In my opinion, where Photobucket have got it all wrong, is the AUD$520 you have to pay for the "Plus 500" plan, being the ONLY plan that allows 3rd party hosting.
What you are really paying for in the "Plus 500 plan" is the whopping 520GB of online storage space for your photos!
Who the hell here needs 520 GB!.... That is the equivalent of storing 1.5 million online web sized images of 800 x 600 pixels each being 300kb !!!
In the 3 and a half years I have been a member here at AFF, and adding up the total capacity of all the many photos I have posted in my Show N Shine thread and other posts... I am only using 8% of 2GB or approximately 200MB, since each 800 x 600 pixel jpeg photo is less than 300Kb in size each.
I only use Photobucket for my photos I post on AFF.
As a photographer, I use another online photo storage site with 3rd party hosting, which I've used for the last 13 years and is excellent.(
www.pbase.com)... Costs me about $46 a year. ... I just wish I had used this service instead of Photobucket for my AFF photos, but I wanted to keep the two separate.
Now if Photobucket offered a plan that had say 10GB or less with 3rd party hosting for say $10 a month, I think it would be a great deal.
I have a feeling and I am prediting that with the worldwide backlash from millions of their users, and of course very few opting to pay US$400.... They will eventually offer 3rd party hosting plans with less storage space at a more reasonable rate.