Skink:
We're working toward a very quick fix for some of the Photobucket content.You guys are magic! Thank you SO much for doing this! Our admin staff rocks :cheers
Nicodemus
Admiral:
I suspect Xander and Nicodemus has worked out a solid enough solution quicker than any staff on any Warhammer hobby forum. Intense efforts. You’ll soon see.
Admiral:
Update: Photobucket has reverted their pay policy and restored most of their old 3rd party content for free. This means most of the dead threads on hobby sites such as this one can be enjoyed once again, without moderators or users doing anything.
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While this is a fortunate boon to hobby forums, it should be remembered that many imagehosting sites have folded or changed beyond recognition (incl. Imageshack), while the once-default choice of Photobucket itself has proved unstable. While the large website of Imgur remains dependable for the moment being, things can change fast, as we saw with Photobucket. Digital storage is insecure and fragile, yet brilliant in its outreach.
As such, do consider these following two steps to backup hobby pictures and artworks for public view:
1. Upload your own hobby pictures into one or more Google Drive folders (or similar), set access to share, and insert a link to this folder in your hobby log(s) and showcase thread(s). That way, even if whatever imagehosting site(s) you are using folds in the future, or play 3rd party hosting rodeo, others may still be able to access your work, admire it and be inspired through this backup folder, even if you yourself have gone inactive.
2. Search out those old treasure threads which you know of, where masterclass work of conversions, sculpting, scenery making, miniature painting or artwork were created by very talented people. Save a selection of these images yourself, upload to both one or more imagehosting sites like Imgur, and to a Google Drive folder. Then you can either pool your and others’ backup folders of the best of the best in some common thread, or perhaps commit thread necromancy (if this is not frowned upon on a particular forum) where you share links to these backup albums and folders in the thread in question - or send these links to an active moderator to have inserted into the first post of inactive treasure threads (if threadomancy happens to be frowned upon).
This is less relevant for CDO and Lustria Online, but good to have in mind for other forums you frequent; now is your chance to save some real gems that previously were under lockdown.
Thanks to Malorndk for alerting us of these good news!
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* Which is why one shouldn’t even consider to delete one’s Photobucket account unless one have already backed up the images and re-uploaded those one wish to share. Redundancy is key.