Photobucket

[varosd 1,185]

After using the simple Photobucket website for many years, it has now become a ad driven/pop up nightmare website.  unless you pay for the "upgraded" version  I.E. no ads

anyone using a better, free site?

[Digger 66 3,476]

Yes . Use Ad-block .

No more ads .

[bmsgaffer 2,043]

I used to use photobucket and regularly paid for their old service (it used to be $25/ year for unlimited uploads!) to be rid of ads. Then they changed their format and made navigation and linking very terrible so I bailed. 

 

What I have learned is that there are very few good sites that are free. Some recommendations I have HEARD but not personally tried are: amazon photos (included as a prime member) and google photos (free if you use their "high quality" upload option which limits photos to 16 megapixels or less). 

 

I ended up buying a supporter membership to this forum because:

a- third party sites ALWAYS change, you only have to spend a few moments looking at threads more than 5 years old to see TONS of broken links to outside hosting sites essentially ruining the original thread

b- I use dropbox (paid) to backup all my photos from my phone, but it is TERRIBLE for sharing photos on forums

c- I have been helped out so much here that I thought it was the least I could do to give back (I know everyone's financial situation is different, so that is up to them) because I have seen far too many forums sell out to larger firms and get ruined.

 

What are your uses for photobucket? Maybe we can look at the pros and cons of the other services to find a best match. 

[rmaynard 14,863]

If the only reason you are using Photobucket is to store photos for posting on RedSquare, why not just upload your pictures here?

[AMC RULES 36,941]

   Any subscription here on is a bargain...

to never be held hostage by Photobuckets nonsense ever again.  

[can whlvr 991]

it seems every time I go on the bucket my computer freezes,i try to post some pics here which we all know is a must and my puter freezes solid

[ohiofarmer 3,156]

 Supporting Membership is on my to do list. However,we just got hit for $1700 on the car transmission repairs.... Maybe eat some Ramen for awhile??   We have always paid as we go, paying off every bill every month. Mortgage debt has always made us more money than it costs and that is the farmer way of "Live poor, Die rich"  [does not always work out , but at least avoids real financial problems]

I might try a bucket picture or two, but I already know that it is much easier to drop and drag using Red Square.

[tunahead72 2,332]

18 hours ago, bmsgaffer said:

...

a- third party sites ALWAYS change, you only have to spend a few moments looking at threads more than 5 years old to see TONS of broken links to outside hosting sites essentially ruining the original thread

...

 

That's an important point as far as I'm concerned.  There's some classic, very informative threads from the early days of RedSquare that are truly almost worthless without the pictures.  Some of those photos I'm sure could be re-created by the original poster (if he's still around, and could find them on his camera or computer).  But to me it's much easier to simply insert a picture directly into a post, and not have to worry about whether Photobucket or any other third party is going to move or lose it in the future.

 

[ACman 7,505]

Was going through a bunch of older threads and seen how many photos the forum lost. Then I went to the photobucket website. Was I ever shocked to see how much they want to charge for third party hosting...$399.99 a year (that’s 2 lifetime supporter memberships) . I just uploaded my photos over to google to free up space in my iCloud. I’m cheap and it was all free . Being a supporting member of  sure is a bargain and the ease of posting pics and videos is well worth it .

[formariz 11,849]

Definitely the Photo bucket issue has done considerable damage to countless posts here. Lots of information and great reference lost. I personally now for many years do not store anything whatsoever outside of my residence. In my opinion it is a lot easier and safer to keep all of your photos and any other personal stuff here. Not that I am paranoid about it but I like to have control of my stuff. Money invested in storage subscriptions is in my opinion better invested in additional hard drive space here.

[Sarge 3,462]

That's a very good point - I need to research into a very reliable long-term storage solution for all the files I collect, the last computer crash cost me a lot of hours of work for manuals I cannot replace now - that is really aggravating and a shame on my part. Even on this newer laptop with it's digital hard drive - it's a serious risk and it's already had one re-load due to a crash that resulted in losing a lot of files, again...ugh. Now, with the pollution of all the search engines it's getting harder and harder to search and find what you're wanting - I spent 4hrs the other day again hunting for that odd Delco manual set I had years ago that someone had posted here or somewhere else - I cannot find it to save my butt and I've given up - that's just wrong. Research has become so difficult now it's almost a joke...I have no idea how some folks are finding this stuff with the older manuals - I'd love some education on that subject.

 

Sarge

[formariz 11,849]

I am a little bit of a records freak, so I use a desktop with an enormous hard drive, but store a majority of files and photos in another one interconnected with it. In case something happens there is also an external hard drive continuously backing up both of them.

[Sarge 3,462]

That's basically what I'd like to do - but how reliable are those external backup drives ? My biggest problem is I have no clue on how to install/use/setup those systems - I only know enough about computers to be truly dangerous...lol. If the drive came with it's own programs , that would help and I suspect maybe that's how they are set up ? Biggest issue is always MIcrosoft-in-the-head and their dropping older OS versions - running Win7 Pro 64 on this older Dell right now - I get along with it fine and am really fighting having to go with any version of Win10 or later...arrggh. I was amazed it actually ran through the re-loading tool last time it barfed it's electronic brains out - losing all my stuff in the process due to MS eliminating any installs of that OS on any machine now - that's pretty criminal if you ask me when you bought/own the software in the first place. It seems like every newer version it gets harder and harder to manage files in any sort of way that makes it easier to find them - they always seem to make it worse rather than "better", why is that ???

 

Sarge

[formariz 11,849]

In my opinion they are pretty reliable, I been using them for many years without a problem. As for installation and operation they are very simple. Once their software is installed nothing else is required.They connect through an USB port. Once installed they are on their own essentially. One just has to get familiar with the recovery process which is simple. I guess anything can happen, but what are the odds of loosing files in your main PC, then on the backup storage PC and then on the external hard drive also?

 

I too had issues moving on from XP but once one gets beyond the fear and gets familiar with the new systems they are rather easy and more versatile to use. I think the biggest issue is that at our age we like what we know well and resist to change a lot. I hear that pretty often around here by the way.

[Sarge 3,462]

Yeah - that pretty much describes where I'm at with a lot of things, hence my being here and loving these old tractors. Simple, rugged, reliable - what's not to like about that, LOL...?

 

I didn't mind XP, nor it's crashing issues, just learned to live with it. I run PC Matic and Firefox so I'm fairly comfortable in the security part - I hate trying to learn a new OS as it takes too much of my time, but I'm going to have to upgrade soon as MS is starting to drop support on Win7 in some ways. One thing I don't like is how intrusive the newer Win10 can be in it's desire to run their programs and nothing else - have to fight all that stuff on smart phones enough for my patience level as it is - I hate that marketing tactic by these software people.

 

I've considered taking some of the classes offered by a couple of the local tech geeks - they are suppose to help us "older generation" over 50 folks learn all this new tech, especially the newer smart phones. Maybe I can find a Win10 class - it would sure help but I don't need the really in-depth stuff, just learn how to get along with it and not pollute the stupid thing into a coma - which has happened in the past. What bugs me about the newer OS versions is they've lost the core look and interaction of the older systems - that's where I get lost and Win7 was bad enough - 10 is far worse. My biggest hatred is the ties to social media - I don't want nor need it on a computer - it's bad enough on a smart phone in my opinion and I rarely use any of it, got better things to do with my time.

 

I'll look into those storage drives more - thanks for your description of how they work, that I can get along with for sure and it would be nice to have a reliable backup. Like I said - due to the pollution of the search engines now it's gotten so tough to find old manuals - they just get covered up by all the sponsored results.

 

Sarge