A Forum Users discussion of the Photobucket debacle

In my inbox this morning

We’re excited to announce that Flickr has agreed to be acquired by SmugMug, the photography platform dedicated to visual storytellers.
SmugMug has a long history of empowering people who love photography and who want to improve their craft, making them a perfect fit for Flickr and our creative community. With SmugMug, we’ll continue to focus on you, the Flickr members who inspire us all with your work.

Nothing will change immediately with regard to your Flickr account. You will still access Flickr with your current login credentials and you will have the same Flickr experience as you do now. We will continue to work to make your Flickr experience even better.

We think you are going to love Flickr under SmugMug ownership, but you can choose to not have your Flickr account and data transferred to SmugMug until May 25, 2018. If you want to keep your Flickr account and data from being transferred, you must go to your Flickr account to download the photos and videos you want to keep, then delete your account from your Account Settings by May 25, 2018.

If you do not delete your account by May 25, 2018, your Flickr account and data will transfer to SmugMug and will be governed by SmugMug’s Terms and Privacy Policy.

Read more detailed FAQs about this transition on the Flickr Blog.

We’re happy that Flickr is your home for photography and we look forward to the next chapter in our adventure together as we join the SmugMug family.

Thanks,
The Flickr Team

So May 25th is the date the Ts & Cs change

Their FAQ states

Will anything happen to my photos? Will they be moved?
No, you’ll still be able to access your photos as you do currently and they’ll retain the same Flickr or SmugMug URL as always. Over time, we’ll be migrating Flickr onto SmugMug’s technology infrastructure, and your Flickr photos will move as a part of this migration—but the photos themselves will remain on Flickr.

There are currently some 1800 posts that contain Flickr liinks on the forum

.

Just about to post when I noticed the first line of the Flickr announcement back in 2018 - "We’re excited to announce". Anything that starts like that is never good, especially if the WE is the company that wants your cash and they are the ones that are jumping up and down with glee. It is on a par with "You will be delighted to hear" - and as a fully paid up member of The Cynical Times you can bet I won't be.

Back to Photo*ucket. Having amassed over a hundred emails in the last two years from them bleating about my account being over the limit I thought I would deleted the photos and save the bother of deleting the almost daily email. Easy you would think?

No, they seem to have "improved" the look and feel to such an extent that I could no longer see my 506 photos, just the albums. Easy, I thought, just delete the whole albums. Nope, all the albums gone but after logging out and in again I still have 506 photos. This was taking too long so I used the contact us part to ask them to delete my account and stop sending me emails. Simples?

Nope, pressing submit gave an error saying incorrect Captcha. What Captcha, none appeared? In anger I clicked the subit button at least a dozen times in quick succession and hey presto, a captcha appeared. Assuming a Crosswalk is a zebra crossing and a bus is a coach I eventually sent the message.

In retrospect I should have just blocked their emails so I didn't see them - it would have saved two hours hassle. If you can't see them they don't exist.

Finally, my apologies if deleting my account causes more lost photos but if you come across any that I haven't already replace PM me and I will resurrect them.

Insult was added to injury, I got a reply from "Robert the Robot". Having read the reply, with Marvin as the voice in my head, it told me I could delete my account by following their instructions. I did but the "Accounts" tab was not available on my version of the Settings page, which was the reason I emailed them in the first place as I'd already followed that advice.

At least tech is making my life easier, however my teeth are being worn down.

Peter wrote:

Finally, my apologies if deleting my account causes more lost photos but if you come across any that I haven't already replace PM me and I will resurrect them.

Yes any posts you made which linked to photobucket photos and any quoted posts by other users which replied to your posts will no longer contain the images

Edit
In comparison with some other cases, yours only shows up some 37 posts, slightly less if you dont count those in the Mods area
try this....

www.airfieldresearchgroup.org.uk/forum/s...1/2020&childforums=1

airfields wrote:

Had this email earlier today. One of many over the last few weeks. Never again !

By comparison, you have 1,228 posts containing photobucket hosted photos, obviously multiple photos per post

Try this search :-

www.airfieldresearchgroup.org.uk/forum/s...1/2020&childforums=1

I went through and changed all mine, or so I thought, using the search facility over a year (or was it two) ago. I suspect some of those are from photos I no longer have and I know I kept a few dead links in the hope of replacing them at some time.

I gather some less well know hosting and online storage sites just closed down without warning, some were even subscription services. I no longer use "The Cloud", partly because my lack of trust in it, but mainly because I have no control over it. If I do you it it is for Quaternary backup and only then from the bigger names, although they keep changing the rules (Panoramio anyone?).

I did notice that some hosting sites offer a one time lifetime payment! Whose lifetime they do not say.