Why aren't we allowed to just attach pics to Pond Boss Forum? I have several very good pics of a mystery plant I'd like help identifying. Also have a pic of a potential beaver sign. But there's no way to attach them.
Apparently you must have an account with Photobucket. Why??? I post on several other forums, and NOT ONE of them prohibits attachments.
Maybe if every active member pays $20-50.00 a year to cover the additional server/hosting costs, it could be easier.
You can use any picture-hosting site to easily add pics into your actual post.
You don't have to have photo bucket you can attach right from your pc here is an example.
Click on Switch to Full Reply Screen first
Click on File Manager below.
Click Browse then select file from PC then click open and then click add file or files are added click done adding files. Remember though you can only post up to a 2 meg file size.
RC
flikr is about as easy as it gets, much better than photobucket
RC--- that is the best explanation anyone has ever given on photos.... Simple and easy. It should be added to the archives, which a link is below for those that are interested in such.
Will the photo stay forever in the pondboss thread, or does that part have glitches somehow?
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post331090Cody Note: I added this thread high in the posting photos archives.
RC--- that is the best explanation anyone has ever given on photos.... Simple and easy. It should be added to the archives, which a link is below for those that are interested in such.
Will the photo stay forever in the pondboss thread, or does that part have glitches somehow?
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post331090Thanks fish I appreciate that!! Hope it helps folks out. It does stay I believe I am almost 90 percent sure it stays. Someone else moderator wise may be able to confirm that for us though.
RC
And this is easy too....from RC51's picture:
www.imgur.com is also easy:
And this is easy too....from RC51's picture:
Explain what you did, so others may know.....
Thanks, RC. Still doesn't work, though I did add the file and complete every step. When I clicked done adding, it took me back to a blank post. I even tried submitting that, in hopes maybe the image was there somewhere, but nada.
After further checking, found that the image was too large. Will modify and see if that helps.
Click on RC's picture link.
When the picture is open, right click on the picture.
Select "View Image Info."
Copy the entire text that stsrts with "http......"
Start a new reply on the forum.
Type in exactly this.... [IMG]
Place cursor just paste that, and paste.
Just after the past, type in exactly this..... [/IMG]
That's it.
Thanks, RC. Still doesn't work, though I did add the file and complete every step. When I clicked done adding, it took me back to a blank post. I even tried submitting that, in hopes maybe the image was there somewhere, but nada.
After further checking, found that the image was too large. Will modify and see if that helps.
Yes image has to be under 2 meg I would keep it around 3 to 400 k that way you should have no issues. And you wont see image / link to image until you submit the post like you said.
Thanks, RC. I cropped the pic to make sure it was well under the limit, but still PB refused it. Guess I'll just have to describe stuff since I can't show it!
you can compress it with out cropping it
Wow that's crazy I have never had an issue... Sorry Ant...not sure what to tell ya...here is another one works every time for me... I wonder if its something on your end?? I don't know.
Could be something weird on my end. Baffling!
Anyway, thanks for advice. You really did a good job explaining how to make it work.
Here's RC's pic:
Between the LMB and HSB you must be very pleased, RC!
RC tell us about the LMB in the pic.
Click on RC's picture link.
When the picture is open, right click on the picture.
Select "View Image Info."
Copy the entire text that stsrts with "http......"
Start a new reply on the forum.
Type in exactly this.... [IMG]
Place cursor just paste that, and paste.
Just after the past, type in exactly this..... [/IMG]
That's it.
When I right click on image, there is not a "View image info" option???
When I right click on image, there is not a "View image info" option???
When you right click....does it say "
Copy Image Address"?
RC tell us about the LMB in the pic.
Hey Eric my mom caught that one last year. Caught it on a 4 inch floating worm. Purple with a white tail. Just twitching it.
That bass I did not weight or measure it looked quite healthy and fat so I did not worry on that one. However you can see from the pic it was a solid bass. I wanna say somewhere in the 18 inch range about 3.5 pounds. Not hugh but nice. I believe this is one of my original stockers that I put in the pond at about the 10 to 11 inch range. Florida Strain. Most my bass are now FL Strain I did have some Northern Strain when I first had the pond not sure if they died or what as I have not seen them in some time most of them were stunted anyway.
So it would appear from looking at this bass my bass seem ok up to about that 3.5 or so pound range then I start to have issues. From about 20 inch on up. I say issues but just seem to be on the light side of where they should be. Which drives me crazy!!
but I am working on it now.
RC
Between the LMB and HSB you must be very pleased, RC!
Hey Ant I am very pleased / blessed. Everything I show on this site is because of this site!!! I knew nothing at all about managing ponds until I found Pondboss.... That's why if and when I can I love to pay it forward no matter what it is. Feeders/fish/docks/aeration/... whatever if I can help yall out I will sure try. Paying it forward is what it's all about.
RC
Brian do you have images stored on your computer you would like to post directly into Pond Boss posts?
Use lowercase "img" around your link. Example with spaces below.
[img]
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...0913_093857.jpg [/img]
Test
You have the last img wrong you forgot the slash ( / ) in front of it.
My daughter tells me that Photobucket is changing their policy and will now no longer allow posting of photos on 3rd party sites for non-paying users.
That is true and they want $ 400 a year to host. Problem is once you post a bunch of pics to a Forum if you break the links all the pics are gone and you would have to replaced the right pic in each post. I have probably 1000 pic posts here. Finding and correctly replacing them is next to impossible.
I just cancelled my paid account. If you want your pics back, then there's an option to download your entire album at once. It's downloaded as a .zip file, and it has to be unzipped to decompress the pics.
I was able to download 7 years of pics with one download.
I just told Photobucket that what they are doing is akin to ransom, and there was no way in he.. that I was paying what they asked.
Sorry guys, but the links to the photos in all of my posts will stay broken, there is ho way to go back and fix them - not enough hours in a day. Sorry. Right now even if I had 30 hours in a day there is no way that I can get caught up in what I have to do.
From a friend:
Photobucket has been bought out. The new proprietor just changed their Terms of Service and now no longer allows 3rd Party Hosting from their lower tier accounts. You have to have a $400 a year commercial account minimum now, otherwise they will block the 3rd party pictures (embedded photobucket pictures posted on web sites)
This means that millions of pictures on hundreds of thousands of forums will now show the image at the bottom of this post wherever a photobucket picture from a lower tier account was posted.
Photobucket has no idea of the excrement storm that is headed their way. I predict that they will soon become the new poster child for wildly popular services that went the way of the dodo bird when they finally figured out that they had no viable business plan.
I think they were losing ground already due to the slow and clunky way pictures now load. There are better alternatives and this will expedite folks moving to them. P.S. If that image really does appear in all the posts, I expect a class action lawsuit. This appears to hijack personal photos with an advertisement for their website. But am no lawyer, so maybe that is legal?
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.
As far as my photo bucket library, they can keep those pics. I still have em' elsewhere.
I have always used the file manager to load my pictures. There are two obvious disadvantages to doing it that way.
One is the pictures have to be clicked on to load rather than automatically pop up. But it appears that Shorty has a html fix for that (although using my Android TAB while on the road I'm having a glitch doing it althouh should work fine on home computer).
The other is I assume it eats up forum hard drive hosting space which I presume costs money. To offset this I always try to give a decent donation to the forum each year to help with my usage. Which reminds me I need to go look and see if I havd done that yet this year.
Edit: third limitation I thouht of is file size is limited with the internal file manager. My solution is to use my crappy old low resolution flip phone which has small file size
but crappy pictures
Photobucket's actions have practically broken a lot of different web forums. Without the pictures, the content cannot really be understood on some threads.
I don't think it will stand. There was little if any warning at all.
PB may put themselves out of business. A couple weeks warning and $12 a year would have been reasonable. Not $399/yr. Very few will pay it. I understand it also disrupted some, if not many, EBay auctions in progress.
I personally have never used PhotoBucket. I use the Pond Boss forum's own way of uploading pics via file manager.
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.
(snip)
Photobucket has no idea of the excrement storm that is headed their way. I predict that they will soon become the new poster child for wildly popular services that went the way of the dodo bird when they finally figured out that they had no viable business plan.
The storm has hit them already, and hard. The mob is running with pitchforks, torches, tar and feathers. Just check the social media sites. My bet is that they will back down, at least restore existing links, or they will be out of business by the first of August.
Some are saying that this has almost broken the internet, so many how to sites have lost pictures, etc.
I love this forum and unlike some don't get heartburn over losing the linked pics. I think what Photobucket is doing is lousy, but pics can be reposted as the same questions are asked again and we discuss familiar topics. I see this like a class. Most teachers continue to teach much of the same material along with updates, and few classes are taught from the same videotapes from years past. The world will not stop and this forum will still be a great place for those interested in ponds. I need to find my IMGUR account info though!
I'm also not angry with photobucket. Business is business, and profit is the name of the game. If I had stored my photos with them only, and not on my personal computer, then that would still be my fault for depending upon someone else to take care of something I deemed valuable. It's up to me to protect my stuff, not them.
If they had simply gone out of business, the end result would still be the same as we have now...lost photos. But when they want to charge for providing a service, folks get mad? Do I think 400 bucks is too high, yes I do. But I'm not angry at them for trying to get all they can. I don't have to pay it.
While I understand, I do not give them the same deference as you do. The implications of what they did in the past was that the photos would be available as long as they were in business. I do not think it is right to change the rules after offering the service in exchange for viewing adds. This is like giving away a drug (like coffee) until folks are addicted and then saying all new cups of coffee will be $10 each. I will personally boycott their business. If they think their service is worth the money, then they could grandfather in old photos. They clearly did a bait and switch. Next year they could demand $1,000. Better to get out now.
I see what you're saying, but boycotting a service that has been available free for many years, then gets bought out and the new ownership decides to begin charging, seems unrealistic to me. As far as the coffee example, it doesn't make the coffee shop owners evil, it makes me weak for allowing myself to become addicted in the first place. I'm responsible, not them.
Maybe it's the ex- business owner in me, but making money IS the name of the game. Look at the recent push here on the forum to attend the upcoming conference, and the recent hiring of an individual to try and boost the numbers. Both are efforts to bolster the bottom line.
If Bob decides to begin charging a membership fee for use of the forum, I won't be angry...I recognize the potential that is currently not being utilized. I am free to choose whether or not I want to pay to play. I'm not addicted to PB anymore than I am photobucket or Folgers.
Folks seem to think it is OK for business to forgo morals if they can legally increase profits. I do not. Money is made from advertisers on Photobucket. PondBoss deciding to charge for the forum does not affect other web sites. I see this as holding folks ransom. It may be legal, but I do not think it is right. Time will tell if their strategy is successful. I hope that it is not. BTW - My wife has operated a small truck farm for over 25 years, so I understand that a business must be profitable. We would never treat our customers like this. Some things just get my ire up!
But our photos are not being held hostage. Photobucket is not the only game in town, there are other options available. Why not simply move your photos elsewhere? BTW, I paid photobucket an annual fee to be able to use their service, as I felt it was the right thing to do. It wasn't mandatory for me to do so, but it was the right thing to do.
They charge advertisers and make money just like regular TV does. I already moved to Imgur. When my kids watched PBS, I also sent them money, because I wanted to support them, not because they tried to sell the inconvenience that they created. Understand that I am not advocating government intervention. I just will not support businesses that behave in this manner.
I think I pay Photobucket $2.99 a month. I've got thousands of pics there. I haven't heard anything from them about a change in policy. If they go to $500 a year, all my old posts will lose their picture links. I might go as high as $5 a month, but that's it.
Going to retire in a couple of years. Practicing some budget restraint now..
Same reason I sent photobucket some money. I was utilizing their service.
I think I pay Photobucket $2.99 a month. I've got thousands of pics there. I haven't heard anything from them about a change in policy. If they go to $500 a year, all my old posts will lose their picture links. I might go as high as $5 a month, but that's it.
Going to retire in a couple of years. Practicing some budget restraint now..
It might not be terribly hard to move pictures from photobucket to some other host, but how do you go back and fix all your past posts and embedded links?
I think I pay Photobucket $2.99 a month. I've got thousands of pics there. I haven't heard anything from them about a change in policy. If they go to $500 a year, all my old posts will lose their picture links. I might go as high as $5 a month, but that's it.
Going to retire in a couple of years. Practicing some budget restraint now..
I think that once your paid contract with them runs out, then your linked photos will be gone too. I also have all my photos stored on my hard drive in addition to photobucket. I wouldn't mind paying a minimal fee for using them, but not $400/year.
Here's from their new "terms of service";
Here’s their new terms of service. I sent them an e-mail saying that there was no way in hell that I was paying $400/year for 3rd party hosting and that they could shove their terms of service agreement where the sun don’t shine.
Types of Accounts, Pricing and Limits
Visiting : There is no cost to visit the Site or to register as a Member.
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. The free account
does not allow any image linking or 3rd party image hosting. If a free account Member exceeds their Content Limit, their account will be immediately suspended and they will need to become a “Paying Member” (defined below) in order to continue accessing their account. You can upgrade to a Plus account at any time.
Ad-free Account : The Ad-free Account offers Members the ability to use the Site without seeing any third party banner advertisements when logged into your Ad-free Account (note, viewers of your images within Photobucket will see ads unless they, too, have Plus accounts and you will continue to see Photobucket offers and announcements). This account level is available for $2.49 / month, payable by the Member on a monthly recurring basis.
Plus Account : The Plus Account offers several paid options that may give the Paying Member more storage, bandwidth, 3rd party image hosting, image linking and/or other services as outlined below. Once and during such period of time in which you subscribe to and pay for a Plus Account, we will consider you a "Paying Member." Please note that all Plus Account subscriptions are billed annually at the commencement of the service. Photobucket may also offer a monthly billing option for its Plus Accounts (see terms and restrictions, below).
Available Plus Account Plans : Photobucket offers the following Plus Account Plans:
o Plus 50 Plan: 52 GB of Storage for $59.99 / Year. The Plus 50 Plan
does not allow any image linking or 3rd party image hosting.
o Plus 100 Plan: 102 GB of Storage for $99.99 / Year. The Plus 100 Plan allows for unlimited image linking but
does not allow 3rd party image hosting.
o Plus 500 Plan: 500 GB of Storage and unlimited bandwidth for $399.99 / Year.
The Plus 500 Plan allows for unlimited image linking and unlimited 3rd party image hosting.
Yes it is depressing what's happened to
PhotoBucket, but hey such is life. And what's great about this country is you can just take your business elsewhere. Two weeks ago I showed up at my doctor's office with a sinus infection...they take walk-ins and I arrived 45 mins before closing time but they already had their doors locked. So I simply drove a few miles to a CareNow clinic and was seeing the doctor within 20 minutes and was out the door with a steroid shot and the RX within 45 mins.
The somewhat unique thing about
PhotoBucket was they had
BOTH hosting and a pretty robust edit function at the same site. Many of the other image hosting sites either have no edit function or pretty limited edit functions.
PostImage seems to have made some recent changes and made it harder to get "true direct link url's" for an image. PostImage has had some issues over the last year, in fact they almost shut down but a last minute donation campaign kept them afloat. I recently e-mailed them about some changes happening and they have not responded. In the past they always responded to my e-mails quickly. I am suspicious PostImage may go the way of PhotoBucket as well.
I came across this website to attach a URL to an image on your computer. This site can be used with or without signing up and seems pretty good...real easy to create a URL for images on your computer.....but I am still playing with it as far as edit functions:
http://www.ezimba.com/index-ln.html
I don't think many will end up paying. Those who would pay will have doubts as to whether the site will soon go under.
I think they will be no more by August first, unless they back off to what they had for old pics. IMHO.
Click on RC's picture link.
When the picture is open, right click on the picture.
Select "View Image Info."
Copy the entire text that stsrts with "http......"
Start a new reply on the forum.
Type in exactly this.... [IMG]
Place cursor just paste that, and paste.
Just after the past, type in exactly this..... [/IMG]
That's it.
This works well also but just FYI some of us don't have the "View Image Info option. So you need to right click on the picture and go to properties. Then copy the Http link as Sunil described above.
For example it would look like this. [img]
https://rest of link[/img]
That will allow the image to be seen without clicking on it.
RC
I'm not worried about my photos and links here on the forum. They're gone, end of story, start over if I choose, but probably not. I don't see it as a huge issue?
It's easy to blame photobucket, but truth is we've had it easy, (free), for a long, long time. To be completely blunt, if we want our photos, links, how to's, heritage, whatever, to always be around, then we need to pay Bob for the privilege of posting that stuff here. You can pay a third party site to host photos, or you can pay the site directly, but somebody deserves to get paid, somewhere. And to me, why relinquish control to a third party?
What if they all decide to go the way of photobucket?
I agree sprkplug, we really need to host from within this webpage. If that requires software update or hosting fees, so be it.
Click on RC's picture link.
When the picture is open, right click on the picture.
Select "View Image Info."
Copy the entire text that stsrts with "http......"
Start a new reply on the forum.
Type in exactly this.... [IMG]
Place cursor just paste that, and paste.
Just after the past, type in exactly this..... [/IMG]
That's it.
This works well also but just FYI some of us don't have the "View Image Info option. So you need to right click on the picture and go to properties. Then copy the Http link as Sunil described above.
For example it would look like this. [img]
https://rest of link[/img]
That will allow the image to be seen without clicking on it.
RC
RC I have a slightly different problem with this Android os Tab that I use when traveling. I can do everything Sunil says except when it comes to the paste function, for some reason it will not paste an image link copy saved to the clip board to a text box. So I can not get it to work. I'm sure it would work from my home computer ooerating with Windows os.
I'm not worried about my photos and links here on the forum. They're gone, end of story, start over if I choose, but probably not. I don't see it as a huge issue?
It's easy to blame photobucket, but truth is we've had it easy, (free), for a long, long time. To be completely blunt, if we want our photos, links, how to's, heritage, whatever, to always be around, then we need to pay Bob for the privilege of posting that stuff here. You can pay a third party site to host photos, or you can pay the site directly, but somebody deserves to get paid, somewhere. And to me, why relinquish control to a third party?
What if they all decide to go the way of photobucket?
Tony, I agree with you about paying but Bob has to balance a fee site and how much interest that would generate vs a free site.
I have no idea what it would cost nor how much storage he'd need for storing pictures here. maybe this is a sign of the times going away from free forums to "pay to post" forums?
I'm upset because of all the pictures that are lost, and the context that went along with them. How do you explain different types of cover for fish without pictures??
I honestly don't know the answer. I'm thinking of all the information that is in the archives that is or will be lost.....
Hey speaking of all this image talk I just found a seemingly very easy to use site to add text to images. You can edit text size, choose font, drag the text around to exactly where ya want it, and choose the text color.
http://addtext.com/And here is my first try with AddText.com
could this forum and other large forums negotiate with photobucket to allow hosting to their site for a flat fee so that not all the users pay $500, but the site owner could have one fee for all hosting for the pondboss site as a whole?
I hear you Scott, and I understand where you're coming from. On the other hand however, I have been saying for quite some time now that if increasing revenue is the goal, (via mag subscriptions), then this forum is the magazine's worst enemy. All this info archived here, that has apparently been rendered virtually useless by recent photo developments, was available free of charge.
Why provide such info for free? Sure, we can say that the mag goes into greater detail than what's available here, but maybe what's available here for free, is good enough for 95% of people?
Maybe instead of worrying about what's lost, we should take what's happened and see it for what it is....a push to move in a different direction altogether. Sometimes it takes just such a catalyst to set things in motion and take control of our destiny.
I think a big draw to forums is not just the information provided but the interaction among participants.
It makes the world seem like a much smaller place by allowing interaction with like minded people that a person would have never had the opportunity to interact with before the age of the internet.
No magazine can ever do that.
After saying that no magazine could ever do that, I re-thought.
Maybe no paper print magazine could. But perhaps an on line digital magazine could.
I'm sure someone has thouht of it before me, but what about a paid subscription on line magazine that had full interactivity with its authors and other readers in a live time forum atmosphere?
Perhaps a two tier situation with a free side (like currently) and a subscription side with the interactive articles.
Being digital, maybe making the paid side cheap enough (compared to paper print) few would have any reason to only access the more restricted free portion, yet the free portion would bring in interest to the paid side. Get the price low enough that there would be four or five times the number of paper subscribers (because it is so cheap) so the gross revenue would still be acceptable.
An astronomy forum and selling site that I was on became a "pay to post" site a few years ago, and it dwindled from hundreds to just a handful of users after the announcement, and it was only $12 a year. Formerly it was run on donations, which I did a few. My participation in that forum was already declining, so I chose not to continue. There was another free site that started up a few years before that, and most users went there.
Making a forum a pay site just to post is a certain path to kill a forum.
You are probably right.
There would have to be more to offer than just posting to make it attractive.
An astronomy forum and selling site that I was on became a "pay to post" site a few years ago, and it dwindled from hundreds to just a handful of users after the announcement, and it was only $12 a year. Formerly it was run on donations, which I did a few. My participation in that forum was already declining, so I chose not to continue. There was another free site that started up a few years before that, and most users went there.
Making a forum a pay site just to post is a certain path to kill a forum.
The problem is, a free forum isn't free at all. Somebody, somewhere, is footing the bill. And having the space to store photos costs money.
Consider this: when I was younger I was heavily involved in hot rodding. I subscribed to Car Craft, Super Chevy, and Popular Hot Rodding magazines. To the tune of approx $100 a year if I recall. Now, a subscription to Car Craft is twelve bucks a year. And, that's for a dozen issues, not six!
And is it really "pay just to post"? Someone else mentioned the comraderie and interaction as being draws also, which I happen to agree with. I don't recall the last time I asked a pond or fish question here. But I've sure tried to answer a few, so exactly what benefit have I reaped by hanging around? I have friends here, that's why. I feel like my days of NEEDING the forum are probably behind me, these days I'm here just as a social event. Now the uncomfortable question: shouldn't those who are utilizing the forum as a source of info that they would otherwise have to pay for, incur some debt in this regard? Should I pay for the privilege of answering questions, rather than receiving answers, myself?
I realize it's blunt, but there are times when bluntness is needed.
The current successful web model is to attract potential customers so advertisers will pay to advertise to an interested crowd. Charge and the forum will be replaced by someone using this model.
The current successful web model is to attract potential customers so advertisers will pay to advertise to an interested crowd. Charge and the forum will be replaced by someone using this model.
I wonder how successful it was for Photobucket?
I also can't help but think that ponds, while appealing to us, otherwise appeal to a very specific, probably very small demographic. And the advertising base might reflect that?
Photobucket has had issues with excessive advertising for several years, there are so many pop ups and advertising that the site has been almost unusable at times without the use of an adblocker. This morning I downloaded all of the pictures from both of my Photobucket accounts, it took more than twenty minutes to access just the Library on one of them and begin the download. As far as I can tell they haven't shut down the 3rd party hosting on either account yet but once they do I will close both accounts. Advertising revenue alone must not be keeping up with costs at Photobucket so they are trying something new, I wish them luck as I suspect they will need it going forward.
On a side note, Pond Boss is one of the few sites where I leave my adblocker turned off, the advertising is not excessive or malicious, and it helps keep the lights on for the forum.
I suspect the same, Shorty. If photobucket's business model had been a raging success, would we now be in the same predicament? They apparently sold out, why? It's easy to claim greed on their part, but we really don't know. Maybe the old owners saw the writing on the wall and abandoned ship.
Perhaps utilizing advertising revenue as the sole source of funding isn't the way to go, either.
I have been on here nearly a year and done extensive researching of the archived threads. As far as benefit, I have probably obtained over 90% of what I needed. So, now it's mainly a social site, and I can even answer some questions based on my own successes and failures. It's good to share experiences with people who have common interests.
I have been on the other (Astronomy) forum I mentioned for 13 years, and it is still free to post. Many have come and gone in that time, and there are a handful of old timers still active. Mostly I answer questions there, and socialize due to common interests. That forum does not allow third party photo linking, as it has its own hosting, but the photos are size restricted to 500k each.
Photobucket's slowness is why I started switching to Imgur. Both of my kid's are computer science professionals and advised me to do this a year ago. I just kept suffering through Photobucket because it was familiar. They now gave me a real good reason to move exclusively to Imgur. I have no financial interest in this company in case you are wondering. I try to share what I have learned here as well. As a research scientist, I try to be evidence based and hope that I have helped others out. I did get one of our pictures of marginal plants in an extension publication because I posted it here. I still have my photos and will post them again as appropriate for answering questions. When I buy an aeration system, it will be from a Pondboss sponsor. I frequent this forum much more than other forums because I find folks that not only have similar interests, but also similar philosophies regarding individual accountability and outlooks on the level of government power that is appropriate. I understand that others feel differently and respect their right to their own opinion, but it is nice to see other folks that feel as I do.
I have a solution. Instead of posting pictures, start every thread with the words "picture this" then describe your situation. It may be more typing, but hey, typing is free. LMAO!
I have a solution. Instead of posting pictures, start every thread with the words "picture this" then describe your situation. It may be more typing, but hey, typing is free. LMAO!
I'm down with that. But when I post that I've caught a three pound HBG, and Yolk Sac is here with me crying on my shoulder because he wishes he had been the one to catch it, I don't want to catch any grief because I don't have a pic of the occasion. A person's word should stand for something after all...
I have been on here nearly a year and done extensive researching of the archived threads. As far as benefit, I have probably obtained over 90% of what I needed. So, now it's mainly a social site, and I can even answer some questions based on my own successes and failures. It's good to share experiences with people who have common interests.
I have been on the other (Astronomy) forum I mentioned for 13 years, and it is still free to post. Many have come and gone in that time, and there are a handful of old timers still active. Mostly I answer questions there, and socialize due to common interests. That forum does not allow third party photo linking, as it has its own hosting, but the photos are size restricted to 500k each.
John's thoughts mirror my own. The implication that there is an "end" of sorts, to the amount of desired information. We all recognize that our ponds/fish will continue to present challenges, but we see ourselves as having obtained a satisfactory for our needs, level of proficiency.
For myself and others, the mindset is " the info I need is available free, right here". We're not pond pros, we don't make our living with ponds, we don't always see the need for the enhanced level of detail offered by the mag, vs the forum.
John, if I have misinterpreted your meaning, I apologize.
Just think of all the things that are gone if the photobucket decision stands. All the information that George posted. All Brettski's work he did. Everything RC51 has done to his place.
A picture IS worth a thousand words.
Re: Sprkplug
No, you did not misinterpret my meaning. I have attained a level of basic proficiency from these forums, enough to well manage my small ponds. I know I need to do more, for example, to aerate, but it's just not cost effective for me right now, and it's out of choice now, not out of ignorance as before I was on these forums.
I am still staying subscribed to the magazine. At least its pics don't disappear. LOL
BTW, the pic that Photobucket is displaying in place of the user pics also takes up bandwidth from PhotoBucket when they are called to display on a third party website. If their decision stands, at some point they may go to a blank, or try to break the links altogether.
Just think of all the things that are gone if the photobucket decision stands. All the information that George posted. All Brettski's work he did. Everything RC51 has done to his place.
A picture IS worth a thousand words.
Then entrusting a third party with storing and maintaining all those photos was foolish of us. If photos are that valuable to the forum, and I'm not necessarily suggesting otherwise, they need to be stored HERE.
What's done is done, and if those pics never come back, all we can do is learn from the experience. Hopefully they will return, and the near miss spurs action before the next time.
Not sure why but the images I have posted here from photobucket haven't been squashed yet. It's probably just a matter of time though.
In the mid 90's, I was a member of a blacksmithing site. The owner of that site was...how should I put this? Well, lets just say he was unpredictable. He got a wild hair up his you know what and deleted the whole thing. Our members were a small group of people and we were able to piece the forum back together, but it took a lot of work. That same turkey joined us a year later, but didn't find us a very forgiving group, so he didn't stick around. Point of story is, from then on, I started taking snapshots of any info I thought was valuable and these days, I create a PDF of any web page I really like. That way, hopefully I will always have it.
