting HERE for forum posts.The couple of minor glitches seem to have been fixed as well. Copy direct from your own hard drive.
Atmobil Posted November 6, 2017 Posted November 6, 2017 Yeah, I got t mail aswell and my Plus 20 account was a reccuring payment and was paid last now in September. That means that I have paid for a Plus 20 account untill September 2018 and I only get 30 days to pay for another more expensive account now. No way......bye bye Photobucket. They have shot their own foot in this case.
Tom Geiger Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 I'm amazed they haven't come to their senses by this time!
Ace-Garageguy Posted November 7, 2017 Author Posted November 7, 2017 I'm amazed they haven't come to their senses by this time! Apparently there's no shortage of people who just bend over and take it...enough for PB to have remained in business this long, anyway.
Bucky Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 I stopped using PB a few years back when they had a major hiccup. My photos are still there, but I have also copied them to Fotki.A lot of my posts from the past have the ugly PB disclaimer pic. I may, or may not fix those, it depends on what kind of free time I have. I have a forum that is suffering from the PB mess, as well. I delete these threads as I find them, only if the member has long since disappeared, or has asked me to delete.I've even seen a lot of businesses that use PB, and their sites are covered in those PB "third party hosting" pics! I would say, most probably some businesses bit the bullet and paid the ransom, but I'm not a business man, I'm a hobbyist!! LOL
StevenGuthmiller Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 I'm amazed they haven't come to their senses by this time! According to them, they were so swamped right around the 1st of November that the site went down! Did anyone else get the e-mail with the heading: "We are overwhelmed by your support". (And so was our site) I don't believe it for a second! Probably just another excuse for their horrendous site! Steve
Casey Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 I honestly can't blame PB for making significant changes. I had a free account for six years, then upgraded to the Plus20 account @$39.99/year two years ago. I have over 10GB of stored images there and use the 3rd party hosting feature heavily, so I've really only paid $80 for eight years of hosting many, many images, so I can't really complain. Now, I don't care for the way they abruptly made changes, but I'm sure they ran the numbers and made a decision which was in their best interest. They are in business to make money, and considering how many of us used their service for free for many years, I'm surprised it took this long to happen. Still awaiting a response from Sebastian, my "personal account manager".
Ace-Garageguy Posted November 7, 2017 Author Posted November 7, 2017 I honestly can't blame PB for making significant changes. I had a free account for six years, then upgraded to the Plus20 account @$39.99/year two years ago. I have over 10GB of stored images there and use the 3rd party hosting feature heavily, so I've really only paid $80 for eight years of hosting many, many images, so I can't really complain. Now, I don't care for the way they abruptly made changes, but I'm sure they ran the numbers and made a decision which was in their best interest. They are in business to make money, and considering how many of us used their service for free for many years, I'm surprised it took this long to happen. Still awaiting a response from Sebastian, my "personal account manager". The thing that chaps my backside is that if so many people hadn't thought they were somehow entitled to a free ride, those of us who thought we ought to PAY for what we were getting probably could have continued indefinitely. There would have been no incentive...other than just flat greediness...to raise the rates so exorbitantly. The cheap screws screwed it for the folks who paid their way. I'd like to send a hearty "thank you" to all the penny-pinching tightwads out there...thanks a lot.
StevenGuthmiller Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 The thing that chaps my backside is that if so many people hadn't thought they were somehow entitled to a free ride, those of us who thought we ought to PAY for what we were getting probably could have continued indefinitely. There would have been no incentive...other than just flat greediness...to raise the rates so exorbitantly. The cheap screws screwed it for the folks who paid their way. I'd like to send a hearty "thank you" to all the penny-pinching tightwads out there...thanks a lot.Not sure if that's fair Bill.If something is free, who's not going to take advantage of it?If a grocery store gives away gallons of milk for 15 years, tell me why you wouldn't capitalize on that.Seems to me that Photobucket would be to blame in this circumstance.If they didn't feel that offering a certain portion of their services for free was going to work for them, they shouldn't have done it. Blaming the consumer for taking advantage of a free service offered doesn't seem reasonable to me, but on the same hand, we shouldn't be surprised when that service evaporates.That being said, I've never had an issue with paying a fee for a service, but to take the leap from offering free milk to charging $25.00 a gallon doesn't seem like a very intelligent business decision in my opinion. Steve
Ace-Garageguy Posted November 7, 2017 Author Posted November 7, 2017 If something is free, who's not going to take advantage of it? I didn't.
aurfalien Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 (edited) Hi,W0W, PB is lame.Sure, it was free for like 10 years or so.I lament at all the valuable posts with PB links of ppl now deceased.At any rate on to the next freebie. Edited November 7, 2017 by aurfalien
aurfalien Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 (edited) The thing that chaps my backside is that if so many people hadn't thought they were somehow entitled to a free ride, those of us who thought we ought to PAY for what we were getting probably could have continued indefinitely. There would have been no incentive...other than just flat greediness...to raise the rates so exorbitantly. The cheap screws screwed it for the folks who paid their way. I'd like to send a hearty "thank you" to all the penny-pinching tightwads out there...thanks a lot.Hi,This is a good point. Too bad PB was so Draconian about there price model change. Almost felt like a guillotine. Edited November 7, 2017 by aurfalien
mk11 Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 (edited) They are in business to make money, and considering how many of us used their service for free for many years, I'm surprised it took this long to happen. It is too bad they didn't scale charges by usage instead of making the big money grab mike Edited November 7, 2017 by mk11
StevenGuthmiller Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 I didn't. Well, you're probably one of very few people who wouldn't take free milk. Steve
martinfan5 Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 (edited) The thing that chaps my backside is that if so many people hadn't thought they were somehow entitled to a free ride, those of us who thought we ought to PAY for what we were getting probably could have continued indefinitely. There would have been no incentive...other than just flat greediness...to raise the rates so exorbitantly. The cheap screws screwed it for the folks who paid their way. I'd like to send a hearty "thank you" to all the penny-pinching tightwads out there...thanks a lot. They offered a free service, good on you for paying, you have ZERO right to be looking down at people and calling them tightwads because they chose to use the free service offered. And you are very much welcome, I was one of those free account users you are calling a tightwad. Edited November 7, 2017 by martinfan5
Xingu Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 The thing that chaps my backside is that if so many people hadn't thought they were somehow entitled to a free ride, those of us who thought we ought to PAY for what we were getting probably could have continued indefinitely. There would have been no incentive...other than just flat greediness...to raise the rates so exorbitantly. The cheap screws screwed it for the folks who paid their way. I'd like to send a hearty "thank you" to all the penny-pinching tightwads out there...thanks a lot.I don't think this is a fair assumption to make. There are folks that are on a very fixed income and a free service that is offered by a company is a very nice thing to take advantage of. To call folks tightwads and cheap screws is not fair. The free account holders were not the problem. It is the folks that run ad blockers that finally took away the revenue stream that was keeping PB running as it was. Same problem exists here. How many of you are running ad blockers while on this site? That is money the Gregg could use to keep offering this site for free or putting towards the magazine. Should we call all of those folks names as well? How angry will you be if this site starts charging for use?
Modeltruckbuilder Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 To call folks tightwads and cheap screws is not fair. The free account holders were not the problem. It is the folks that run ad blockers that finally took away the revenue stream that was keeping PB running as it was. Same problem exists here. How many of you are running ad blockers while on this site? That is money the Gregg could use to keep offering this site for free or putting towards the magazine. Should we call all of those folks names as well? How angry will you be if this site starts charging for use? Why do I get the feeling that there is a "message" in the above reply?
Tom Geiger Posted November 7, 2017 Posted November 7, 2017 According to them, they were so swamped right around the 1st of November that the site went down! Did anyone else get the e-mail with the heading: "We are overwhelmed by your support". (And so was our site) The volume was probably people downloading their images off the site! What ever happened, Photo Bucket handled their business poorly. The business model of the Internet has always been to offer a free service, and once established, to start charging for that service. Fotki did that, Paypal did that, many more. I understand that the cost of doing business on the Internet has increased dramatically. All the venture capital dried up. Photo sizes, and adding video and other media, use much more server space. Ad payments have gone down. No doubt they needed to change their business model, and I suspect the abrupt and foolish change was because they ignored their problem for too long and their backs were to the wall. The story will come out over time.
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