Image Hosting - for direct linking

[Sinnertwin]

I use http://imgur.com/ it's free to use and gives you many options including image resizing and the ability to link directly to an image.

Example, resized on their end from this picture http://i.imgur.com/Tj0Vnn8.jpg

Same. Photobucket was being a bitch, taking too long to load, pop-ups etc
Imgur is so much easier to use also.

[Megatran]

Looks as though photobucket has kicked the bucket.

[GoktimusPrime]

I found a way to sort of circumvent Photobucket, and that is to add "th_" in front of the image file name. So Photobucket still at least allows thumbnail size files to be shared, just not full sized. Which does suck, but what I might do is go back to threads like the G1/CHUG comparison thread, reduce the images to thumbnail size and embed hotlinks to the full sized images on those thumbnails. So people can still view the thumbnails and just click on them to view full size.

I'll be looking for another option to host future images though - but this is just an option for existing images that I've posted.

[tron07]

photobucket stop working? their service is getting from bad to worst anyway. very slow nowadays, some days doesnt even work.

test test

[Ralph Wiggum]

Just deleted my Photobucket account because I'm sck of their shitty bloated ad filled website and this 3rd party image hosting fee was the final straw.

I'm using imgur now and noticed the comments/like system. I'm ignoring it for now, but my thought is, "seriously? did I just sign up to another social media platform ?"

[DELTAprime]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned in this thread the price Photobucket wants for their "service". $400USD PER YEAR

People are calling it the "Photobucket Ransom". It's screwing over lots of people.

[DarkHyren]

lol, it could only be a ransom if there weren't other image hosts out there, people are over reacting about this big time.
It could be a lot worse, when imageshack pulled the same sort of thing they made their whole service pay to play and removed the ability for free users to even access/download their photos.
At least for now it seems photobucket users can still link to their pictures and download them even if they cant embed them on other sites, though that will probably go next.
I dont really disagree with them charging ebay sellers and online stores for image embedding since it is using their server bandwidth and all and when the service was for personal use not business, but I dont agree with the way they're handling the matter.
Then again I never liked photobucket anyway, that's why when imageshack changed into a pay site I picked imgur

[Thurmus]

Just deleted my Photobucket account as I only use it to post photos here. Will start looking around but any suggestions greatly received.

[Borgeman]

lol, it could only be a ransom if there weren't other image hosts out there, people are over reacting about this big time.

Its being called ransom because while you can still downloads pics, any of your pics that were actively in use/embedded elsewhere were also being blocked in your photobucket library, with the idea that you HAD to pay to get those back. That was the case with the 2 pics that used to be in my sig below.

However once i stopped using them here, I checked a couple of days later and they became visible again in my photobucket library and I downloaded them.