Why attaching files is better than using an image hosting service
 

I prefer it when my members attach images on my site rather than using an image hosting service. I like it this way because images hosted on a third party tend to break. I see a lot of broken images and broken imageshack images in forum posts. Wouldn't you rather provide the space on your server for attachments instead of having your forum full of broken pics? See my point?

On the other hand, hosting images on your server impacts your backup. Not just backup time, but backup size.

But, we all have our own preferences.

It has its pros and cons when people use the attachment manager instead of an external host.

Pros:
- Less likely to be deleted
- More flexible, you can manage the attachments

Cons:
- More bandwidth
- vBulletin tends to mess with the quality of images
- All attachments are loaded through PHP, more load on the server
- Possibly slower with loading (see above point), some external hosts are faster because of static delivery

I use a first party uploader/image host. Best of both worlds.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=307803

The images could still be deleted by photobucket

I use VB image Hosting on 3.8.8 and Photobucket Image Uploader I do not like attachments, I prefer hosting the images.

Our forum goes back to 2004 and we have lost literally thousands of images from image hosting sites deleting them. I use the image importing plug in now and most of the images that are hosted elsewhere get imported directly to the site.

I am not concerned with the storage size. I am more concerned with having broken images all over the site.

Umm, no. They are locally hosted and have nothing at all to do with photobucket and are also, completely independent of the vBulletin install..

what? I thought that the images were stored by photobucket. How does it work?

You didn't read the instructions in the link I shared? "Photobucket" was in quotation marks, for a reason. It's not Photobucket, it is your very own "photobucket" you control.

It is separate software allowing upload and storage of images on your own server, and it is independent of the vBulletin installation completely. Unlike with attachments, there is no writing to the vB database and there is no issue at all if you upgrade, backup, etc because it has nothing to do with vBulletin.

Storage isn't a issue either because even the cheaper hosting allows for unlimited storage. The images are stored in the file system.