I just got an email from Dropbox, which will have quite some implication for the people using Dropbox for sharing their images on shipbucket. I have included it below, although I think more people will have gotten it or will soon get it.
We’re always looking to improve the Dropbox sharing experience. The Public folder was the first sharing method we introduced, and since then, we’ve built even better ways for you to share securely and work together with your team.
As a result, we’ll soon be ending support for the Public folder. Dropbox Basic users will be able to use the Public folder until March 15, 2017. After that date the files in your Public folder will become private, and links to these files will be deactivated. Your files will remain safe in Dropbox.
If you’d like to keep sharing files in your Public folder, you can create new shared links. Just make sure to send the new URLs to your collaborators.
In addition to shared links, we have a number of sharing options designed to make collaboration easier and give you more control. To learn more, visit our Help Center.
The Dropbox team
In short, it looks like at least some of us will need to find a new host. It seems likely, but of course we can only confirm this after March 15, that the 'hack' we used to have public files without the public folder, will be gone as well.
Note that for example the belowdeck parts sheet is hosted almost completely in my public folder, and while I have the files backed up, I do not have the time to move all those files to a new host and relink them. It might be good to look for an more permanent solution for these issues, IIRC there was some work done on the new main site which might solve issues like these?