Mean Photobucket Upgrade

[adina]

Photobucket decided to play a mean game! They are trying to force people to upgrade their accounts by not displaying their pictures which are viewed "too many" times. They show a "Look who's popular" box instead. Bastards.
support.photobucket.com/hc/en-us/articles/200724014-Bandwidth-Exceeded-Look-Who-s-Popular-
So the avatars of some members, and the "tool" pictures, like the background or some smileys, are kidnapped.
I think using an other site to store those pictures can be a solution. For example: imageshack.com/ Put the avatars there and the problem will be solved. I think.
But the smileys! Ah! Using the innocent smileys for ruining the fun on the Rooftop is the quintessence of evil. Really.

[nell]

OH ffs!!! I thought for a minute my pc had gone wrong. Thanks sooo much Photobucket. Looks like it's time to jump ship.

Thanks for looking into that Adina.  

[GreenEyesToo]

Ah, so it's Photobucket playing mean, is it?! Since potentially everyone's personal pics seem to be affected and all at the same time, looks like they're on a money-grab.   Thanks for the alert and info, Adina.

I've sorted out the admin side by upgrading the amount of storage (I was nowhere near the limit, but upgrading means unlimited bandwith)

It seems the bandwith re-sets every month on the anniversary of when individual accounts are opened, so it looks like it'll be an intermittent problem.  We'll just have to put up with gaps on pages sometimes, I'm afraid.

The problem with moving everything to another storage site is that existing links are broken, so that would only help with new pics (just like when people move things in their personal Photobucket accounts, when they do that we end up with the empty boxes and error messages here - although in those cases, we lose the pics forever, whereas with this bandwith problem, the pics will apparently reappear when the bandwith re-sets)

Maybe we shouldn't be such a popular site!!! 

[lovethemanrs]

Yep that threw me a bit when I saw it. Thought, OMG what's wrong with my PC now!!!

Let's hope it's only fleeting when it does happen. Greedy-grabbers.

[adina]

The problem with moving everything to another storage site is that existing links are broken, so that would only help with new pics (just like when people move things in their personal Photobucket accounts, when they do that we end up with the empty boxes and error messages here - although in those cases, we lose the pics forever, whereas with this bandwith problem, the pics will apparently reappear when the bandwith re-sets)

No, please, noone move the Rufus pictures! The empty boxes are a horrible sight. Please, dear members, never move your Rufus pictures. Let them make the Rooftop beautiful for ever and ever.
(In my first post, when I talked about changing pics, I meant only the avatars. They are shown in each posts, and if they are not from Photobucket, this bandwith thing can be reduced a little.)


Well, GE2, the Rooftop looks good again, thanks for that!


Phooey to Photobucket!

[nell]

No, please, noone move the Rufus pictures! The empty boxes are a horrible sight. Please, dear members, never move your Rufus pictures. Let them make the Rooftop beautiful for ever and ever.
(In my first post, when I talked about changing pics, I meant only the avatars. They are shown in each posts, and if they are not from Photobucket, this bandwith thing can be reduced a little.)

I quite agree. That would be counter productive. I might look into putting new pics somewhere else though.   I don't like being held to ransom .

Thank you GE2 it looks much better now.

[francesca]

Apr 27, 2014 10:07:01 GMT GreenEyesToo said:

The problem with moving everything to another storage site is that existing links are broken, so that would only help with new pics (just like when people move things in their personal Photobucket accounts, when they do that we end up with the empty boxes and error messages here - although in those cases, we lose the pics forever, whereas with this bandwith problem, the pics will apparently reappear when the bandwith re-sets)

Moving pics from photobucket to another site
I am not the most experienced of PC user. So could the more knowledgeable of fan girls tell me if this is not possible.>>>>>>>

In photobucket click on pic and click to copy ( as if you were transferring pic to RT )

then paste to downloads or documents on your PC >>> upload to another site ..eg Image shack

Would this work??

I realise that this a slow process but Photobucket does bulk transfers.
As you are copying not removing you would not break the link with RT.

Don't all shout at me at once if this a stupid idea

[GreenEyesToo]

Sorry, Frannie, missed this the last time I logged on.

Of course it's not a stupid idea - it's a very good one, just a bit laborious. (I was aware that Photobucket does bulk uploads, but I didn't know about bulk transfers) 

The problem, in these circumstances, would still be that if any individual account exceeded the bandwith limit on Photobucket, that person's photos will stop showing up here, irrespective of whether the photo has been copied to another site - the URL of the photo is a Photobucket link, so copying the photo to Image Shack (or whatever) won't make a difference. The only way round that is to re upload every photo you've ever put on the Rooftop from whatever new site you've chosen    - for me, that may well be in the thousands by now, so is not an option.

(And call me cynical, but I have a horrible feeling that now Photobucket has taken this stance, other photo-sharing sites may do the same - although if new pics are spread over several sites, the bandwith is less likely to be exceeded)

Thanks for the suggestion, though, Frannie!

[francesca]

Thanks GE2 for your explanation.
It seems to me that Photobucket have got us whichever which way we turn!

[GreenEyesToo]

Where it would be useful, though, is if you wanted to re-post any pics you've used in the past - you could use the URL given by the "new" site, then those pics won't count towards the PB bandwith.