Starting last month, Photobucket is now demanding $400 per year for “third party hosting”, the ability to embed photos on other sites like Wellesnet, a feature which had always been free since the online company was started back in 2004. I have over 300 photos and images in my own Photobucket account, so I’ve probably embedded at least 200, maybe close to 300 from Photobucket to Wellesnet over the years. Now they’re all gone, perhaps for good.
While I don’t dispute Photobucket’s right to use whatever business model they see fit, the way they made the change – swiftly, quietly and with very little warning to their users – was pretty low, and they are now receiving a heavy and appropriate backlash online (I’ve seen the words “extortion”, “blackmail”, and “ransom” used numerous times). This particular article does a good job of explaining how Photobucket’s new policy has disrupted an enormous number of web users across the internet, including many eBay traders:
http://www.thisisinsider.com/photobucke ... 500-2017-8
So, if you see an ugly Photobucket message where a picture used to be, it’s my fault only in the sense that I’m not willing to pay their exorbitant new fee, although many companies and users have already…grudgingly, I’m sure.