Huge issue with Photobucket and photos in XMarks threads

[Barb T]

Hi all,

When I first joined XMarks, the only way to post photos was to link them to an external photo-hosting site, and I've been linking all of the images in all of my posts to Photobucket for more than 10 years. I realize that now it's possible to upload directly to XMarks, but I'm sure I am not the only one on XMarks who has photos linked to Photobucket.

Photobucket has very recently changed its terms of use so that they no longer permit those with free accounts to have photos in their Photobucket albums appear in another web site. They now require subscription payment for 3rd party hosting. AND their lowest subscription level ($59.99/year) does not allow this. And neither does their $99.99/year subscription rate. I would need to subscribe at the rate of $399.99/year (!!!) in order to be able to have the photos in my Photobucket albums show up in XMarks.

If you have posts with photos linked to Photobucket, some or all of your photos may now be replaced with the following:



I say "may be replaced", because, in my limited experience over the past two days, whether any particular photo appears or is, instead, replaced by the warning image above is random and varies from day to day (i.e., you might see the real photo one day and the warning image the next). So, just because you see the image OK at any point in time doesn't mean that it will be OK at another time.

The other thing that just frosts my cookies is that the warning image suggests that I have been negligent in some way and that I have exceeded an agreed-upon maximum. I really resent this - I have only used 11% of my allowable storage space, and the ONLY reason that I am over 100% of ANYTHING is because they have changed their rules. They are, I know, allowed to do this by the terms of agreement, but to imply that it is MY FAULT for being negligent in managing my account is just .......grrrr snarl......

Anyway, three things:

• I am slowly starting to replace images in XMarks. Today, I have downloaded and replace 108 photos, and I'm only about 3/4 of the way done with just the Hints and Tips from Barb T and my advertiser's section.
• It's going to be really hard to find all of the photos I've ever posted on XMarks. If you find a thread that has the warning image, I would be deeply grateful if you could PM me with the full URL of the thread, and I will fix the photos.
• I truly hope that others in this boat will replace their images with directly uploaded ones to XMarks so that all of the terrific information on XMarks will continue on into the future.

Best,

Barb