Hey guys, I am ImageShack’s CEO. Just wanted to say few words on the subject discussed. We have offered free uploading and image hosting to the world for 10 years, from 2004 to 2014.
After long deliberation, we decided that in order for us to run viable business we must increase quality, speed, add new features, listen to our users, make photo storage safe (e.g. not lose images), which meant ultimately removing ads from our site. That being the case, left only one option: revenue must be derived from subscriptions. We understand that some people simply would not be willing to pay, and will leave ImageShack, however there was simply no other choice. Either we degrade quality of the service for All users by forcing more ads on you - that ultimately something we decided not to do.
Now I know I know, there there are plenty of free image hosts out there, like photobucket, imgur, flickr etc… They all have ads, track your data, sell it to the highest bidder. For them you are the product. This is no longer the case for ImageShack.
The fact of the matter is that concentrating on smaller number of paying users allows us to deliver better quality and experience, while actually making our business more viable, so that is what we decided to do in 2014.
We never asked anything form our users, but this year, we are sending a message “Help us survive!” a couple of bucks per month is all we need to continue to support you, make beautiful galleries (like this one ImageShack - fishkov's Images), run unlimited storage with unlimited bandwidth.
There you have it, I will respond to your comments on this thread, and flames via PM.
-Magnito