Photobucket has changed it's rules.Before, it had free accounts from which you could post pictures to third parties. Now, you can store pictures to a free account but you can't post them anywhere. To be able to post on third party sites, you have to have a paid account. The cost will be $399 a year for the first year. That includes two free months so, after that, presumably, it will be $480 per year. I pay them for an ad free account so that I don't have to see ads but I'll be damn#d if I will pay them $480 a year. They must be out of their minds.
So far as I can tell, my Photobucket images are still showing. Used 3 different computers to see if they were still showing. If they block them, guess there will be some post I put on different sites that won't make any sense without the photo. I also use Dropbox and Flickr to host my photos, so no loss if I stop using Photobucket.
What the.....I haven't used Photobucket in years. Probably don't know my pass word anymore. I got locked out of my Flickr account after I deleted a Yahoo E mail account I had. I remember the e mail and pass word but nothing worked. I haven't opened another yet. But Photobucket is going to find this isn't going to work.
Unfortunately, there will always be people that will pay the higher cost and not have a problem with it.
I don't see how photobucket is worth that much. I can't imagine my daughter paying that amount for photobucket and she can well afford it.
Some people use Photobucket to post pictures on EBay and other sites like that. They presumably make a lot of money from items they sell online. I can see where it would be fair for them to pay Photobucket for their service. I have been reading where all their posts have the pictures deleted. They are not happy campers. It would be almost impossible to redo the pictures even with a paid account because many sites won't let you edit after a day or so. Right now, my PB seems to be still working. I just posted a Gif to the Steve shoulder surgery thread.
Just thought I'd tack my experience with Photobucket onto this thread. There were so many complaints after 2017, they got more reasonable with their rates. "In March 2018, under the new CEO Ted Loenard, plans initially ranging from US$1.99 to US$8.99 monthly based on storage size replaced the flat-rate model. Prices later jumped to a range from US$4.48 to US$11.48 monthly for the same usage." I just ignored them when the price went up in 2017 and added no more images. For a year or so images were blanked out. Two years ago they made an offer of $18/year (that must have been the brief period of $1.99/mo) and I took it, but added no more images. Last year 2019 they started nagging that I was over the limit in number of images, and I would have to upgrade to a new plan. I ignored them again and images were blanked out again. This year they automatically deducted $18 for a year's subscription without asking. I didn't protest. They now claim it is a legacy deal for valued customers. I'm trapped with the images that are on there now. I wouldn't touch Photobucket with a 10 foot pole as a new user.
When I come across them, as I do from time to time, I delete posts that consist only of a dead image. I don't know if they were from Photobucket, though.
If the dead images are from Photobucket you will know. They put a watermark over them now. Before it was a big black rectangle I think.