Don't use VPN! Easy! /S

How do you disable site specific JavaScript?

NoScript extension

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?

It's by design, to incite people to spend time on the imgur website/app with ads instead of just using for image hosting. It used to be a nerd-friendly image hosting for redditors at the beginning, but about 3 years ago they decided it's time to try to look more respectful to make some more money out of it. They banned NSFW (and probably whatever else their investors/advertisers/payment processors don't want to see) and automatically deleting images uploaded anonymously and not accessed enough. Interestingly, similar timing as the Reddit API debacle which created a big wave of new comers to Lemmy, including myself.
They are not a reliable image hosting service anymore, by design. https://help.imgur.com/hc/en-us/articles/26479362527771-Imgur-Terms-of-Service-Update

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.

I also was of the assumption that imgur has turned to dogshit? Only read it in a Reddit comment before moving here, though.

I forgot how I found out about it, but is imglink.cc good? I had a look at the site briefly and it seemed okay to me.

catbox.moe used to offer free infinite time uploads without an account until very recently. They changed it to max 2 years. That's where I upload my images and videos (with an account) whenever I need to send bug reports with evidence via email or a repo issue tracker

Didn't know catbox are also blocked by some as well

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.

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.

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.

what about imgbox?

Thanks Imgur for saving me from Imgur

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.

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.

To be fair, the UK and California are very close to each other, so that's understandable. Same planet, that's a mistake that's easy to make.

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.

I stay away from piefed for multiple reasons, most of all because my I like my mobile client.

Fortunately, my mobile client of choice (Thunder) supports PieFed, as well as the fork PyLova (which fixes a lot of philosophical issues people often have with PieFed).

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.

heck I often won't see them as I don't like to allow imgur

Proton seems to work just fine with it, AFAIK.

Yeah it was started as a host for Reddit because everything else sucked. And they did stuff nobody'd have considered, like you could get a full gallery of NSFW content, and the embed link would give you a straight JPG without any ads or frames or anything. Sure it had its own community but that stayed out of the way.

Now that's the main focus.

Very gradual. One thing at a time. The site has gotten more scripty and 'modern mobile friendly web' ish.

I remember they banned NSFW everywhere but Reddit. They still show NSFW through Reddit, or at least used to.

Impur started as an amazing simple free host

Then they had to enshitify it for money.

Initially, it was made by a redditor to make Reddit image posting easier when Reddit was text hosting only. So anything allowed on Reddit was allowed there.
Then they added their own optional public gallery on imgur directly, with public comments. They didn't allow NSFW there.
3 years ago they decided they didn't want to be an image hoster anymore and focus on their gallery, which coincidentally also allows showing more ads. So they have been cutting anything that does not fit there anymore, nsfw, anonymous hosting and low view images etc.

Imgur is also banned in the uk, I think its due to cyber flashing and epilepsy trolling. Section 187, Online Safety Act.

hasn’t worked for me in over a year. my vpn is always on. fuck imgur