Imgur blocks access to most VPN IP addresses so any posts using the host will result in many users being unable to see the content. Sometimes only remote viewing is affected but is also often blocked when trying to open in new tab and view at the parent site.
Consider uploading to the fediverse or using a privacy-respecting hosting service like postimages.
I wonder if using a hash-based system could work slightly better (on platforms where you can’t edit image links) in these cases where a platform decides to stop serving to some users or go defunct. So that way, you can at least have a slight chance of ‘fixing’ an image after the fact.
It wouldn’t work with most image share sites, but at least you could rehost it on a mirror yourself.
I really wish we had this. A browser that allows loading files directly using P2P Torrent V2 hashes to load files or even static websites. Opera supports torrents but not as a direct replacement to http.
Then you could simply upload images to some random torrent seed box to host them and distribute them.
This seems problematic… if I click on a link to something that infringes on a copyright, my system is being used to distribute copyrighted material. That would be exposing me to legal liability without me knowing. Also it’s using my bandwidth without my knowledge.
Yeah I do download from torrents, but I do it with the knowledge that whatever I download is going to be redistributed by my computer, so I know to make sure the VPN is on. Something built into a browser is doing this without the user’s knowledge.
Maybe creating a browser extension to do something like this would be ok, people are opting in when they install the extension. But then the torrents wouldn’t work for everyone and given the problem we’re trying to solve is links not working for everyone, that doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Same goes for catbox links. Either post the fatbox link instead or choose a different image host, the VPN is not getting turned off just for shitposts.
Didn’t know catbox are also blocked by some as well
I honestly don’t get why folks use external image providers. Lemmy is perfectly capable of providing post images, just attach it and there you go. Or is it about saving free space on a server?
Impur started as an amazing simple free host
Then they had to enshitify it for money.
I also was of the assumption that imgur has turned to dogshit? Only read it in a Reddit comment before moving here, though.
It depends what they liked about Imgur in the first place, in the first couple of years, it really was a wild West platform that would host anything. Then it sort of became a social network, with one thing being the mods being really open to user suggestions and an active part of the community. The “community” was literally just the comments under images on the public feed. It was at its strongest around 2015 when a secret santa was organised completely adhoc under an image post, then turned into a formal thing. People would post images of something they were working on, accompanied by long personal stories and these would become some sort of “canon” and people would post response meme, and highlight reels of what had been shared in the last month. And then ads came. A couple of the mods left. The filters became a little more automatic, a little more prone to flagging stuff that was fine. There’s still community stuff there, I just feel it’s not as inspired as it once was. Everything that happened with Reddit going public didn’t help.
Don’t use VPN! Easy! /S
Also, anyone in the UK not using a VPN won’t be able to see them, since imgur chose to block the UK rather than adhere to age verification laws.
Whatever one thinks about that legislation, other countries (including the whole of the EU and Australia) are likely to do the same and it seems likely imgur will become a US-only resource…
Well, that and due to them being investigated for how they handle children’s data and access, it had appeared that a fine was heading their way.
Trick: If it’s asingle image, you can still download it with save link as…
If it’s a gallery, it’ll unfortunately download a .json file. I’m not sure about gifs.
i’ve been using imgbb as an alternative for a few years, they’re proba gonna enshittify soon but it’s not bad as of now. i make sure to save anything i share to the web on the wayback machine SPN tho…
I’m more shocked people still use Imgur for anything anymore.
I’m on Fedia and not using a VPN, I never see imgur thumbnails in the posts, I always have to manually click on a link. I rarely bother to click.
Lemmy.zip has the same problem when browsing on mobile. There’re a lot of moving parts on the fediverse, and it seems like there is constantly something broken.
It’s funny really… what was the quote? You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain.
Imgur was started back in the day to provide a no-bullshit image host, because all the others were too corporate / too monetized / too much bullshit/enshittification. So MrGrim started Imgur to fix that.
Then MrGrim took a bunch of VC money, and they eventually sold out, and now the result is the sad shell of what it once was today.
Yeah. I remember ye olde days of Imgur. NSFW in gallery and stuff. Now it’s just shitty. It was a pretty gradual thing. I don’t even remember exactly what made me stop using it.
Nah, it was started as an image host for reddit. It has always been extremely corporate. The site has even always almost been reddit with the same up/down vote and comment systems.
Don’t most Lemmy instances have their own image proxies? Or is that just for comments, you mean direct links in posts? I don’t know if those are proxied.
I don’t know how common that is across different instances, but it’s definitely not just for comments. I often find myself looking up some old post that I had created using a Catbox link, and when I look it up from that account’s instance Lemmy.One, it’s the canonical Catbox link. But on Lemmy.World, the image link for that post is using a proxy.
same goes for anyone using catbox.moe.
it’s become such a problem I’ve started to block users and communities because 95% of their posts are shared catbox links.
catbox is operated by a nerd like us not some greedy corporate, i personally haven’t ever been blocked by them… they’re the best pomf-like site atm imo
I’m not disputing that.
it’s annoying to have 50% of posts to have missing or broken media, that’s why I block those that religiously use it.
I understand why catbox blocks vpns, but ultimately they need to understand that solution will only solve so much of their problem.
PieFed allows you to block entire domains. With a PieFed account, you would be able to just block
catbox.moeand never see another Catbox post again from anyone.
I stay away from piefed for multiple reasons, most of all because my I like my mobile client.
It sounds like that’s some network providers that block catbox, rather than vice versa.
Why can’t I access Catbox/access files on Catbox (files.catbox.moe)?
Good question! It turns out certain governments in the world hate freedom of information, don’t have net neutrality, don’t see online service providers as legally exempt entities, or a combination of the three! You will have issues accessing Catbox/files on Catbox if you are connecting from the following countries or providers:
Probably the most significant ones on there from a standpoint of users here are “Australia”, “Rogers”, “Comcast”, and “Verizon”. It sounds like all of those blocks are pretty easy to bypass (like, they’re either DNS-level or can be disabled by users on their router, where there’s a blacklist toggle that’s on by default).
I’ve never once even managed to get anything from Catbox via Tor, via different routes. Seems to be a rather widespread problem.
They must’ve hosted something egregious to make a whole bunch of ISPs and entire countries block them.
imgur is a swamp
Used Imgur for decades? But never browsed it. That seems weird.
No I’ve never bowsed imgur but I made the mistake of uploading a photo of my wife holding a chicken so I could post it to a back yard chicken forum, and the comments were enough to ensure I never posted anything there again.
Basically an unmoderated cess pool.
There is/was public upload and private upload, the UI was/is shit though.
There are comments? I had no idea!
I thought people just uploaded the image grabbed the URL and pasted it elsewhere.
Are you using an app or domething?
For years in kde it was just right click and a URL popped into the clipboard.
You can select hidden or public when uploading to Imgur. If you select hidden, no one sees it unless they have the direct URL to the image. If you select public, it uploads to the public feed and everyone on Imgur can potentially see it. It’ll pop up on Newest, and anyone browsing that category can upvote or downvote it.
If your public post gets enough upvotes, it’ll rise to the front page of Imgur. Much like Reddit. And yes, the community can comment on all public posts.
That’s funny to me. Decades of uses and never once wanted anything private, and never once knew people voted on those things or gave a shit.
I guess they needed a business model that wasn’t basically a free image host.
But now that I don’t use imgur, maybe I should just add on to my own server. Don’t know why I didn’t do that before. I guess it was easier not to.
They made it into a quasi-Reddit like fifteen years ago. Back then, Reddit was mostly text posts, while Imgur only ever had image posts and later videos (including screenshots of text, of course). These days that’s not as much of a distinction — however on Imgur, short quippy comments always prevailed, and lots and lots of gif comments. After a while, this sucked even ten years ago when I used Imgur for a while, and I don’t imagine the situation improved lately.
Anyway, when uploading an image to link it elsewhere, you can just not publish it for others on the site to see it and comment.
Just proxy Imgur links through duckduckgo with a tamper monkey script. As long as it isn’t mass adopted, it should run under the radar okay for day to day browsing 😂
