Warning, Tinypic is going away !!!

[cdeerinck]

I was preparing a post here, and uploading a picture to TinyPic today, and got a message on their website saying it was closing up shop soon. (not enough revenue)

Unfortunately, that means that all of the TinyPic pictures attached to posts will not be there soon. So dark days are coming to VAF.

Before they completely disappear, you might want to download any of them you don't already have, move them to another site like PhotoBucket, and then edit your posts to point at the new pictures.

It would be fantastic if this could be done globally for all posts across the site, but I doubt that DR has the bandwidth to pull that off. I understand why he can't host the pictures himself (not enough revenue), and this has always been the Achilles heel of VAF. Sorry to be the bearer of such bad news.

[ed. Nothing 'free' is ever free. Please read this if you haven't: http://www.vansairforce.net/articles...ums/images.htm v/r,dr]

[Hartstoc]

Originally Posted by cdeerinck

I was preparing a post here, and uploading a picture to TinyPic today, and got a message on their website saying it was closing up shop soon. (not enough revenue)

Unfortunately, that means that all of the TinyPic pictures attached to posts will not be there soon. So dark days are coming to VAF.

Before they completely disappear, you might want to download any of them you don't already have, move them to another site like PhotoBucket, and then edit your posts to point at the new pictures.

It would be fantastic if this could be done globally for all posts across the site, but I doubt that DR has the bandwidth to pull that off. I understand why he can't host the pictures himself (not enough revenue), and this has always been the Achilles heel of VAF. Sorry to be the bearer of such bad news.

For anyone looking for a good photo hosting site, I?ve been very happy with ?Fotki?. Not free but very reliable and well organized.- Otis

[jcarne]

This is always sad. I can't describe how many times I read old posts that had pictures that are no longer visible... Some of the best travel logs included.

I have had great luck with Flickr. 1000 free pics and I'm so happy with it that I will probably just start paying for it when I reach my limit.

[robertahegy]

I wish Dan could use the system used by Glen L to post pictures. Requires no host like we need to use now and very easy to upload pics right from your computer or phone. All the pictures I have posted over the years using hosting sights are gone in both this forum and the Glen L boat builder forum. Those pictures I posted using the Glen L posting system are all intact. I refuse to pay for a hosting service that may eventually abandon me.

Roberta

[chaskuss]

FYI, photos posted to PhotoBucket are not actually gone from their site. They just block them from sites like VAF, unless the poster becomes a paid member. HOWEVER, there is a work around. You need to use either Firefox or Chrome for this to work. Both browsers provide "unblocker" add ons. These will let you see all those blocked PhotoBucket photos here and on other sites. I use an extension called PhotoBucket Embed Fix.
As I use Firefox, here is how you get this extension:
1 Click on the three horizontal lines icon found at the upper right corner of Firefox
2 From the drop down menu click on ADD ONS
3 From the Add On Manager window, click on the word EXTENSIONS on the right side of the page.
4 Use the search bar [top center of the page] and type in PhotoBucket Embed Fix
5 Approve the addition of this extension to Firefox.

You can now see all those blocked PhotoBucket photos!

Do similar for Chrome. Those of you still using a browser by the evil empire just have to suffer!

[Dean Pichon]

Very frustrating. This happened with the Wooden Boat Forum, too. The free picture hosting site "that everybody recommended" elected to get out of the business and 1000's of great photos now have dead links.

No matter which hosting service we choose, whether we pay for it or not, the legacy of these photos (which is a significant portion of the value of these forums, in my view) will always be at the whim of someone else's business decisions.

The only way around this is for the forums to host their own photos.

[ChuckGant]

Did not know Google photos was bad. Deleted my instructions.

[jcarne]

I was under the impression that google photo addresses change from time to time make old photo links eventually useless. Can anyone elaborate on that?

[Brantel]

Please Please Please don't use google photo's to host images on this forum.

Tons of examples of why it won't work for a solution here in the archives.

Google randomly changes their direct links to photos which can leave the image link broken. Happens almost weekly on this forum!

There are a few rare cases where links seem to be permanent and last forever for certain users. My theory is that it has something to do with the image owner's Google Photo account and whether or not it was a migrated Picasa account. This is just a theory, no proof.

Example thread with broken links:

http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...d.php?t=170577

[Paul 5r4]

Since joining VAF years ago, I've used tiny pic. Sad to know that every pic will soon be history. I don't want to pay for hosting.

[ed. And that's the rub....I don't want to pay to host everyone's pictures either ;^). dr]