Every photo I've ever posted using photo bucket, still exists on my hard drive. But there's no way I'm going back and reposting all of them. We've talked before about repairing photo links, and the negative impact to a thread when photos disappear. Well, if there was ever a time when the forum needed to step up and take control of hosting their own pics, this is it.
I understand that it's expensive, so someone needs to weigh the pros and cons and decide what direction to take. My personal feeling is the same in this instance as it was when I was in business....the more you depend on someone else, the more control you give away.
I agree sprkplug. I wonder if it would be practical to keep the forum free for users that do not want to post pictures or use an expernal picture host but have a fee associated for ones who wanted to post pictures directly on the forum server.
That would still keep the forum a free forum. But for those that did not want to use a seperate picture hosting site, perhaps have a ten or twenty dollar a year fee. Just add another line to the donation program to have a place for both a donation and payment for picture hosting.
I don't have any idea the problems involved setting up two different class of users and programming/costs involved in making such a change.
I personally would have no problem paying a reasonable fee for being able to post my pictures directly on the PBF server.
