To follow up on some earlier threads on this general topic ...
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=85310https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=84713https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=80893&p=375086&hilit=flickr#p375086etc.
...which I would expect to be of major concern both to WH (Paul) (because so many reports will be full of blanks, hence massively reducing their value to site visitors), and to a large number of Walkhighlanders...
How to deal with the Flickr problem?From what I see, a large number of Walkhighlanders use Flickr to store photos that they hot link to in their reports.
If you are one of these, you will already have received notification from Flickr that henceforth free storage will be limited to 1000 photos, and any more will cost you $49.99 per year.
QUOTEl "
Free members with more than 1,000 photos or videos uploaded to Flickr will no longer be able to upload new content after Tuesday, January 8, 2019 unless they upgrade to Pro. After February 5, 2019, free accounts that contain over 1,000 photos or videos will have content deleted -- starting from oldest to newest date uploaded -- to meet the new limit. Members may always choose to download content over the limit at any time prior to these dates."
Actually this isn't a huge amount of money, but what rankles is the way they've done it. Many of us have very large numbers of photos stored, and the Feb 5th deadline gives little time if you have such a large number. Moreover, there is absolutely no guarantee that they won't raise the price to $149.99 next year, and $449.99 the following year. So in any event, even if I were to decide it's worth paying for storage, I wouldn't want to stay with Flickr.
I've been looking into alternatives that:-
1. have a reasonable level of free storage
2. commit to that storage being free in perpetuity
3. allow a reasonable rate of photo downloads (some sites only allow a limited number per hour, day or week)
4. allow a reasonable image size
5. have an inbuilt BB code that you can access
6. transmit your original file name when you upload files (so that you can easily replace pics stored in Flickr for those stored by the new provider).
I've not finished my investigations, but so far have identified 2 candidates that seem to solve most of the problems:
Imgbox, and
imgbb
I have replaced Flickr files in my last 2 WHRs with files I've stored on one or other of these sites, and they seem to be working fine.
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=85470 (imgbox). Quite laborious to swap file addresses.
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=85064 (imgbb). Quite efficient to swap file addresses.
I've looked at around 30 different free providers, and have found issues with the majority (not meeting the criteria mentioned above). I'm having access difficulties with Imgur and Imgbam, as yet unresolved - they seem to meet the criteria on paper, but I haven't been able to test either because of the access problem..
The purpose of this post???It seems to me that, instead of those of us affected (especially those who only use Flickr for WHRs and therefore have no interest in anything more sophisticated) investigating the hundreds of free storage and sharing sites, and discovering problems the hard way, we could share information on this site, and hopefully get to an alternative more quickly and efficiently.
Anyone got any information to share???