As I see it, I have seen three providers mentioned: Flickr, Imgur and Postimg.
Flickr doesn't allow direct links. Although it seems pretty good to use, there are NO direct links available. I.E. No link with. Jpg at the end to use with our [img] phpbb code.
Imgur seems to do exactly what we want and provide direct links that work, they even format it with the [img] code in the link if you want. However, http://imgur.com/tos, their Terms of Service expressly forbids using the images elsewhere. Avatars in particular are banned; there is nothing specifically mentioned about forums, but the wording is pretty clear, that we can't do it!
Also, don't use Imgur to host image libraries you link to from elsewhere, content for your website, advertising, avatars, or anything else that turns us into your content delivery network. If you do – and we will be the judge – or if you do anything illegal, in addition to any other legal rights we may have, we will ban you along with the site you're hotlinking from, delete all your images, report you to the authorities if necessary, and prevent you from viewing any images hosted on Imgur.com. We mean it.
From what I can work out, Postimg are themselves legit, but are often misused and they themselves admit that their business is shakey and they have no money. If people flock to them after the Photobucket fiasco, their traffic will increase and they'll be out of business too! https://malwaretips.com/threads/postima ... end.64901/
So, what on earth do we do now for images?