218 replies to this topic

[alittleawkward]

Imgur is by far the most superior image hosting site. been using it since imageshack went funny. Free uploads forever, the ability to do it anonymously or with a user, and easy links, and the image will retain 100% quality. So good.

[tiger99]

But what is their business model, and will they go bad in the near future?

I am as annoyed as anyone, as I may well need to look through various build threads etc in the future. I have also been around long enough to have seem the worst excesses of corporate bad behaviour in the software and Web areas. Real bandits like Microsoft, who had to be slapped down by the courts again and again, for running the largest ever criminal monopoly. The dot com bubble, where spivs set up web sites in the pretence of gaining riches for their gullible investors while not even having the business model of a corner shop behind the flashy web sites. The constant patent battles often Apple suing anyone who dares to use a rectangle with rounded corners....

The root cause of almost all of this is the inadequacy of the US legal system, which allows corporate bad behaviour to flourish. I therefore suggest that it would be best that any replacement hosting service be located in the UK, where the protections provided by a cheaper and more effective legal system are in place.

You can still find companies here who do stupid things and abuse their customers, even to the point that the customers leave and tge business folds, but it is far less common.

Now that may be somewhat off topic, but I just don't want to see this happen again, and I feel that keeping all contractual arrangements under UK law is inherently a safer long term option.

But hosting costs money. Make no mistake about that. Someone, somewhere will have to pay. Finding a good hosting company is trivially simple, but then you need to know how much data is involved, per month, how much storage and backup you need, etc, to get the correct pricing plan. Been through all that a long time ago, £200 annually for the organisation concerned, but that was for a trivial amount of storage by modern standards and very few high-res pictures. Raw storage and bandwidth costs have reduced, but people's expectations in terms of large files have escalated, and all this is stuff that the forum administration will be coming to terms with if they decide to self host the images.

Be prepared to support them if asked for a small financial contribution. That is all I can suggest. The forum is far too good to be allowed to be ruined by corporate greed.

[MacGyver]

I was going to upload to pb soon to start a few rebuilds, but happy they did this before I started...
If The forum can find a way to host all the forum related pictures I am sure most of us would be happy to help financially.
If we all contribute it will only reduce the cost individually and keep a very important forum going!
I hope a solution, no matter which one, will happen soon.

Ben

[xrocketengineer]

Well, this is getting better and better. I just went to my PB page and clicked on the icons of all of my short videos and PB insists that "this video has been renamed or deleted by the user"...... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Did I miss anything about restrictions on videos?

Edited by xrocketengineer, 18 July 2017 - 08:00 PM.

[mab01uk]

Seen on Mk1 Forum.......If you are using Windows 10 you can sign up to Microsoft OneDrive. The free version allows you 5 GB of storage, like Flickr, you can post images in various sizes.

Here's a link to the plans on offer:-
https://onedrive.liv...ut/en-gb/plans/

[nicklouse]

Well, this is getting better and better. I just went to my PB page and clicked on the icons of all of my short videos and PB insists that "this video has been renamed or deleted by the user"...... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Did I miss anything about restrictions on videos?

i had been having issues with the videos for some weeks before they made the changes.

 

use Youtube instead.

[xrocketengineer]

I have One Drive and some Google storage too, which I might use in the future. All I'm saying is that unlike the pictures, the videos are no longer in the PB account or not accessible when you log in to the account. In other words, the pictures can still be accessed with the free account from the PB page. Not so with the videos. This means that if somebody had only one copy of a video and uploaded it on a free PB account for safe keeping, either the video is gone or it might require payment to get it back. My account has only used 37% of the capacity. One of the videos was only over 6 MB the other just over 9MB and neither over a minute long. These were the restrictions I found:

 

Free account : Each individual Member gets one free account that provides 2 GB of free storage or space available for your original photo files, or videos under 10min.

 

So, when they say "your pictures are still there", what they are not saying is that it is not the same with any videos.

[nicklouse]

yes that is what i am saying the videos have been FUBAR in the weeks before the notice. you can see the thumb. but the links takes you to the not here moved crap. the funny thing they may still be there if looked via a mobile.but just been back to some and it seems to be even worse.

[xrocketengineer]

You are right, the videos still work on my Windows phone. However, not on my Windows computer.  Very weird.

[MacGyver]

Weird, I'm in Austria at the moment and it seems i can see all the pictures again... Odd...

[panky]

Photos now appear after a few seconds, depending on how many there are

Someone has been working their magic

[Northernpower]

Photos now appear after a few seconds, depending on how many there are
Someone has been working their magic

Not always and not on every platform. I can see them on my S7 Edge but not on my Windows 10 desktop.

[panky]

I'm on Windows 10 and they appear if you wait. The update circle is busy spinning round while they load up, it can take a few minutes if there's loads of pics.

[sonikk4]

Deathrow is working his magic bit by bit.

[nicklouse]

I'm on Windows 10 and they appear if you wait. The update circle is busy spinning round while they load up, it can take a few minutes if there's loads of pics.

yep that is what is happening for me as well for most of them.