Photo Hosting
Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 5:30 pm
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.
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.