NF Mighty NF forum 2016x>




Author Topic: Photobucket is gone (effectively)  (Read 363 times)

banquo

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 986
    • View Profile
Photobucket is gone (effectively)
« on: July 15, 2017, 10:30:23 pm »
Sorry to say, but Photobucket, in their infinite wisdom, and no doubt motivated by the greed with which the modern day is characterised, have, without warning, stopped allowing 3rd Party hosting, without payment of a usurious fee of $400/year. Effectively, that means that pretty much every forum including this one, has lost most of its photos, and the resources of technical and social information are no longer available. Had the charge been something sensible, it's likely that most or many would have stumped up to maintain their links to existing forums, but at $400, my guess is that most will just walk away. I'm certainly not paying it.
No doubt there are other providers out there, but you have to wonder how long it will be before they too follow the same path, and it's a big ask for people to transfer thousands of pix to another provider, and more importantly, update the thousands of links to forum posts that would be extremely difficult to locate, only to have the same thing happen again.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but the forum has been falling on hard times anyway, with little traffic. and now that most of the photos have gone too, it's hard to imagine why anyone would want to keep on visiting and posting. I'll let it ride for now, but this may be the end of the road. Thanks for that Photobucket. May you rot in Hell.

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter


Shedges

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 1
    • View Profile
Re: Photobucket is gone (effectively)
« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2017, 07:59:46 am »
Let's hope something comes up but even if it doesn't I hope you felel you can continue as its a great resource for the NF owner. Perhaps each post can store their own photo and post a link to avoid these costs to you.
Anyway, i for one think the site is great and hope it continues.

banquo

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 986
    • View Profile
Re: Photobucket is gone (effectively)
« Reply #2 on: July 16, 2017, 09:25:40 am »
Cheers Shedges; problem is, it's not just me; anyone who has posted pix via Photobucket would be in the same position. It's not so bad on here, as we have relatively few members, but there are forums with thousands of members and millions of posts, and all the pix have disappeared where they were hosted by Photobucket. It's legalised ransomware. Pay your 400 bucks or lose your files (OK, you don't actually lose them, but they disappear on every site from forums to eBay).

KenJ

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 16
    • View Profile
Re: Photobucket is gone (effectively)
« Reply #3 on: July 16, 2017, 10:56:54 am »
Sorry to read your post Jake. It was finding this forum that helped me locate my NF, in fact being able to buy Paul Friday's well travelled Nuovo Falcone, which I am glad to say is still going strong. This forum has been a mine of information and in its early days I contributed posts charting my experiences, while setting up the timing and carb to cope with the extra power, due to the special modified cylinder head that came with the bike.

Regarding Photobucket, I have used it to post pics on other forums (I have a fieldsports blog) and found it difficult to upload images, in comparison to Imgur, much favoured by other large forums like Reddit. Since using Photobucket, I have been bombarded by their ads and switched back to Imgur, which is still a free photo site.

Unfortunately, since the rise of Facebook, Twitter, etc, forums in general have suffered, an example being a fly fishing forum, which five years ago had an active live community of many anglers, with up to twenty pages of comments each season, but has only attracted two pages this season, most of them mine.

I have to admit that I have not posted on here for some time, tending to dip into the Facebook page, that has a growing international flavour, which is also down to you Jake.

My own blog has a worldwide following and a continuing software problem caused the site to be down more times than it was online recently, with the loss of many returning visitors. It could have cost a lot of money to fix, but with a software developer son, I got a free pass and the numbers are growing again. As the owner of the site, you feel personally responsible for anything that goes wrong, but can only do what you can personally afford.

As a text only forum, this is still the go to NF site and can only suggest you encourage the use of Imgur in the future.

Regards, Ken

banquo

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 986
    • View Profile
Re: Photobucket is gone (effectively)
« Reply #4 on: July 16, 2017, 08:27:18 pm »
Thanks for those words of en couragement Ken; it's just so frustrating to see so much work from so many people trashed by corporate greed. There's no such thing as a free lunch, but if they had offered something affordable, and treated their customers with a bit of respect, I suspect they would have come out ahead. I'd consider switching to another host, but you have to wonder how long it would be before the same scenario reappeared. I had the same with Sony's Imagestation which was the platform of choice for a few years, before PB took over. Anyway, onwards and upwards. Facebook has been a killer for forums for sure; it's really good at the immediate, but completely useless for reference purposes. There are times that you know you've seen a post for something important, but locating it is near impossible. I think of it as an infinitely long toilet roll continually passing by your screen..... ::) Obviously, there's no intention to ditch the site, but it's been seriously emasculated by the loss of pix.

OldeGoat

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 87
    • View Profile
Re: Photobucket is gone (effectively)
« Reply #5 on: July 17, 2017, 08:59:01 am »
Good morning one and all.  It's good to read that you intend to retain the site, Jake, despite being pupped upon by PB.  as Ken says, this site is the point of reference for all of us who have an "unusual " taste in bikes! 
I do venture on to Facebook occasionally, but rarely post on there. Who would be interested in what I get up to?
This site is a regular port of call for me, even if there's nothing new on when I visit, but I'll keep visiting and refreshing my knowledge of the beast at the very least. I now wonder if I should have bought the militaire version as opposed to the Civile, but I couldn't resist that exposed flywheel!  Must admit I'm tempted to turn a radius on it as I think it would look better, but then I'd have to either paint it or get it rechromed.  Decisions, decisions!
The other option is to fit the covers I've bought, but then I have to decide whether or not to machine it so the flywheel is still visible to some extent.  Good fun, ain't it?

banquo

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 986
    • View Profile
Re: Photobucket is gone (effectively)
« Reply #6 on: July 17, 2017, 08:35:06 pm »
Painting's not an issue. Mine was raw and rusty steel, so needed a (rough) coat of paint anyway when exposed. I'd also like a radius, and face up the outer face, but being me will never get around to it!

cloggy

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 96
    • View Profile
Re: Photobucket is gone (effectively)
« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2017, 02:58:45 pm »
Facebook is pretty useless for info though on my website I link to it store more photos of my clogs. I've found this forum greatly helpful. it may have prevented expensive engine damage.
Like Like x 1 View List