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.