Photobucket - sharp practice

[msmoby]

Tut, tut, andrewfi, 

https://www.flickr.com/gp/129678017@N05/7t133R

Now WHAT was that you were saying about my creditworthiness.. ? Not just UK banks and apart from two debit cards ALL the rest are current CREDIT cards...not prepaid..

Why can't you be honest?

[Maxx]

For what it is worth all my photos in my Georgia thread have a message from Photobucket saying I have to upgrade my photobucket account. Which I don't understand why?

[msmoby]

Well, now Maxx - you are now a 'cheapskate', too ! 

Did you not get any warning emails, either? 

MY suggestion ... Screw photobucket and move to flickr.com - at least they've been around with a pay model for some time.

[Markje]

For what it is worth all my photos in my Georgia thread have a message from Photo bucket saying I have to upgrade my photo bucket account. Which I don't understand why?

Because they now want money for photo's shown on other sites that are not photo bucket.

There are lots of 'free' options still to switch to, but none as convenient as photo bucket was.

I am hosting my own pictures on my own website with a nice photobook software, unfortunately I can't share that amongst all RUA'ers for free.

Free storage is cheap these days, I have 1 Terabyte of free storage with stack (a dutch provider).  Their software isn't specificly for hosting images, but it does the job if you can't self-host.

[Maxx]

The example Ste, sent is an image - of Theresa May suggesting voting to remain and it is perfectly viewable in Chrome !

Obviously you were not wearing your glasses at the time or your comprehension went off the rails.

That is what I said........ "Images it's not a problem
BUT

I can't see on Chrome .....ONLY the "Youtube Embedded Videos"....on sites, like RUA
BUt with the link... I can watch them on Chrome, at YOUtube!" .... site!

I hope you are wearing your glasses .......... and see the new bikini fashion!



 

They didn't have women like that when I was young.

[Maxx]

I got this in my e-mail this morning



I am with Moby on this. AND I am with Georgia on Russia on laying down razor wire on their soil. Too much restriction on freedom.

[andrewfi]

Their game, their bat and ball.

You don't like the game, get your own bat and ball.

Can't afford it?

Sucks to be you.

[Markje]

Their game, their bat and ball.

You don't like the game, get your own bat and ball.

Can't afford it?

Sucks to be you.

Or have the knowledge to build one yourself.

Amazon lets you host 1 free-tier VPS , which is more than sufficient to host a photo-album. The only downside is that you have only 4 GB storage space and you must know how to install/build a linux server.

[andrewfi]

Mark, it ain't tough.

Know how to do it yourself then do it yourself.
Don't know how to do it then pay the man the money.

Can't afford to pay the man then sucks to be you. (you being the one without the money or the knowledge)

There's no reason we should expect 'stuff' to be free and it seems unreasonable to expect Photobucket (and others) to throw their money and that of their shareholders at clients, most of whom are deadbeats and freeloaders.

Of course, there's always the point about giving up control of your 'stuff' to providers, particularly when one is not paying any money to the provider. But that's why I run my own image hosting and, for the record, I have no idea how to set up a Linux server. That's not necessary knowledge.

[Contrarian]

Their game, their bat and ball.

You don't like the game, get your own bat and ball.

Can't afford it?

Sucks to be you.

I suspect Moby has the $$ but he likes freeloading as it is in his top 3 favorite hobby's. Nothing wrong w/ freeloading in moderation with photobucket, etc. in the beginning after all that's how they entice you. But at some point honorable people make a financial contribution. Honorable people do that because they realize such svcs. do have real costs.

[Maxx]

"Freeloading" is some shame word Andrew likes to use. A service with its advertising is offered. It is supposed to be free if we put up with its adds. After spending hours and hours of our time building something like I did with my thread it pulls the rug out from under us unless we pay them. I call that as Moby does "sharp practices." Being old enough I see what cable television did started back in the 70s. It was supposed to be just an added service added along with free public broadcast. Now? No more free TV even with commercials. We are being taken over by monopolies.

[andrewfi]

You can pay, or not. Increasing the price you pay, over time, is normal. Only a fool or a dishonest person would argue that charging the costs of the business and a reasonable profit was 'sharp practice'.

The company has increased its prices. If you can't pay or won't pay then do what everyone else does when a product or service increases its prices past what you are wiling to pay. Stop buying the service.

It isn't difficult.

A freeloader is one who takes advantage of another's generosity while giving nothing in return.
The reason that you are being asked to pay money for the service is because you refuse to give Photobucket even the courtesy of link back to the site. That's freeloading.
If a dictionary writer was seeking an example of freeloaders she could use you and moby and your refusal to support Photobucket.

[Maxx]

A freeloader is one who takes advantage of another's generosity while giving nothing in return.
The reason that you are being asked to pay money for the service is because you refuse to give Photobucket even the courtesy of link back to the site. That's freeloading.
If a dictionary writer was seeking an example of freeloaders she could use you and moby and your refusal to support Photobucket.

That is crap. Photobucket never sent me a reminder to do this for them. They let me and others build using their service and looking at their ads without any requests to do for them what you suggest. Because you and others here have such a blind hatred for Moby you can never see his points. Such intellectually dishonest people you are.

[dcguyusa]

No more free TV even with commercials. We are being taken over by monopolies.

As for me, I have never paid to watch TV program content.  And I still only watch free TV.  The only time that I viewed paid content was in a hotel room.  However, one thing that has nearly completely disappeared is free unlimited internet access.  It was supported by online advertising which bailed out at the turn of the century.     I remember the slogan that the internet will be forever free.  NOT.   

[AvHdB]

No more free TV even with commercials. We are being taken over by monopolies.

As for me, I have never paid to watch TV program content.  And I still only watch free TV.  The only time that I viewed paid content was in a hotel room.  However, one thing that has nearly completely disappeared is free unlimited internet access.  It was supported by online advertising which bailed out at the turn of the century.     I remember the slogan that the internet will be forever free.  NOT.   

'The times are a changin'

I also do not pay to watch TV program, but I must admit I watch less than 4 hours per month. I can understand the frustration of Maxx and Moby.

Perhaps a different point to consider do you trust the 'cloud' meaning photobucket et al . . . ? But there is another question, would it be so difficult for RUA to return to a system of post your OWN images onto threads?

[Volshe]

'The times are a changin'

I also do not pay to watch TV program, but I must admit I watch less than 4 hours per month. I can understand the frustration of Maxx and Moby.

We pay min 40e subsription  per month per each household: land line, internet and extra tv  (i pay additionally for HBO and for something else so mine is 50+e). It's a long story but Telecom at the time managed to get monopoly (capitalist dream  )))). You can bypass it, but then no land line, lousy internet and commercials. I can't stand those, albeit me too, i watch maybe one or two movies once in a blue moon. Good thing with "extra tv" is that you can record stuff if you want to watch it later. These are the two main options that people choose (Magenta 1 &
 2 https://telekom.me/magentajedan.nspx ).
Most people pay that - someone because of tv, someone because of internet, like me 

I think it's very specific from country to country, for what are people used to pay and what they won't pay. Our Russians go like  because you can drink tap water, it's safe, you don't have to pay for that. But heating, for which they are not used to pay much, here is expensive because it's not central. Few use woods in the cities, so you pay electricity. If you don't want  to spend the winter at home in your fur coat, it starts at 150e a month.
(That would be using AC for heating in the living room, a heater in the bathroom and another one where you sleep.) You can also, like i and pretty much all others did, install you own heating (couple of thousands of euros) and pay about 400e in the winter months so that you don't freeze 
On the other hand, cabs are very cheap. City transportation is not organized and common like in FSU in big cities, so most use cabs. If in Podgorica, it's cheaper to take a cab to the center and back (an average ride is 1e), than to park your own car in the center for couple of hours.
Most buy newspapers, unlike anywhere else, at that most buy both main ones (Pobjeda and Vijesti), 0.70e each.
Our coast is expensive. Very expensive. (At least, what's good of it.)  But that's all another topic, i digress 

[andrewfi]

Maxx, photobucket have done nothing that you had not previously agreed to. They are charging you more money for storage because they choose to for business reasons, that's their right and responsibility.

You can keep your free service just by doing that which you agreed to do: all pics stored on Photobucket can be linked to with an external link. Hotlinking, which gives photobucket no benefit is chargeable, just as you agreed when you clicked the service agreements that you have never read.

[Volshe]

From one hand i understand the frustration, from other - not really. When i really cared about featuring my photos on www, i was paying the blog on wordpress, it's about 100e per year. At that, you don't pay for pic hosting per se, that you can do for free.

I don't know, everyone has priorities. We can't all pay for everything.
 But then, you see what's important for you personally and you pay that because on the other side there are also people who need to put food on the table for their kids and pay their medical bills.

I didn't read whole of the discussion, but when people say it's about principle - it's usually about money. Usually it's small sums they prefer to spend on something else (equally unimportant in the big picture). That's not really called having principles... 400usd a year is about 33usd a month. That's less than an interpreter is payed per hour in Monte (35e is 1h consecutive interpreting, 50e - simultaneous). You, guys, are from the West, for goodness sake, you earn more. Oh... And there is that famous Easter European way of saving: eat less. You save money and it's usually good for your health 

[Markje]

However, one thing that has nearly completely disappeared is free unlimited internet access.  It was supported by online advertising which bailed out at the turn of the century.     I remember the slogan that the internet will be forever free.  NOT.   

Only in America. In Netherlands you have multiple providers with unlimited internet. Its not free , but when you pay you get unmetered synchronous bandwidth. (in my case $40 for 1gb/1gb internet).

[andrewfi]

Dcguyusa, things started to change on that front when a couple of things happened. Firstly, advertisers realised that freeloaders and the poor can't spend money on the stuff they advertise.
Second, the nature of Internet traffic changed. Early on Web traffic was almost completely about looking at Web pages. That changed and now most traffic, by volume, is about media file transfers, movies, images, music and there's no opportunity to monetise that with ads.

At that time though much of the Internet infrastructure was subsidised by academic and government use. That changed as the number of users and volume exploded.

Volshe, I think that you are right. In this context principal = money (or its lack). The cognitive dissonance caused by people needing to try to reconcile two incompatible narratives in their heads leads to anger. It is normal.
In the broader perspective, the people who claimed to be angered by a matter of principle are exactly the same people to whom Photobucket is glad to wish 'farewell'.

[andrewfi]

As an aside, I have, for the past 17 years, paid for my email service. I have done so in full knowledge that I am in a minority and that I could have service for 'free'.

On the other hand, my service has been uninterrupted during that time, I have huge control over my service and experience that that I will not change provider or email addresses for as long as I desire.

Paying for stuff we use is worthwhile. Cheaping out is rarely the optimal solution to any service problem or need.

[Volshe]

As an aside, I have, for the past 17 years, paid for my email service. I have done so in full knowledge that I am in a minority and that I could have service for 'free'.

On the other hand, my service has been uninterrupted during that time, I have huge control over my service and experience that that I will not change provider or email addresses for as long as I desire.

Paying for stuff we use is worthwhile. Cheaping out is rarely the optimal solution to any service problem or need.

I think that's wise, albeit i use gmail. Oh, i do have our local t-com.me which with all the payments that we make them turns out to be quite expensive, but it's so dated and difficult to use, that most people opt for something else, nevertheless this one is paid by default  Also, i wanted to change password - you need to physically go to their office, wait in lines and don't forget to fetch your ID 

On the other hand, when someone gives you a business card with gmail or yahoo email... It doesn't come across as serious. What kind of business is that for goodness sake?! 

Dunno, usually if there's no money = earn more, spend less. It's not that complicated after all... I think it was much more difficult for us who grew up in communist countries to understand the free market. But, one tries to understand how the new economy works and tries to find a room for themselves under the sun. I don't see many Eastern Europeans complaining here about something that's 400usd a year. That's what Russian women with long hair in US pay for a (single) visit to a good hairdresser. 

[andrewfi]

Yes, when I am presented with a Gmail account by someone purporting to be any kind of professional then the impact is always negative, even if the email belongs to a florist or plumber.

The 'not paying for stuff' is, I think, rooted in the minds if many from a misunderstanding of how the Internet worked combined with a misunderstanding of the slogan 'knowledge is free'. The former comes from the fact that in the early commercial years of the Internet there was a tendency to offer services below cost and make up in volume. This was always a fallacy but conveniently stuck in the heads of the freeloading class globally. The latter was not a reference to money but rather to the concept of freedom.

I have to say that dealing with freeloaders is one of the greatest challenges to doing business on the Internet, as we see here with Photobucket and some of their former clients. The freeloader problem has, now, completely changed the way I am making money online.

[Volshe]

I have to say that dealing with freeloaders is one of the greatest challenges to doing business on the Internet, as we see here with Photobucket and some of their former clients. The freeloader problem has, now, completely changed the way I am making money online.

I know... It's interesting, especially when it comes to creative professions. Like, it's a gift, so if you write well or do something else for which you need talent, not only skill - kindly, in your free time, go bake burgers at McDonald's because freeloaders of this word rightfully expect to enjoy your work for free... 
Yeah, sure 
Last time someone asked me to edit a (shi**y) book they wrote, they were, like: c'mmon, what is it to you? (It's a wealthy person, the book is worthless.) I was like: to me it's  a week of my time, to you it's a 1000e. They were like  They don't offer their services for free, so why expect me not to charge? Crazy... (And very innocent and sweet at the same time... NOT )

[Contrarian]

As an aside, I have, for the past 17 years, paid for my email service. I have done so in full knowledge that I am in a minority and that I could have service for 'free'.

On the other hand, my service has been uninterrupted during that time, I have huge control over my service and experience that that I will not change provider or email addresses for as long as I desire.

Paying for stuff we use is worthwhile. Cheaping out is rarely the optimal solution to any service problem or need.

Just out of curiosity what email service do you pay to use?