[Admin]

UPDATE: 12/20/09
As of a few months we are now accepting and are allowing photobucket.com linking of the pictures as they have become more secured.

Notification is here given that JeepTalk will no longer accept linking from photobucket.com.

This was brought mainly because three days ago there was a malicious script with a photobucket Url trying to trojan JeepTalk. Our security stopped it before it could do any harm. In addition to the large pictures being posted, the out of bandwidth pictures and avatars causing unnecessary work to our Moderators. I guess what broke the Camel's back was the malicious script. If in the future we feel that things change with this service, we might consider letting them link to JeepTalk.

We have discussed our actions for several days, the management of JeepTalk was somewhat against it but we rather keep JeepTalk safe and not take any chances. There are other free avenues in which I will be pointing out.

This issue is final and not open for discussion. I'm going to leave the topic open so that users may help other users with other free avenues and suggestions. Any post attempting to comment on this decision will be deleted.

Something you should know:

The existing photobucket links on prior postings will still work, when they run out of bandwidth or don't show any longer they will be deleted just like anything else. Members with avatars or pictures on their signature will still work, however when you go to edit your signature if a photobucket url remains it will not let you save it and you will get an error.

I suggest that you copy your avatar and signature pictures to another free service and link to them to avoid any problems with keeping them on your signature or as an avatar.

Below is a list of Free hosting picture services that you can link to:

http://www.imageshack.us/ Photos and Video
http://google.com Photos and Video and direct linking on JeepTalk.
http://www.snapfish.com/uploadphotos Photos
http://www.flickr.com/
http://youtube.com Videos and direct linking on JeepTalk.

The above services are dependable, we never have had problems with them other than they do run out of bandwidth at times so keep a close monitor on them before they get deleted. Most of the time they do not. There are others out there but the above are the ones that we feel are the best. You are free to use others as long that they do not rapidly run out of bandwidth. A notorious service for doing this is ripway.com, please do not use this one.

The best thing to use that 98% of the people over look is your Internet service provider account that you use to connect to the Internet. They usually provide around 10megs (or more) of space and you can upload to it through an ftp program or Internet Explorer. Call your ISP customer support and they will show you how. Ask them to show you how to find the physical address of the picture you just uploaded that will show in the address bar of Internet Explorer. Highlight the URL in the address bar, right click and choose copy to save it to the clipboard. You can then post it anywhere. Don't forget to resize your upload.

Click Here: Posting Instructions. These have been here since the beginning of time and has a lot of information on posting.

I'm sure that other Members here will advise on what service they use and how well it has worked for them. Please consider the above free services. There are also other services that are not free and you can find them by doing a search on the Internet.

Admin

[Admin]

Can some of you that have use Photobucket in the past please post here and let me know why it is so difficult to use some of the other free services listed on the first post. Would also like to hear from others that use the other free services instead of Photobucket.

I'm looking for good feed back in pros and cons. There is a way I can additionally secure Jeep Talk with Photobucket but I'm not sure if it is worth the trouble that it takes. We did stop the malicious script but I did not want to continue taking the chance without implementing a few more.

In addition to this I also see that a lot of Members that have used Photobucket in the past seem to be linking the larger pictures rather than the 640x480. I wonder why?

I'm open minded and if I have to spend some time in implementing additional security (don't want to take the change even though we stopped it) to allow linking to Photobucket again, I will. But I like to hear the reasons. Please let's not get out of hand in our discussions and understand our situation if we decide to continue to block it.

Admin

[TallJeep]

Admin, on May 24 2008, 05:31 PM, said:

Can some of you that have use Photobucket in the past please post here and let me know why it is so difficult to use some of the other free services listed on the first post. Would also like to hear from others that use the other free services instead of Photobucket.

I'm looking for good feed back in pros and cons. There is a way I can additionally secure Jeep Talk with Photobucket but I'm not sure if it is worth the trouble that it takes. We did stop the malicious script but I did not want to continue taking the chance without implementing a few more.

In addition to this I also see that a lot of Members that have used Photobucket in the past seem to be linking the larger pictures rather than the 640x480. I wonder why?

I'm open minded and if I have to spend some time in implementing additional security (don't want to take the change even though we stopped it) to allow linking to Photobucket again, I will. But I like to hear the reasons. Please let's not get out of hand in our discussions and understand our situation if we decide to continue to block it.

Admin

Photobucket is the only user friendly picture host out there right now, you can set your account to resize your pictures to any resolution when you upload them and you can get several links codes to the pictures at the touch of a button without having to do one at the time.

[Admin]

TallJeep, on May 24 2008, 05:42 PM, said:

Photobucket is the only user friendly picture host out there right now, you can set your account to resize your pictures to any resolution when you upload them and you can get several links codes to the pictures at the touch of a button without having to do one at the time.

Can't you do the same with Image Shack or the other listed on the first post? I personally have checked out IShack and they do. I know that that is also how we have the JT Gallery set up but with a more personal touch.

Let me ask... if you can set an account in photobucket to the correct size than why do we see so my users posting larger pictures and running out of bandwidth much faster than IShack or Flickr which are also free?

Admin

[TallJeep]

Admin, on May 24 2008, 06:12 PM, said:

Can't you do the same with Image Shack or the other listed on the first post? I personally have checked out IShack and they do. I know that that is also how we have the JT Gallery set up but with a more personal touch.

Let me ask... if you can set an account in photobucket to the correct size than why do we see so my users posting larger pictures and running out of bandwidth much faster than IShack or Flickr which are also free?

Admin

Maybe people just don't know they can set it to change the size and I guess photobucket is more popular than others.

[soflmuddin]

have had no problems with imageshack. you can choose what size pic and has description of what sizes are used for, ie..message board, e-mail, avatar.etc.... best of all free.

[73_cj_project]

For me it's not a matter of not being able (capable) of using the others, but I already have several thousand pics organized and loaded onto Photobucket, it's a lot of work to transfer (upload) them again. As for the larger posting size, for me, it's hard to really glean much detail from an image that is 640x480, most people have larger monitors anymore and don't browse in the smaller resolutions, but I guess some still do and I understand for the sake of formatting, that is your policy. Since becoming aware of the policies, I have abided by them, but it does require following a different set of rules for each different message board. However, you being the admins, have the discretion to do what works best for you and the board. For me, it's not worth moving all my pictures to another service just for one message board I post on. All the others still allow Photobucket and haven't had any apparent problems that I know of. I hope this message comes across properly, I'm not bashing, just stating that for me, it's not worth, creating yet another account, just for the sake of posting pictures over here. I will still participate on this board, just not visually I suppose

[Livefree]

I would switch to one the works with Jeep Talk but I have lots of photos on Photobucket. It just don't seam worth the trouble of moving them or starting another provider. I like the features of Photobucket and I know how to use it and don't have to take the time to learn a new product. Using a new provider would also require me to setup one more password and user name. I maybe able to use my current pass work for photobucket some sites may not allow the same formate I currently use for photobucket.

[Admin]

Appreciate all the feedback. Let me address a few issues mentioned.

73_cj_project, on May 25 2008, 12:15 AM, said:

For me it's not a matter of not being able (capable) of using the others, but I already have several thousand pics organized and loaded onto Photobucket, it's a lot of work to transfer (upload) them again.

Yes, I can understand your point, this is one of the reasons I came back to re address the problem.

Quote

As for the larger posting size, for me, it's hard to really glean much detail from an image that is 640x480, most people have larger monitors anymore and don't browse in the smaller resolutions, but I guess some still do and I understand for the sake of formatting, that is your policy.

You can pretty much expect this to never change and stay the same it is not only for people smaller monitors causing the formatting of the interface of JT being all over the place but for larger monitors also. People with larger monitors tend to have more than one window open not making the full use of the entire monitor as even though we have tab browsing in most of the browsers people will use the real estate of that monitor. For me personally I can have as many as 4 windows open at a time. If a picture is larger than 640x480 I can tell you it will be deleted. You will also note that in most web sites that you visit none of the graphics or pictures that are show are that big being the norm.

Quote

Since becoming aware of the policies, I have abided by them, but it does require following a different set of rules for each different message board. However, you being the admins, have the discretion to do what works best for you and the board. All the others still allow Photobucket and haven't had any apparent problems that I know of.

We don't try to imitate other boards because from what we have seen their formatting is all over the place and some are just too busy, they also have major security issues that we do not (not that it could not happen to us). We consider our interface and custom features one of the best, if not the, compare to any Jeep board for the things you can do here. And to give you a bit of insight.... other boards (much bigger than JT in membership) have called us to see how we do it and get some insight from us, that should tell you something.

Quote

I hope this message comes across properly, I'm not bashing, just stating that for me, will still participate on this board, just not visually I suppose

Did not take it this way at all, glad to have your feedback. You must do what is best for you also.

Livefree, on May 25 2008, 07:19 AM, said:

I would switch to one that works with Jeep Talk but I have lots of photos on Photobucket. It just don't seam worth the trouble of moving them or starting another provider. I like the features of Photobucket and I know how to use it and don't have to take the time to learn a new product. Using a new provider would also require me to setup one more password and user name. I maybe able to use my current pass work for photobucket some sites may not allow the same formate I currently use for photobucket.

Livefree, your biggest point that I can see is taking time to learn the new service from something that you are already used to as well as moving the pictures.

Most of you should have backups of pictures that you upload to any service, having this should be easy to re upload especially if they size automatically for you. Yes it can take some time depending on how many but I do this all the time with software and it is really not that big of a deal. I would also like to hear from people that are using other services, if the scenario was reversed in where you had to move would the inconveniences be the same?

Admin

[JeepsR4Grlz2]

73_cj_project, on May 25 2008, 12:15 AM, said:

For me it's not a matter of not being able (capable) of using the others, but I already have several thousand pics organized and loaded onto Photobucket, it's a lot of work to transfer (upload) them again. As for the larger posting size, for me, it's hard to really glean much detail from an image that is 640x480, most people have larger monitors anymore and don't browse in the smaller resolutions, but I guess some still do and I understand for the sake of formatting, that is your policy. Since becoming aware of the policies, I have abided by them, but it does require following a different set of rules for each different message board. However, you being the admins, have the discretion to do what works best for you and the board. For me, it's not worth moving all my pictures to another service just for one message board I post on. All the others still allow Photobucket and haven't had any apparent problems that I know of. I hope this message comes across properly, I'm not bashing, just stating that for me, it's not worth, creating yet another account, just for the sake of posting pictures over here. I will still participate on this board, just not visually I suppose

Ditto. I agree with Gus.

[Admin]

JeepsR4Grlz2, on May 26 2008, 12:33 PM, said:

Ditto. I agree with Gus.

I have seen the link that Gus has on Photobucket and I can see his point since he mentions he has several thousand pics, not sure if this is the case but he seems close. Even though we have not heard from other users with other services I would like to help 73CJProject as well as the few others, we are seriously looking at this again.

I do not see a link in photobucket for you since you agreed with 73CJProject, do you also have several thousand pics (they don't have to be of Jeeps only)? Can you provide a link?
Also please see my points and answers to 73CJProject in the prior post. Would be happy if you can elaborate in your agreement.

If we do allow back linking to PB we would also monitor this close since we see that pictures that get posted are very large and they seem to run out of bandwidth at times which would be deleted. Have not seen this too often with the other services.

73CJProject, are you paying for the extra service in Photobucket or are you using it for free?

Admin

[JeepNWilly]

The biggest benefit I see with free Photo Bucket is ability to organize. You cannot do that in free Image Shack, at least I never found a way. I also lost several pictures on Image Shack and they were no help when I contacted them which is why I stopped uploading there.

[Smokey]

I guess I will chime in and voice my opinion. I have not been on jeeptalk long but when I started I researched which was the easiest and most cost effective way to post pictures on the internet and jeeptalk. I found photobucket to fit this situation. The PB service allows the easiest upload and resizing option of them all, that I have found so far. If I download them to my PC in a large format when I upload them to PB I can resize (640 x 480 or any other size) them all easily. Granted the other picture boards allow this but it is not as user friendly as PB. Also, some of the other solutions limit the number of pictures you can upload at one time. I take as many as 300+ pictures at a time sometime. If I want to upload them all to a photo service PB makes it easy.

Now I have pictures on many different photo sites because JT requested that we look for another option than PB if we are using it. I am not having as much fun uploading pictures that can be used on JT, so my willingness to upload pictures to JT has become more frustrating.

I wish there could be a solution to this, so we could use PB as a picture hosting service.

[JeepsR4Grlz2]

Admin, on May 26 2008, 01:00 PM, said:

I have seen the link that Gus has on Photobucket and I can see his point since he mentions he has several thousand pics, not sure if this is the case but he seems close. Even though we have not heard from other users with other services I would like to help 73CJProject as well as the few others, we are seriously looking at this again.

I do not see a link in photobucket for you since you agreed with 73CJProject, do you also have several thousand pics (they don't have to be of Jeeps only)? Can you provide a link?
Also please see my points and answers to 73CJProject in the prior post. Would be happy if you can elaborate in your agreement.

If we do allow back linking to PB we would also monitor this close since we see that pictures that get posted are very large and they seem to run out of bandwidth at times which would be deleted. Have not seen this too often with the other services.

73CJProject, are you paying for the extra service in Photobucket or are you using it for free?

Admin

I have a lot of pics on photobucket. Maybe not thousands, but so far, its been the easiest and most secure (I pay for the extra service) way of sharing pics and videos from all of my escapades- jeeping or not. Also, I've made a point to change the size of the file to adhere to the jeeptalk rules. I think Imageshack is a PITA. Its time consuming and frustrating. I don't need or want to duplicate all the pics I want to share with my fellow jeepers from my photobucket account to Imageshack. I agree with Smokey too. Photobucket is more user friendly. Admin, what link are you asking me for?

[Admin]

JeepsR4Grlz2, on May 26 2008, 07:34 PM, said:

(I pay for the extra service) way of sharing pics and videos from all of my escapades- jeeping or not. Also, I've made a point to change the size of the file to adhere to the jeeptalk rules. I think Imageshack is a PITA.
Admin, what link are you asking me for?

I wanted to see what type of file tree you had setup on PB, from your answer you should not have problems since you are paying for Photobucket. From the size of the albums that 73CJproject has I have a feeling that he might be also paying for his. Since you are not paying for Image Shack there would not be a comparison.

I thank you all for your feedback. I have taken some additional measures for security. I've read all your feedback.
I will leave the topic open, we will use this topic to update and continue our feedback with PB.

We are going to allow linking to PB one more time but I'm going to need some cooperation from the people who are using it and help police it a bit closer. I hope I'm not asking too much.

I do have to disagree with some of you with regards to the bandwidth, the free version of Photobucket seems to run out faster than others, we have seen this over and over.

The people who have the Photobucket, Image Shack and Flickr paid version seem to do well but they are not free. I guess that is the price we all pay for the hassle we get from the free services. We hope they get better. Personally if I was going to pay I would rather have my own private and more secure album for this.

Your cooperation on Photobucket will be needed with the following (especially the free version):

1. Make sure that your pictures are not larger than 640x480.
2. Report any red Xs and pictures that run out of bandwidth to a Moderator for removal.
3. Monitor your Avatars for red Xs.
4. If you are going to upload 3rd party picks make sure you scan them for bad scripts or viruses before you upload to PB.

Most of you that are paying for Photobucket should not have problems with #2 and #3.

Again thank you for your constructive feedback. We will do all we can to help everyone down our end. Our goal is to keep JeepTalk running without interruption.

I will also like to thank the people who keep JeepTalk running such as the sponsors along with contributions from private individuals.
Please take time to visit the sponsor links every now and then.

You may go ahead and link to your PB, let me know if you have any problems.

Admin

[73_cj_project]

Sorry I haven't posted back in response to your questions, I was away from the computer for the weekend. I am using the free version of Photobucket. I haven't ever had a problem with running out of bandwidth on any of my photos, even when I post the larger sizes on some of the other boards I participate on. I'm not sure if I'm just not that popular and they don't get viewed very much. Whatever the case is, I've had my PB account for several years now, so perhaps that has something to do with it. I appreciate the opportunity to voice our opinions on this matter. I hope none of my thoughts came across poorly. And my choice to not move the pictures to another site is simply due to the lack of free time. I may move them to another service in time, but from what I've heard of others' experience using the different sites, it sounds like they aren't very user friendly. And I'm not sure exactly how many thousand pictures I have, but I know that there sure are a bunch Hopefully the second run with PB will work out better for JT. Thanks again for all the hard work to keep the board up and running.

[Jeepmed]

Thank You.

[Livefree]

Thank You!!