The Land Before Time > Forum Projects

Unraveling the Photobucket Censor

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ImpracticalDino:
Hello, everyone! If you haven't seen already, some Photobucket photos have suddenly been blurred, and they have that dreaded watermark on the top for everyone to see. Interestingly enough, some Photobucket photos weren't affected, but now I have found an explanation. According to a forum thread post from the SevenString website, the person there got an email from them stating...


--- Quote ---Photobucket currently hosts over 130 million photos for over 11 million free users! Effective June 1, 2019, new hosting limits will take effect that will impact a small portion of our image hosters.

What Are the New Limits?
Free hosters will be restricted to 25MB of hosting bandwidth per month. YOUR CURRENT USAGE IS OVER 25MB PER MONTH SO THIS NEW LIMITATION WILL AFFECT YOU.

What Happens If I Go Over My Bandwidth Allowance?
Free hosters, like you, who use more than 25MB of bandwidth will have all of their hosted photos watermarked and blurred.
--- End quote ---

I'm sure that anyone who still uses Photobucket for some reason would've gotten that email by now, unless you have a paid subscription or something.

I've been pondering for a while how these images can be restored to its original form, and my salvation came just recently. As @StardustSoldier pointed out in this thread, he made a shocking discovery.

Thank you for the inspiration I got from this post for my idea, StardustSoldier! :smile


--- Quote from: StardustSoldier on September 19, 2019, 06:52:32 AM ---
^I discovered today that, if I'm on the forum via my phone instead of my desktop computer, it actually does get rid of the Photobucket blurriness and watermarks and shows the image properly. Not sure if it'd work on every phone, but I wanted to mention it all the same.

--- End quote ---

So, there you have it. An idea immediately popped into my head upon reading this, and I was excited to test it out. Here's my plan. I would download those clean photos onto my phone, transfer it to a desktop computer, upload it to another image sharing site (Imgur is my choice of preference), and post the newly restored caption in the same caption thread that I got it from.

Did it work? Well, see for yourself. I will compile a list of all Photobucket caption threads that have been unraveled and saved. Stay tuned, folks! :DD



List of Photobucket Caption Threads Unraveled (so far)

Mo screenshot: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=11457.0
Littlefoot bathtime: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=12840.0
The Flier Trio: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=7503.0
Mo caption: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=6544.0
Littlefoot and Mo: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=12901.0
Pterano and Petrie: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=7070.0
Chomper Without Teeth: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=7134.0
Cera & Tricia Caption!: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=6532.0
Yet another Pterano and Petrie: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=7353.0
Too many Yellowbellies, Part II: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=11864.0
Pterano Caption: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=6486.0
Daddy's New Hat: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=11709.0
A windy day for Mama Flyer: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=12881.0
Littlefoot in a sharptooth's mouth: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=13208.0
Mama Flyer and Littlefoot: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=12949.0
Petrie and Cera are surprised: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=12956.0
Petrie and his army of clones, Part II: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=11863.0
Chomper, Ducky, and a Sand Creeper: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=13110.0
Spike is not impressed with his new barber: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=13149.0
Chomper sneaking up on Littlefoot: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=13118.0
Doc and Littlefoot: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=13184.0
No sleep for Petrie: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=11714.0
Happy Cera-2: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=11824.0
Littlefoot the King: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=12315.0
Flying Littlefoot-2: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=11895.0
Cera's Plot, Part III: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=11949.0
Ducky finds the Ring: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=11946.0
Petrie's mom finds Petrie: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=13026.0
The Three Cowards: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=12135.0
Cera's New Friend: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=12156.0
Happy Cera: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=11807.0
Cera's Plot: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=11668.0
Ducky and Petrie are having fun, Part III: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=12047.0
Littlefoot sees Heaven: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=12132.0
Insidious Ducky: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=12015.0
Cera's Attack: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=11920.0
Petrie lands on Littlefoot: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=13168.0
Repost of Shorty and Littlefoot: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=12440.0
Cera's Flower Garden: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=11679.0
Suddenly Chomper: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=12762.0
Panicked Mo: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=3867.0


Other Threads with Photobucket Unraveled

LBT Plushies at Wal*Mart: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=2556.0
New LBT Carry Case: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=3827.0
Big Littlefoot Plushie and More: http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=2609.0

Mumbling:
As an alternative, you can install the following addon:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/photobucket-embedded-fix/?src=search

Should be a similar one for Chrome if that's your browser of choice. Sadly we've had to deal with this problem before and our brave crew of Photobucket Obliterators got rid of most of the offending images (though of course many still remain). I do recommend that for future image uploads, you use either the forum's attachment ability or a trusted image site, such as imgur.

ImpracticalDino:
I will continue to do this despite the alternative you have presented. While it may provide a quick fix to the photos, it is not a permanent solution if you know what I mean. How does the add-on function, by the way?

It’s a shame though, really. Photobucket is still blocking and limiting images even up to this day, and due to the popularity of the image hosting website back in the day, many photos on the forum have disappeared because of it. Even the surviving ones we have now is hit with blurriness and a highly obvious watermark on top of it, A.K.A a paywall. Was a subscription for Photobucket like $400 a month back in the day? I thought I saw someone mention that in a post on this forum. But even when the prices are much more fair today, there are better image hosting sites to use, such as Imgur, like you have already stated.

I do understand the move they’re making in terms of making it a paid hosting service. Tinypic, which was free and ran by them, couldn’t raise enough revenue from advertising and was therefore shutdown as a result.

But still, thanks for the suggestion. Much appreciated. :yes

Mumbling:
The add-on basically replaces the blurry picture with a logo with the clear pic straight from photobucket. Pretty effective, but not a permanent solution as you mentioned. Another option is to simply replace the picture in the original post, though only mods and admins can do so.

StardustSoldier:

--- Quote from: Mumbling on September 21, 2019, 12:55:35 AM ---
I do recommend that for future image uploads, you use either the forum's attachment ability or a trusted image site, such as imgur.

--- End quote ---

Huh, I never noticed the attachment feature before. Testing it out now.

Edit: Okay, that's pretty nifty. Although I do wonder, if images are uploaded directly to the forum via attachments (rather than an external image hoster), is there a limit on how many images can be uploaded? Would there be any potential size/data limits?

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