Image proxy in post's content, why? it's slow and many images don't show up

[StelioKontos]

Hello, I was just wondering why the images embedded in post's content use this strange proxy:

example:

https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FwqZiYCu.jpg&t=584&c=5x4CBOEy0MYIdg

I think:

- it slows down the server (if the same of the php script running the forum)

- I don't see any apparent technical reason why it's used

- it fails at showing the image 90% of the times

Wouldn't be better to simply show the original image with source:

https://i.imgur.com/wqZiYCu.jpg

Taken from my example above?

[TheQuin]

It seems nobody answered your question yet. The reason is for privacy. As it is likely that most people using this forum own some Bitcoin posting an image would be a good way to harvest IP addresses if a proxy wasn't used.

As to the reason for the slow loading and/or failure to load I don't know what causes that but I really only recall it starting to be a problem after the time of the switch to CloudFlare. That might just be a coincidence though.

[LoyceV]

It seems nobody answered your question yet. The reason is for privacy. As it is likely that most people using this forum own some Bitcoin posting an image would be a good way to harvest IP addresses if a proxy wasn't used.

The image proxy was implemented after someone put tracking pixels in his post.

- it fails at showing the image 90% of the times

In my experience images load most of the time, but it can take a while. I have proposed to set Alt-text by default for all embedded images, but you can already do that manual (click Shift-Reload to see it):