Taming Photobucket.......

[BigSteve22]

I don't know about anyone else's experiences with Photobucket, but I for one was just about fed up to the max with it's poorly written, overly script laden, memory leaking ass! I dreaded opening the site because by the time I finished loading a few pix, the 50 or so scripts fighting for the same interrupts slowed everything down to the point of uselessness.

So today I sat down to see what was actually needed and what was just worthless BS. Using NoScript, (as I have since it first came out), I logged onto the site, and allowed it to run all scripts, relying on Norton NAV to catch anything funky that popped up while I worked. Then I started shutting down scripts one by one, noting which one I killed each time, and let the site resend the page. With 50scripts running, this took a while.

In the end, it turns out that only 1 script, from pbscr.com, is actually required to run the site. This is actually a Photobucket server site used to handle it's own scripting. You must allow Photobucket to run scripts, but all you need to allow to run is pbscr.com.

Now Photobucket shows 2 scripts running. The native script loading the page, and the one from pbscr.com. The interface is much more responsive, scrolling is smoother, (but still not actually "smooth"), and all the annoying ads are gone. I stayed logged in for about 2 hours to see how things went with no slow down noted.

Don't know if this is important to anyone else but me, but I figured I'd share the information. Hope this helps someone.

Cheers.

ccasion14:

 

[musicispeace]

Many thanks. I've avoided such platforms as the bucket for a host of reasons. It appears one cannot just upload a jpeg from their desktop to the forum here. Luckily others are not as bunkered as I am though 

 

[drewfx]

I abandoned PB after I found it caused like 10 scripts to run for anyone/everyone viewing every embedded pic on a page like this one. I couldn't see my own pictures after I posted them because I block marketing things. I don't know about now, but at the time I found that they stopped just serving up the picture and instead when you put a picture tag in a post here it redirects so that it can launch a bunch of marketing scripts before running a script that actually serves up the picture.

For every person viewing the page. For every picture.

 

[Cagey]

As they say - there's no such thing as a free lunch. Why would a company build a monster server farm and pay to operate/maintain it, then give away all the storage space on it to anybody who comes along? Because they want something, and that something is either behavioral or demographic data (or both) from their users. That's worth a lotta money to them as they can either use it or sell it (or both) to make money in some other area. 

Commercial server space for a casual user is actually pretty inexpensive. Companies like 1&1 will lease you space on their farm to do with what you will, and you don't have to deal with all the spyware/malware.

 

[drewfx]

imgur is comparatively free from this kind of nonsense. The back end does have the usual suite of marketing scripts, but it doesn't require multiple redirects and scripts that run for everyone viewing every embedded picture on a site like this one. And this means that it doesn't prevent people from actually viewing the pictures one posts because of adblocking, browser configuration or whatnot.

PB has shown that they're perfectly willing to break things at any given moment so that it no longer even functions for the one thing that it's designed to do, so why use them?  :dontknow:

 

[stratamania]

I am thinking of looking for an alternate to Photobucket... several hours of work to update the build  threads etc, but its possible a bit at a time.

 

[BigSteve22]

I am thinking of looking for an alternate to Photobucket... several hours of work to update the build  threads etc, but its possible a bit at a time.

Also been on my mind. Just went w/PB because it was easy and free. Been looking at imgur.com, any one have experience or amusing anecdotes about them?

???

 

[stratamania]

I initially had Photobucket a few years back, so I could use it to post more images in EBay listings without fees and continued using it.

Now you can post several images on Ebay without fees so I don't need it for that.  Not tried Imgur, but looking at alternatives such as that or Flickr.

Just found this it might be worth a read.

http://lifehacker.com/5808625/five-best-web-sites-for-image-hosting-and-photo-sharing/

 

[drewfx]

I am thinking of looking for an alternate to Photobucket... several hours of work to update the build  threads etc, but its possible a bit at a time.

Also been on my mind. Just went w/PB because it was easy and free. Been looking at imgur.com, any one have experience or amusing anecdotes about them?

???

Back when I found these problems with PB I asked around about alternatives and lots of people recommended imgur so that's what I did and it seems to be fine, though trying to organize things into albums can be confusing.

 

[GOM]

FWIW the GOTM photos have been hosted on imgur for the last couple of years without major issues.

 

[stratamania]

FWIW the GOTM photos have been hosted on imgur for the last couple of years without major issues.

Good to know...

interestingly their terms of service say not to use them to link to from other sites or use them as a Content Delivery Service. I just read this just now.

 

[BigSteve22]

FWIW the GOTM photos have been hosted on imgur for the last couple of years without major issues.

Good to know...

Very good to know, i fact I signed up for imgur and just changed my recent posts to reflect the new addresses. I'm gonna have to do some reading on the Imgur site, because....

trying to organize things into albums can be confusing.

Thanks for the insights!

:icon_thumright:

 

[Verne Bunsen]

As they say - there's no such thing as a free lunch. Why would a company build a monster server farm and pay to operate/maintain it, then give away all the storage space on it to anybody who comes along? Because they want something, and that something is either behavioral or demographic data (or both) from their users. That's worth a lotta money to them as they can either use it or sell it (or both) to make money in some other area. 

My mantra regarding such things is, "If you aren't paying for the product, then you ARE the product". Everything in the world is a vehicle to put advertisers in front of people.

 

[BigSteve22]

Everything in the world is a vehicle to put advertisers in front of people.

That's why my DVR is one of my best friends.

 

[AutoBat]

As a very regular Imgurian, please please please do not click the lime green Publish button when you upload images. It's already uploaded and you have a link to it, "publishing" makes it appear on the main site to everyone on the Imgur site.

 

[BigSteve22]

As a very regular Imgurian, please please please do not click the lime green Publish button when you upload images. It's already uploaded and you have a link to it, "publishing" makes it appear on the main site to everyone on the Imgur site.

Thanks AutoBat!