Just got hosed by Photobucket (image hosting website)

[ToddM]

So I logged into Photobucket like a week or two ago and I couldn't get to my library unless I agreed to some new website format or something such. So I agreed to it. Whatever right? I have a free account I ain't gonna get charged for anything.

I just found out what was included with that agreement I agreed to. Every single image I ever linked from Photobucket on tons of websites going back like 15 YEARS now has a HUGE Photobucket advert watermark on it! Are you freaking serious!

Just like this....

 

[480sparky]

"Just"? It's been like that for over a year.

 

[ToddM]

"Just"? It's been like that for over a year.

None of my images had the watermark on them until I clicked on the agreement thing a week or two ago. All my images were clean up until then. I posted some images here on this site 3 or 4 months ago and there were no watermarks. None of my old images had watermarks until I checked that agreement thing.

I will add that I WAS deleting the "smg" part of the links before posting, but now that doesn't even work.

They are some serious jackasses. Now I got either one of two choices. Delete all my images on Photobucket to deny them the free advertising all over the internet everywhere that I linked images from them, or leave all the tons of images up everywhere that were linked, many of which were to convey important points in the course of discussions, or even diagram images detailing technical matters, with big giant watermarks covering the images.

Someone needs to sue these people. They lied when the main statement of the agreement was listed as simply a "website update". I would have never clicked on that thing If I had known this was going to happen.

 

[Derrel]

They handled the transition from a free service to a pay service extremely badly, with insufficient notice to the users… And that huge probably hosted by Photobucket watermark Jesus how obnoxious is that??

I was looking through some old threads here yesterday and I saw that huge watermark and thought to myself good lord that is obnoxious

A couple of years ago out of the blue one day Photobucket suddenly became a persona non grata in the eyes of millions of users. All across the web, millions and millions of photos were hosted on for a 'bucket free account. When they suddenly demanded payment a lot of people just simply left in anger come and suddenly movie us upon millions of links are broken

 

[ToddM]

Look Ma... no watermark LOL!!!!!! Right click on the image and hit "Copy link location" and you will see that it's linked from Photobucket. And it is a FREE ACCOUNT!!!!

I looked at an image I linked to photobucket on the Ford Ranger Forum a few weeks ago (link here ---> Starter Spinnning, Solenoid Popping Out, But Not Engaging Flywheel - Ford Ranger Forum ---> look down the thread at the image of the keys) and in the link location you will see has an "O" right before "img" in the link at "https//oimg....". When you copy your link from photobucket, just delete the smg garbage and add an O before "img" in the link and no watermark shows up.

I am posting this image from the same image and link to that image at my Photobucket account as above except in the link I have inserted an O before "img" in the link: Check it out. No watermark.

Here's a right click from the image above:

https:/www.thephotoforum.com/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Foimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv370%2FToddM%2FLighthouseFotoSketchCanvas.jpg&hash=d0c468e251f1a728e907a8bfd240dd7e

Look at this section "........%2Foimg.photobucket.com........" and notice the "o" before the "img".

Here's a right click from the image with the watermark in my original post. Same exact link except no "O" before the "img". The Photoforum hash key is different but exact same Photobucket link:

https:/www.thephotoforum.com/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv370%2FToddM%2FLighthouseFotoSketchCanvas.jpg&hash=46e217e4f73382720dcf4af307225a1b

"..........%2Fimg.photobucket.com......"

No "O" before the "img" with the watermark image.

Now here's the direct link from photobucket that I actually copy and paste into my post. I changed the "[" characters to "{" characters so that the image wouldn't actually display and you can see the link text:

{URL=http:/smg.photobucket.com/user/ToddM/media/LighthouseFotoSketchCanvas.jpg.html}{IMG}https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v370/ToddM/LighthouseFotoSketchCanvas.jpg{/IMG}{/URL}

Delete the smg.photobucket code line before the img.photobucket code line and the [/url] tag at the very end , and then add an O before the img in the img.photobucket code line....

So it looks like this now...

{IMG}https://oimg.photobucket.com/albums/v370/ToddM/LighthouseFotoSketchCanvas.jpg{/IMG}

The modified link will eliminate the watermark.

When Photobucket finds out about this hack I guess this won't last long..

I don't plan on uploading anymore images to Photobucket and posting any more links to those images in case they do something to get around the hack. I'm either gonna use onboard website image file uploading or use FreeImageHosting.net. Which when I think about, all image hosting websites are now very risky over the long term.

 

[JonFZ300]

Imgur

 

[480sparky]

............

I am posting this image from the same image and link to that image at my Photobucket account as above except in the link I have inserted an O before "img" in the link: Check it out. No watermark.

Here's a right click from the image above:

https:/www.thephotoforum.com/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Foimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv370%2FToddM%2FLighthouseFotoSketchCanvas.jpg&hash=d0c468e251f1a728e907a8bfd240dd7e
.............

I'm confused. You're claiming you can post an image sans the watermark using a link to PB by manipulating the URL..... but you post an image hosted here on TPF?

 

[Braineack]

it was already the worst image hosting service since day one...

 

[ToddM]

I'm confused. You're claiming you can post an image sans the watermark using a link to PB by manipulating the URL..... but you post an image hosted here on TPF?

I'm a little confused also. Are you saying that TPF stores a hard copy of the image here on their servers that are hotlinked to photobucket? I'm not a code techie but the PhotoForum prefix "www.thephotoforum/proxy.php?" bit in the link and then the TPF hash key at the end doesn't mean that there is a hard copy of the hotlinked image stored here on TPF. Regardless of that, Both the images above are hotlinked to the exact same photobucket image stored on the photobucket servers and one has a watermark on it and one does not. How do you explain that?

Look at this image. It's a leather working project I'm working on and the image is stored on my photobucket account. I've modified the link. No watermark.

When I go to one of my images at my Photobucket account, photobucket will provide me two or three options for the hotlink. One link in the form of html code, one link in form of BBC code, and one direct link code. You choose whichever one you need for which kind of code the website uses that you wish to post your image on. TPF uses BBC code. So I use the BBC code link to hotlink to images here on TPF.

Look at this hotlink I got for the leather image above. It's slightly different than the ones they were providing for me yesterday (for some unknown reason) but I can still modify them the same way to eliminate the watermark (as before I've changed the " [ " characters to " { " characters to show you the text n the link):

{URL=https:/beta.photobucket.com/u/ToddM/p/5a54c8c1-bef3-4434-9353-84c9e884e4c4}{IMG}https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/v370/ToddM/IMG_0088.jpg{/IMG}{/URL}

That's what photobucket gives me to post on BBC code websites to display the image that is stored on their servers. When I copy and paste that link exactly as they gave me without modifying it, the watermark shows up over top of the image like this:



Ok, now here's a look at my modfied link. " [ " characters changed to " { " characters to show you the text n the link:

{IMG}https://oimg.photobucket.com/albums/v370/ToddM/IMG_0088.jpg{/IMG}

No watermark. That "oimg" bit I insert in the link before "photobucket.com" eliminates the watermark.

Those images you are seeing are not stored here on TPF servers to my knowledge. That's the whole point of image-hosting-services like photobucket and hotlinks. This "hotlink" method provides a way for websites to display images without taking up storage space on their servers.

 

[480sparky]

I'm confused. You're claiming you can post an image sans the watermark using a link to PB by manipulating the URL..... but you post an image hosted here on TPF?

I'm a little confused also. Are you saying that TPF stores a hard copy of the image here on their servers that are hotlinked to photobucket? ............

I'm not claiming anything. I'm saying the image you originally posted is stored at TPF.... not PhotoBucket. You even stated so in your post.

...........Check it out. No watermark.

Here's a right click from the image above:

https:/www.thephotoforum.com/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Foimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv370%2FToddM%2FLighthouseFotoSketchCanvas.jpg&hash=d0c468e251f1a728e907a8bfd240dd7e
.............

That's not a direct link to PB.

 

[ToddM]

I'm confused. You're claiming you can post an image sans the watermark using a link to PB by manipulating the URL..... but you post an image hosted here on TPF?

I'm not claiming anything. I'm saying the image you originally posted is stored at TPF.... not PhotoBucket. You even stated so in your post.

...........Check it out. No watermark.

Here's a right click from the image above:

https:/www.thephotoforum.com/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Foimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv370%2FToddM%2FLighthouseFotoSketchCanvas.jpg&hash=d0c468e251f1a728e907a8bfd240dd7e
.............

That's not a direct link to PB.

First you need to realize that you're responding to your own reply. It was you who said something about me claiming something. Read back through your own replies to me. Then read the entire thread you and will see I never said " you claimed" anything.

That photoforum prefix script is some kind of proxy script. The image is not being stored on TPF . The image is still being downloaded from PB. I'm not sure what that proxy script is but the hash key at the end tells me that it is something to verify the veracity of the download from PB. Hash keys are usually used to verify the accuracy of a download. Either that or it's an indexing system that TPF is using to catalogue all the links to images on this website.

I assure you that if I delete that image file above from my Photobucket library, that image will no longer appear on this page. All you will see is a little box with an X in it. That means... the image is definitely not being stored on TPF like you think it is. If the image were being stored on TPF, then nothing I did with the image at photobucket would affect that image being displayed here on this page.

The image is being downloaded from PB.

 

[480sparky]

Still clear as mud.

BTW, you can post actual URLs without changing the [ to { by using noparse.

So the above link, which is:

https:/www.thephotoforum.com/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Foimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv370%2FToddM%2FLighthouseFotoSketchCanvas.jpg&hash=d0c468e251f1a728e907a8bfd240dd7e


You would simply add [noparse] to the beginning and [/noparse] at the end. Thus:

[noparse]https:/www.thephotoforum.com/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Foimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv370%2FToddM%2FLighthouseFotoSketchCanvas.jpg&hash=d0c468e251f1a728e907a8bfd240dd7e[/noparse]

 

[ToddM]

..... but you post an image hosted here on TPF?

Still clear as mud.

The lighthouse image I posted that we're discussing is not hosted here on TPF. It's hosted on photobucket, it is downloaded from photobucket, then displayed via a TPF proxy link where you then see it on this TPF web page. Is that clear enough? You seemed to be implying that the watermark was not showing up because the image was being hosted here on TPF. That's wrong. If you're still unclear about where the image is stored ask a TPF mod. Maybe they can explain it better than I can.

You said the image is hosted here on TPF. That image is not hosted on TPF servers.

Ok so the right click "save link location" link is not a direct link to Photobucket. It's an INdirect link to the photobucket image through a TPF proxy link.

If you copy and paste that right click "save location" link into a web browser address bar, it does not even take you to this web site. Let alone is the image not being hosted by TPF. I think the only reason they use a proxy link is that it technically counts as more traffic/hits on the TPF web site for the Alexa rankings.

And thanks for the [noparse] tip. That's actually the most useful thing you've said relevant to the point I'm making about the hack that I discovered that circumvents the Photobucket watermark. How is it that you know about things like no parse switches but you can't comprehend that hot-linked images are not stored on TPF? Amazing

BTW, anyone got an old Photobucket account? Test it for yourself. You should be able to post old images from your old photobucket "free account" library without a watermark if you modify the share link like I described.

Edit: I tried the the [noparse][/noparse] switches and that doesn't work on text inside BBC code switches img,/img or url,/url

 

[tirediron]

Given how cheap webspace is these days, why bother with any of these 'sites? Get your own space and set your own rules!

 

[ToddM]

Given how cheap webspace is these days, why bother with any of these 'sites? Get your own space and set your own rules!

That's a good idea except for a lot of us are cheapsters. It's the monthly fee thing.