PB and other image sharing companies now charging fees.

[AussieinNC]

PB and other originally "free" photo sharing services are really un-necessary and all rely on their user base just accepting their new fees to share what is essentially not even their property...your images.

Most phones nowadays will allow the pics stored on the phone to be downloaded to a computer...usually using the charger cord that has a USB style connection on the power pack end.

For those unaware of how to do the transfer, on a Windows computer,

On your desktop, right click and choose New Folder...name the folder "pics"...
Now connect your phone to the computer by plugging the power pack end of the charger cord into a USB port on the computer. You will see two messages pop up...one on the phone asking permission to connect to the computer...just press connect or permit...and a message on the computer in a menu popup choose "open folder to view files"...
On the computer, navigate down to the images on the phone...hold down the Shift key and choose the images you want to copy from the phone to your computer,,,right click, choose Copy....

On the computer, open the "pics" folder, right click and choose Paste...the images will load to the pics folder.

Depending on your phone camera settings, the images may be too large for the site to accept...You can use the Windows included program Paint to resize your images, albeit, you need to do them one at a time.

Choose an image, right click, choose Open With, then choose Paint, choose Resize, then type in 3) and leave it as %...the image will downsize to 30 % of its original size...choose Save, then close Paint...

Do this for each image you need to resize.

To upload an image when making a post, go to Attachments option...choose the image and choose Upload...

Hope this helps out some folks...

[davepl]

As you note, you can always upload the pics to the board as well. It's an ancient version of vBulletin but still allows up to five (I think) images to be attached to the post, and that way they never get separated, you don't get broken links, and your topic will still work 5 years from now.

Having to downsize as you describe is a pain... I do wish the forum would update to a new version that handled larger photos (modern stuff downsizes on the client automatically before uploading) and pasting right from the clipboard... super handy on the other forums I'm on.

[AussieinNC]

Yep...all good stuff...

I suppose it all comes down to simplicity for end users and costs of running the boards...

I know my iPhone stores the images in large sizes...I downsize them using Photoshop...( 20 years in IT...just retired)...

I did the Paint process for the general users on here...most versions of Windows include it now...

[special-K]

I've never had an issue with photo size when attaching files with things the way they are. I have no idea how to resize photos because I have never had to do it.

The benefit of putting pictures with a host is your pictures are stored free. I have lost pictres twice to computers dying. When the one was repaired another time, I used an external drive to clear computer to install new OS. I looked at them a couple times off the external drive, but before I could put the pictures back on my computer the external drive failed, so lost pictures in that s.o.b. Every picture I put on Photobucket since 2004 is still there. I can take any picture from there and upload it to my files anytime I want. This is still free. External drive storage decays. I never knew that till last year, so if I had all those pictures in one they would likely be gone.

What sucks about the new charge for 3rd party hosting is it's an absolute reneg after 14 years with virtually no warning. And not $40 a year... $400??!! I didn't pay that much for this laptop! The worst thing is how they are messing up the internet across the board as if that never occurred to them? More like the greedy s.o.b.s don't care, just like I won't care hearing they went poof! This is the only reason I am pulling all my photos from there...before they are gone.

This was all a sudden change. So now everybody is down on Photobucket, and those who never used it are boasting about their better way. This reason to not like P-bucket was not there when people chose to use it, same as when you all chose to use whatever you do.

[AussieinNC]

Morning,

I agree, USB drives have the disadvantage of possible data loss over time, thats why I always backup important files to DVD as an archive,as well as USB.

I am lucky in that I have been involved with IT for past 20 years....and have a good understanding of the limitations of long term storage.

The move by 3rd party hosts to charging a fee for hosting was always in their strategy....and yes, it sucks so bad...and while FLickr is still "free", I am not sure that will be the situation for much longer.

Finally, I would be more than willing to try and recover your lost images from that USB drive...I doubt it has failed totally, its usually the communications card in the drive that fails...I can usually remove the drive and connect directly to it...PM me if you want to discuss.

Thanks...

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by AussieinNC

Morning,

I agree, USB drives have the disadvantage of possible data loss over time, thats why I always backup important files to DVD as an archive,as well as USB.

I am lucky in that I have been involved with IT for past 20 years....and have a good understanding of the limitations of long term storage.

The move by 3rd party hosts to charging a fee for hosting was always in their strategy....and yes, it sucks so bad...and while FLickr is still "free", I am not sure that will be the situation for much longer.

Finally, I would be more than willing to try and recover your lost images from that USB drive...I doubt it has failed totally, its usually the communications card in the drive that fails...I can usually remove the drive and connect directly to it...PM me if you want to discuss.

Thanks...

I have also pulled information off of "Failed" drives and "dead" computers for people over the years. Once in a while it can't be done, but many times it will be a successful operation.

LockDoc