"We love our users [but] SMALL GUYS like Fotki have to find ways to adjust.
We analyzed our servers, and it looks like many of our
members, like you, store many gigabytes of old photos, which
are never viewed by anybody for years and years. It costs us
money to host these photos, and since nobody is looking at
them, we are wasting our valuable resources to host them.
In order for us to optimize our service, we are reaching out
to you, and asking for your help. If you really want us to
keep your originals, we have no choice but to start charging
for hosting them, but don't worry, we need VERY LITTLE. We
are not asking for much, just to know that you care about
your photos and you really need them. If you don't need
your photo originals, then you don't have to pay for
anything extra, and we will just go ahead and erase them
from our servers."
Moral of these stories: read the agreements before committing to image storage in the cloud. The days of "free" are ending, and that might also mean the end of your images if you've committed them to the cloud only. If you think you're safe because you're using a Huge service (Facebook, Flickr, etc.), don't be so smug. Your day will come.