Discussion Post - Topic: Image Hosting for Fan-Artists

[goss]

This is a Discussion post for a topic many Fan-Artists are currently concerned with: Image Hosting. (thanks to mekare for highlighting the issue)

Poll #18579 Free Image Hosting

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 19

View Respondents

Are you satisfied with your current Free Image Hosting Service?

View Answers

Yes
6 (33.3%)

No
3 (16.7%)

Somewhat satisfied, but on the lookout for a better Free Image Hosting Service
7 (38.9%)

Photobucket SUCKS
10 (55.6%)

Which Free Image Hosting Service(s) do you use? Tick all that apply.

View Answers

Livejournal
2 (11.8%)

Dreamwidth
8 (47.1%)

Photobucket
6 (35.3%)

Imgur
7 (41.2%)

Flickr
2 (11.8%)

PostImage.org
0 (0.0%)

Google Photos
0 (0.0%)

500px
0 (0.0%)

Dropbox
0 (0.0%)

FreeImageHosting.net
0 (0.0%)

TinyPic.com
2 (11.8%)

ImageShack.us
0 (0.0%)

ImageVenue
0 (0.0%)

Other free image hosting service, which I will tell you about below...
7 (41.2%)

If you selected Other, please tell us about it here:

View Answers

...and then feel free to use the comments sections to elaborate on your choices, post questions, suggestions, advice, and any other discussion dealing with the topic.

Comments

[goss]

I used free image hosting from Photobucket for more than 10 years, but have also have a paid-for webspace, where I have my Fan-Art archived.

The main reason I preferred to use Photobucket for posting images to my journal and AO3, was because many years ago with people hot-linking artwork without permission, and then putting them on message boards, it would cause the bandwidth to be exceeded, resulting in the website crashing. But nowadays, that's not much of an issue for me.

After the Photobucket Crisis last week, I moved all of those older images to my own webspace, where I'll have final control over them, including allowing 3rd party viewing. If you are an artist interested in owning an independent website, you can purchase a domain name and web hosting plan through sites like GoDaddy.com. Like any yearly subscription, there's an on-going annual maintenance fee though.

[amberdreams]

Does your own website allow 3rd party sharing - ie can you give yourself an HTML code from your website to post on DW or LJ?

[goss]

Yeah, that's what I've been doing since I stopped using Photobucket. I tested it out by uploading an image to my own webspace and then posting it to my journal, and everyone was able to view it.

I just have to be careful not to exceed the bandwidth in my web-hosting plan, otherwise the entire site will go down.

[amberdreams]

Ah ok. I'm starting to do more art and was wondering whether I should get myself a website to look a bit more professional and keep stuff together. At the moment I'm using Facebook, but it's not ideal. I'll have to have another look into it.

[amberdreams]

I mainly use Flickr for photos since Photobucket imposed limits (before this current fiasco) which meant I'd had to open 3 photobucket accounts. Unfortunately I can't move everything off Photobucket to Flickr though, because Flickr don't support animated gifs. So if anyone knows of a free hosting site that provides html codes to share gifs, let me know. I can't get giphy's codes to work, and photoland.io is ok but has limits on how many pics you can upload at one time, which is annoying.

[goss]

I believe PostImage.org supports gifs. So they should be able to host animated gifs as well?

[amberdreams]

Thanks, I'll check them out!

[dirty_diana]

I post things privately to tumblr and grab the source url. Not fancy and also you have to keep track of the urls, tumblr doesn't make it easy to track down a post you made private. I suppose if it was all just your art and you weren't breaking the rules of any challenge, you could post publicly and tag/index as needed. I guess it probably helps that I don't post a ton.

I have a webspace too but I've stopped sticking things there as the people I share it with are not planning to renew. Couldn't really afford it on my own.

[omens]

this doesn't work forever btw, i don't know if that doesn't matter to you - if so, disregard! :D I autopost my instagram shots to tumblr and used to grab the url from tumblr to display on my journal here cuz instagram is such a bitch to embed :P but now the older ones are all just broken image links. like eveerything tumblr, not permanent. SIGH.

[dirty_diana]

How old are the older links that died? I've definitely heard about this, I've just never had it affect me. But maybe my older links aren't old enough. But again, quantity of output is probably a factor, reuploading to tumblr would be a pretty quick process in my case! Should draw more.

EDIT: Okay update, it looks like one link has died since I checked it last month. It's actually a newer post than a bunch that are fine, which I wouldn't have expected. Lol tumblr.

[dirty_diana]

Further update, I just changed the url to embed from deviantArt, and I'm sure there are good reasons not to do that either but atm it seems to be workng fine?

[omens]

Yeah, there's an element of randomness that is really weird?? Lol tumblr, like you say ;D

My missings start last august but I haven't really posted much in a long time so I'm probably not the best to go by.

[mific]

Ok, so I use Mediafire, and am moving all my pics there from LJ. I never used Photobucket much.
You can use Mediafire free but it won't generate direct links for embedding that way. The paid account is pretty cheap, though (called a pro account). It's US $33.75 a year, if you pay once a year, and $45 if paying monthly.

With a paid account you get 1T(1000 GB) storage, direct links, a bulk uploader, and ad-free use and downloading. Files can be streamed as well, which I use for the occasional podfic I record. It's easy to make and rename file folders to organise your stuff, and (UNlike LJ) if you reorganise your folders the link to the embedded pic isn't broken. Pics are named by the filename you gave them, not a code no., which I prefer, and there's a small thumbnail. You can view them as a list or as larger thumbnails. There are mediafire versions for iPad and Android, with different functionality (can upload pics from the device but can't copy a direct link from that interface.) You can get a "share" link for downloading as well, also from the ios and android versions, but you can't embed those, they only download the file. If you upload the same artwork a few times as you've been tweaking it (like I often do with digital works) it asks each time if you want to replace the old version or have both versions, and adds a (2) etc.

Getting the direct link for embedding takes as many steps as LJ used to require.
- upload pic
- click on pic filename to open it
- R-click on open pic to copy the direct link.
So that's not too bad.

If you share a direct link it'll be open to all who have the link, so visible to all once embedded. But no one can backtrack from that (coded) link to the rest of your pics. You can also make links private so all & sundry can't see them. Mediafire is for storage, not intended for social photo-sharing, so there's no "search all of Mediafire" function - i.e. people can't chance on your NSFW stuff randomly. It's cloud storage, so you can use it to store and back-up any files, not just art (most people use it for other stuff).

So not free but cheap, and pretty good for what I need in an art storage site.
ETA: oh, and it works for animations and gifs.

[amberdreams]

Oh that's useful to know - I hadn't realised mediafire has that embedding facility. I honestly don't mind paying for something if it's going to be permanent, flexible and supports everything I need. I'm not keen on mediafire for file sharing because it opens advert windows and occasionally mackeeper (which is a horrible pain in the arse) but I assume if I had a paid account that wouldn't happen to me any more.

Thanks for this info!

[syble4]

I mainly keep my art on my LJ or on my Devianart site. Since moving to DW, I'm still struggling with an easy way to move my LJ pics.

[alias_sqbr]

*looks at all the photobucket fanart I have posted to the Ao3 and quietly sobs*

[omens]

right???? T____T

[alias_sqbr]

And now I'm paranoid that any replacement will just do the same thing. You broke my heart Photobucket, why did it have to end this way ;_;

[syntheid]

Also in the not-free camp, I use smugmug half the time? It's definitely pricier than mediafire and some private hosting options with the cheapest plan being around 47USD/year or 6/month.

But it allows you to choose whether you want to hide or show your username in album links and either unlist or password-lock albums, so I can post both vacation albums to share with family with password locks and unlisted fandom things that don't show up for anybody as being linked to same account which I really wanted so I didn't have to manage multiple accounts. And it's easy to grab links in varying sizes, and since it's meant to be for professional photographers to use as a portfolio they're explicit that you retain copyright of your images. I'm not sure I love everything about it, but it seems to work better for me than other options I'd tried. I was going to use Dreamwidth more for DW-related usages, except the space is pretty limited, so I don't want to fill it up.

[mekare]

That sounds pretty good. I hadn't heard of them before, I'll check it out. I guess the servers are US-based? How long have you been using them?

[alias_sqbr]

For anyone reading this later: I currently use nickpic and am pretty happy with them.

[mekare]

Hey thank you for adding that link. It definitely sounds like a great option for fanartists! Whne my paid year on imageshack is over I might switch over to them.