Member Contributer RobF Posted November 7, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted November 7, 2015 It seems like maybe 1 out of 8 of older threads are suffering some degree of link rot with respect to the embedded images. Example: ...which is a shame because it eats away at the storehouse of value people have created here. Was this issue peculiar to a specific era in the past and now the problem is fixed, or is this a continuing risk to current era contributions? Is it related to how people choose to upload images? What caused the great VFRD photo blight of the late aughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEBSPEED Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 That specific reference has nothing to do with VFRD. What you are showing is a broken photobucket link, this happens when a member's photos are deleted from their account, or when and album is renamed, or a pic moved to a different album. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Duc2V4 Posted November 7, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted November 7, 2015 What Seb said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer RobF Posted November 7, 2015 Author Member Contributer Share Posted November 7, 2015 What you are showing is a broken photobucket link, this happens when a member's photos are deleted from their account, or when and album is renamed, or a pic moved to a different album. Understood. I probably framed my questions poorly. I'll try it this way. I don't know what the median life expectancy is of photos hosted by sites like photobucket, but I'd be surprised if it's more than three years. That's not a great match for a site like VFRD that has fifteen years' worth of content and growing. X% of all photos embedded in VFRD posts are uploaded to VFRD. Y% of all photos embedded in VFRD posts are links to off-site images hosted by services like photobucket. To my mind, the closer Y is to zero, the better it is for VFRD, including the original posters. I doubt that a member who meticulously documented a how-to in 2009 using images he stored at photobucket but who then re-arranged or deleted the photo account in 2012 is happy or even aware that his 2009 post has degraded back to text only. My sense is that, five to seven years ago, a larger percentage of embedded photos were hosted off-site than is the case today and that's why more of the older posts have broken photo links -- but I don't know that. Maybe a similar percentage of current posts will be degraded five years from now. I was curious whether the perceived decline was due to some change at VFRD. Or perhaps photobucket-type services were something of a fad and their use has faded. In any case, it makes sense to me that VFRD nudge members toward uploaded reference photos rather than offsite-hosted photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Duc2V4 Posted November 7, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted November 7, 2015 What you are showing is a broken photobucket link, this happens when a member's photos are deleted from their account, or when and album is renamed, or a pic moved to a different album. Understood. I probably framed my questions poorly. I'll try it this way. I don't know what the median life expectancy is of photos hosted by sites like photobucket, but I'd be surprised if it's more than three years. That's not a great match for a site like VFRD that has fifteen years' worth of content and growing. X% of all photos embedded in VFRD posts are uploaded to VFRD. Y% of all photos embedded in VFRD posts are links to off-site images hosted by services like photobucket. To my mind, the closer Y is to zero, the better it is for VFRD, including the original posters. I doubt that a member who meticulously documented a how-to in 2009 using images he stored at photobucket but who then re-arranged or deleted the photo account in 2012 is happy or even aware that his 2009 post has degraded back to text only. My sense is that, five to seven years ago, a larger percentage of embedded photos were hosted off-site than is the case today and that's why more of the older posts have broken photo links -- but I don't know that. Maybe a similar percentage of current posts will be degraded five years from now. I was curious whether the perceived decline was due to some change at VFRD. Or perhaps photobucket-type services were something of a fad and their use has faded. In any case, it makes sense to me that VFRD nudge members toward uploaded reference photos rather than offsite-hosted photos. For the occasional photo or the "here's my entry" type of pics, photobucket and other web sites like it should be fine, however, I agree that if you're doing a "how-to" or other lengthy post with pics, I.e. Ride report, uploading and embedding via VFRD should be the method used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer YoshiHNS Posted November 7, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted November 7, 2015 Usually if I am uploading photos online, I put them on my online storage (photobucket, piwigo) instead of VFRD so it is easier to share outside of VFRD. HS can give details on the space availability if everyone hosted their posted pictures on VFRD. Piwigo is pretty cool though. $40 for the year. Unlimited storage. I'm moving to that from photobucket. It's not as polished as the free sites. But I get to store my pictures in full res. Maybe if there was a custom script that would read any photo links from new posts, assign new IDs/filenames, upload to a VFRD server, and swap links from outside link to internal link, then the broken link issue would be gone, so long as nothing happened to the server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEBSPEED Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 I have pics on photobucket from 10 years ago, still there and still linked in places were threads haven't been deleted or lost. My broken links are my fault, and I don't have time to fix them all. On the other hand, I have lost more pictures than I can count to forum server crashes and other things outside my control, which is why I use photobucket exclusively now. I have a paid account with more storage than I'll ever need, and they back up full res as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer The mailman Posted November 7, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted November 7, 2015 >ALL< of my photos are located in my gallery here on site. However, I do delete some periodically to keep my foot print here small. I do see your frustration though when you're trying to figure something out and the photo needed is just a red X. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Cogswell Posted November 8, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted November 8, 2015 Link rot - could also be what happens to the chain when red dust begins to appear . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Mohawk Posted November 8, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted November 8, 2015 Image shack tried to ransom the world last weekend, by forcing all free members to upgrade to subscribed accounts @ $4 a month, to continue serving uploaded mages, so a lot of my stuff that appears here & on VFRworld & VFRclub (UK site) will now be devoid of pics as I often uploaded to all 3 sites, so it saved me using different links ! I refused to be ransomed, but don't have the time to update all the sites, so I will try to correct VFRD only, as it's the #1 VFR site, so at least the info will be available to all in future. The problem with loss leaders, is you always pay later when they start to up the payments, if we all paid $4 this year they would up it to $5 next year & so on. So not an option for me ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer JZH Posted November 8, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted November 8, 2015 I sure seems like I've seen more broken Photobucket links than working ones... Ciao, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum CEO HispanicSlammer Posted November 8, 2015 Forum CEO Share Posted November 8, 2015 Some crashes, related to forced moves from server to server, lost some photos in the moves that are unrecoverable. But the vast majority of broken links are hotlinked from outside hosts of which I have no control over, suggest contacting the poster if you want the photos, its a forum its not meant to be preserved forever, just a bunch of motorcycle pictures and post, its not the Magna Carta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Dutchy Posted November 8, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted November 8, 2015 or the Utrecht psalter.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utrecht_Psalter (Utrecht my home town...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer The mailman Posted November 9, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted November 9, 2015 its not the Magna Carta. Don't be so modest! The Magna Carta never got me back on the road at the last minute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer RobF Posted November 9, 2015 Author Member Contributer Share Posted November 9, 2015 I have pics on photobucket from 10 years ago, still there and still linked in places were threads haven't been deleted or lost. On the other hand, I have lost more pictures than I can count to forum server crashes and other things outside my control, which is why I use photobucket exclusively now. Fair enough! Yes, I can imagine how, given that experience, you would prefer a third-party service for photo storage. I suspect that you are an unusually conscientious photobucket user in this aspect. Maybe if there was a custom script that would read any photo links from new posts, assign new IDs/filenames, upload to a VFRD server, and swap links from outside link to internal link, then the broken link issue would be gone, so long as nothing happened to the server. Yes. I have also wondered if something like this might be possible. Essentially, VFRD would just make a local copy of the posted photos in these cases. But the vast majority of broken links are hotlinked from outside hosts of which I have no control over, suggest contacting the poster if you want the photos, its a forum its not meant to be preserved forever, just a bunch of motorcycle pictures and post, its not the Magna Carta. The site is obviously impressive in terms of both the breadth and depth of its archive. The community it created (and which created it) are truly first-rate. Top notch. Easily the best I've seen. Plus, it's beautiful to they eye -- especially in contrast to other enthusiast forums. As a new user over the past year, the slow but steady attrition of older photos was the only thing that caught my eye as possibly worth improving and therefore possibly worth discussing. However, I am happy to drop the matter if the folks who built this amazing site find this discussion fussy and without merit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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