Photo Hosting

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stuartcnz
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Photo Hosting

Post by stuartcnz »

With the demise of free webhosting on Photobucket, this forum and others around the web have found a large number of photos have disappeared. So the question is, where to from here for posting photos to the forums.

The biggest issue is really about the amount of disk space that hosting photos for a forum takes. For example, if this server had a large enough disk space, I could just switch a setting, which would allow members to upload photos directly to the forum. Then the Photobucket debacle wouldn't be an issue at all. However, the reality is, that the forum would not be sustainable as a free service, if I was to go that route.

In the mean time I would consider tinypic.com for hosting photos. Here is a how to : viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1906

The big risk with any free hosting site though, is that they can flick the switch at any point, as Photobucket did. Also it appears that tinypic.com is owned by Photobucket, so who knows how long that service is going to remain free.

Linode.com, which is where this forum is currently hosted offers a $5 per month ($7.50 with automatic backups) server plan, which would be more that adequate for most individuals needs. But the problem with it, is that the user needs to know how to install an operating system from scratch and how to do all of the security and software installation/configuration and updates required. In the long run this is probably still the most promising solution at this stage, provided the right Operating system/package configuration can be found.

There is a project called freedombox https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual which would probably be suitable, if they add some photo hosting software to it, as it is designed for the less technically literate to be able to setup and use. It is still in development, and isn't meant' to be used as a remote server, rather it is meant to be used in ones home, but I have set one up on a public facing server before, and it worked fine. It is also becoming more stable as development proceeds.

I will keep looking to see what other options I can find. Any other ideas that members have would be good to see posted to this thread too.
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stuartcnz
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Re: Photo Hosting

Post by stuartcnz »

Another option, which would probably be easier for most people would be something like a Hostgator.com site which cost about $7 - $10 per month. They take care of most of the security issues, and all of the Operating system issues. They also have one click installation for things like photo gallery software.

The only added charge would be for a domain name, which you would need for one of these types of plan; about $10 - $15 per year.
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Re: Photo Hosting

Post by Stealth Camper »

I have been looking at Smugmug anyway, since Photocarp has been getting more obnoxious by the month/week. I have been getting closer and closer to let them keep their "free" stuff - they have made it not worth the effort to mess with them.

Any idea if pics can be loaded here from there?


Just out of curiosity - about how big a drive is that to host all the pics here? I know there are a LOT of pics around....
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stuartcnz
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Re: Photo Hosting

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Stealth Camper wrote: Just out of curiosity - about how big a drive is that to host all the pics here? I know there are a LOT of pics around....
Thats a two or three part question. I have no idea about the actual space that the photos already here would take up, but it would be quite a lot. But even if we did have the capacity to host all the photos here, that would not enable us to gather the existing photos from their current hosts.
The problem is that photos take up are data heavy, which is to say that comparatively, the size of a single photo is the equivalent of a lot of other software files, used for running the forum.

The server that the forum is currently on, has a 30GB hard disk. In that 30GB, is the entire operating system, plus the software for the websites and other programs being run on it. And the swap space, which is used as extra ram, when capacity needs it.

Also when deciding on whether there is capacity to host photos here, the future space requirements needs to be taken into consideration. Already, without hosting any photos, the database has quadrupled in size since Sharkey hosted and ran the forum. And that is only the equivalent of adding about three or four typical photo images to a single post.
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Re: Photo Hosting

Post by Stealth Camper »

stuartcnz wrote:
Stealth Camper wrote: Just out of curiosity - about how big a drive is that to host all the pics here? I know there are a LOT of pics around....
Thats a two or three part question. I have no idea about the actual space that the photos already here would take up, but it would be quite a lot. But even if we did have the capacity to host all the photos here, that would not enable us to gather the existing photos from their current hosts.
The problem is that photos take up are data heavy, which is to say that comparatively, the size of a single photo is the equivalent of a lot of other software files, used for running the forum.

The server that the forum is currently on, has a 30GB hard disk. In that 30GB, is the entire operating system, plus the software for the websites and other programs being run on it. And the swap space, which is used as extra ram, when capacity needs it.

Also when deciding on whether there is capacity to host photos here, the future space requirements needs to be taken into consideration. Already, without hosting any photos, the database has quadrupled in size since Sharkey hosted and ran the forum. And that is only the equivalent of adding about three or four typical photo images to a single post.

Probably 6 or 8 part question! I know that my photo archive currently resides on a 1 TB hard drive - 2 drives actually...one backup! And it is just about full, so will be moving to 3 TB drives soon.

And that is just the digital pics I have accumulated in the last 15 years or so. While taking film, I would also get the accompanying CD for several years and have put most of those in the archive. What I still have much to do is scanning all the pics I have taken in my life - have just barely scratched the surface on that and the kids will probably have to deal with it, if they want. I told them to just pile everything I own up around me in the house when I die, get a couple of 5 gal jugs of gas and light it up. Problem of clutter solved. (SWMBO was not happy about that idea, but they know not to do that until we are both gone.)
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