Smug mug vs. Photobucket.

[GeoffMiller]

I want to get an account set up. I noticed lately that a lot of the photobucket pictures have been made unavailable. Reason? Who do you folks recommend that I sign up with. Thanks. geoff

[kbasa]

Big Smugmug fan here, having been a customer for 4 years.

You get an MOA discount, as well.

[mrich12000]

I to have been miffed about not being abel to post my photbucket pics, is there a problem as my other leanered cycolist has stated and can it be fixed,seems sorta like we are siding with one provider. My two cents and a loonie to..

[SNC1923]

Big Smugmug fan here, having been a customer for 4 years.

You get an MOA discount, as well.

+1.

Can't say enough good things about them. Do it.

[Mongo]

I use Flickr. I love the UI.

[Rapid_Roy]

I use photobucket, it's free. The pics you see removed just means somebody may have delelted photos off their account which were linked here (like I did).
I know of no problems with photobucket pictures being displayed here.
YMMV.

[tommcgee]

http://imageshack.us/

It's free too.

[darcym]

I use Photobucket. Every once in awhile I go thru it and reorganize, which breaks the links, but most of the time the links are old so I don't care that much. I've got so many photos on there now, I don't know if there's a limit. The ads are annoying, but the uploading software works good and the linking is easy. AND it's free.

[SNC1923]

There's much to be said for free, but my experience is that things rarely are.

My smugmug site looks exactly the way I want it to look. It contains no ads. It's fast and reliable. It's infinitely customizable by me or by users. I can control access to content or allow full access, I can password protect, really do just about anything.

I pay a modest fee once per year and have had exactly 0 problems. I might also add that they have in-house professionals and artists-in-residence as well as a number of subsidiary websites, such as dgrin.com. It's a fantastic learning environment, has great customer support (from staff as well as users), myriad contests and even just plain, old give-aways. Dgrin.com is giving a high-quality camera strap (something that would retail for about $12 or $15) to everyone who asks for one. That's pretty cool.

I can't knock others' experience with other sites; I'm sure they have their merits. Personally, I'm so annoyed when I'm directed to a site with advertising, or for which I must sign up, I rarely go beyond that wall to actually look at the pictures.

That may just be me.

[bikerfish1100]

never found a "wall", popups (is your popup blocker enabled?) or redirections with photobucket. just free, easy and fine quality. no pics being unlinked either.
no experience with the pay sites, so won't knowck them, other than to say that whatever little they cost is that much $ still in MY pocket!

[kbasa]

There's much to be said for free, but my experience is that things rarely are.

My smugmug site looks exactly the way I want it to look. It contains no ads. It's fast and reliable. It's infinitely customizable by me or by users. I can control access to content or allow full access, I can password protect, really do just about anything.

I pay a modest fee once per year and have had exactly 0 problems. I might also add that they have in-house professionals and artists-in-residence as well as a number of subsidiary websites, such as dgrin.com. It's a fantastic learning environment, has great customer support (from staff as well as users), myriad contests and even just plain, old give-aways. Dgrin.com is giving a high-quality camera strap (something that would retail for about $12 or $15) to everyone who asks for one. That's pretty cool.

I can't knock others' experience with other sites; I'm sure they have their merits. Personally, I'm so annoyed when I'm directed to a site with advertising, or for which I must sign up, I rarely go beyond that wall to actually look at the pictures.

That may just be me.

My take exactly. I like that Smugmug is a family operation, run by a guy that's a motorcycle enthusiast. I like that it's more of a community than I've found elsewhere, though Flickr is probably coming close (though the Flickr browse interface suxor to me - thumbnails are tiny and that next/back thing up in the corner is kinda lame).

But mostly, I like that it doesn't have any ads. If I was html able, I'd customize my interface even more.

If you reference another SmugMug user when you sign up, both you and the other user get a discount. How cool is that? I've collected $10 off next year's renewal.

[tommcgee]

There are ad blockers out there for pretty much every browser. I'd give up the internet if they didn't work.

[earello]

I think it depends on what you want out of the site. If you're planning on uploading all of your pictures, organizing them, and sharing the albums with your friends and family, then you might do well to research the pay sights and see if the features you'll be paying for will make your life easier.

For my part, I just wanted someplace to host a few of my pictures so I could post links to them here and elsewhere on the web. Don't see any reason to pay for that...

As for photobucket, I haven't had any issues uploading or posting pictures. I even embedded a short video I uploaded to a post in the forum.

My 2 cents...

[SHERIDESABEEMER]

I like Flickr and its community. I have the paid version, and a whole 'nother set of riding friends over there.

[crazydrummerdude]

I use photobucket to host the pictures in my urban exploration blog. I've had no problems.