Remember Photobucket discontinued free third party hosting and they put out a statement that a paid membership of $400 per year would allow you to continue hosting your photos...if you chose NOT to pay, they gave a deadline of Dec 31 2018, after which they would no longer support your "free" account albums...and I assume those albums would be deleted.
Well, it appears photobucket caved in. I figured they would, because if they didn't, their business would likely go under.
I got this email today.
From: support @ photobucket com
Sent: Monday, October 1, 2018 7:05 PM
To: JonB...
Subject: Learn how we’re keeping Free Hosting, FREE photobucket
Starting October 10th, you will see a discreet “Proudly hosted on Photobucket” watermark on any images you display on sites other than Photobucket.
This change will allow us to continue offering our image hosting service to you as a free user. If you don’t mind the watermark and wish to continue as a free user, you won’t need to do anything. If you prefer no watermarking, simply upgrade to one of our affordable premium plans starting at $4.03 per month and enjoy all of the benefits of membership.
For a limited time, upgrade now for just $1 per month!