Poll on solving the imgur issue

[IIrik11]

no one even read old posts.

You couldn't be more wrong. See this 2015-post for instance, which has 53 imgur images. Preserving Bitcointalk history is needed.

see u know that this post exists, which is why u mentioned it.

but most people don't know it exists and will never look for it.

and one google search will bring u 100s of topics on the subject and videos.

btw, i was able to see all the images in that thread.

imgur is banning porn and images not linked to any account..

so they must have changed some things..

which caused this temporary glitch which is now over i think.

[1714540158]

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[Sarah Azhari]

I vote No.1, because the staff will work hard to Turn imgur images into links

and I saw other forum members saying that postimages.org is a good alternative.

I used postimages.org, but sometimes I got the error when uploading the image, and must turn off my VPN to resolve it.

and when I won't turn off my VPN I will use freeimage.host, it worked fine in all situations.

[RickDeckard]

I personally use vgy.me[1] because I like their privacy statement[2] and never had problems with them (so far) but that mostly has to due with them also not having the same reach as imgur

vgy.me is also pretty fucked.

I tried using it a few days back after the Imgur chaos, but had the image showed up a proxy error. Turns out, the image had even been deleted. Not sure why. Also, I think vgy.me is one of those service that will disappear overnight due to It's less popularity. Now, you don't want your 5 years of screenshots disappearing overnight.

Really? That is odd, I never had any problem with vgy.me so far, but I also agree with you on the popularity side - Given the service relevance, one cannot know for how long their service will be up.

The problem with all image hosting solutions is that their are not very privacy friendly and that is understandable considering the type of service they offer vs no costs usually involved. Albeit I usually don't use it, I have read good things about imgbox[1].
[1]https://imgbox.com

[smyslov]

I vote No.1, because the staff will work hard to Turn imgur images into links

and I saw other forum members saying that postimages.org is a good alternative.

I used postimages.org, but sometimes I got the error when uploading the image, and must turn off my VPN to resolve it.

and when I won't turn off my VPN I will use freeimage.host, it worked fine in all situations.

Postingimages is not good they are not 100% reliable they have downtime too there was a time when I want to upload images but I'm getting a lot of errors they are off when it comes to an image hosting they should have 100% uptime because their service is all about keeping the images online I check TALKIMG and it's good the operator is very active here and he can address all concern about his image sharing site, so I prefer and recommend TALKIMG.

[yhiaali3]

I check TALKIMG and it's good the operator is very active here and he can address all concern about his image sharing site, so I prefer and recommend TALKIMG.

Yes me too, I tried it it works very well and easy to use.

I got rid of imgur after trying TALKIMG and it is now my favorite because of its ease of use and many other features such as: a fast site with almost no ads, images upload very quickly, and the ability to easily create and copy image code.

Therefore, I recommend everyone to go to TALKIMG.

[SamReomo]

There are a lot of broken imgur links. How do you think this should be resolved? I've come up with these possible solutions:

2: Make it so that all past imgur embedded images show up as a clickable link instead of as an embedded image, as if the poster had just posted the imgur link instead of using the [img] tag. I could also maybe make it so that if you click the link, it will JavaScript-expand into an embedded image (using the specified width etc.) without going through the image proxy.

I think the best solution for those broken images is the option no 2, because if the links of those images are available then things will be easy for the posters, and a kind of notification should be sent to all the users whose links are broken and the notification should also take them to the posts where the images are broken. That way the poster will be able to update the image to a new host like TalkImg.com to fix the mess created by imgur.

I think it will also be helpful for other users because even if the original poster fails to update his/her links, the users will still be able to access the images at imgur by clicking on the links. Because of the imgur problem the images are mostly down right now and we are unable to view the URL of the images because they are embedded as images. The availability of the links can be very useful in such times.

Another solution to such problem is to have both options of clickable links and embedded images. The links should be placed below the embedded images so users can easily access the links and view the images on imgur. I think with this solution the users will be happy because they can view the images and even if the images aren't working as embeddings then still they can click the link of the images. The link should be clickable otherwise many users aren't so good at copy/pasting of the links.

[Woodie]

Better than seeing that image proxy message for those broken links, I think option 2 of turning unseen image to link is best option imo.

Better yet ,if imgur as a hosting service is the culprit out of the many we have out there...I think we should be moving away from these guys to avoid all this and maybe put a sticker of other available free hosting services that can be recommended for long term use.

[Voted:2]

[LoyceV]

It looks like imgur is no longer blocking the image proxy.

That didn't last long, it's broken again

[RickDeckard]

It looks like imgur is no longer blocking the image proxy.

That didn't last long, it's broken again

It's even worse when we look to threads such as the 10th anniversary art contest[1]. It's just weird to see people giving feedback against endless pages of Imgur broken links in such a memorable thread...
[1]https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.0

[PrimeNumber7]

It looks like imgur is no longer blocking the image proxy.

That didn't last long, it's broken again

The most appropriate first step is to reach out to imgur to see if they can provide some kind of solution.

It looks like imgur has an api, but it doesn't look like the API can retrieve images currently. Perhaps they may be willing to add such functionality.

[TryNinja]

It looks like imgur has an api, but it doesn't look like the API can retrieve images currently. Perhaps they may be willing to add such functionality.

The link of the image IS the image, it doesn't make sense to have an "API" for that. The only solution is imgur flexibilizing rate limiting (and that's not even a complete solution, since the forum usage can outgrow the limit) or whitelisting the forum's proxy IP. I don't think either are going to happen.

As always, if anyone hasn't used it yet: [Script] Imgur to TalkImg - automatically fix your broken images

[LoyceV]

It looks like imgur has an api, but it doesn't look like the API can retrieve images currently. Perhaps they may be willing to add such functionality.

If they add it as a paid feature, I don't think the forum should go down that road. It would set a precendent for other image hosts to do the same.

[Cryptomultiplier]

There are a lot of broken imgur links. How do you think this should be resolved? I've come up with these possible solutions:

2: Make it so that all past imgur embedded images show up as a clickable link instead of as an embedded image, as if the poster had just posted the imgur link instead of using the [img] tag. I could also maybe make it so that if you click the link, it will JavaScript-expand into an embedded image (using the specified width etc.) without going through the image proxy.

I think the best solution for those broken images is the option no 2, because if the links of those images are available then things will be easy for the posters, and a kind of notification should be sent to all the users whose links are broken and the notification should also take them to the posts where the images are broken. That way the poster will be able to update the image to a new host like TalkImg.com to fix the mess created by imgur.

I think it will also be helpful for other users because even if the original poster fails to update his/her links, the users will still be able to access the images at imgur by clicking on the links. Because of the imgur problem the images are mostly down right now and we are unable to view the URL of the images because they are embedded as images. The availability of the links can be very useful in such times.

Another solution to such problem is to have both options of clickable links and embedded images. The links should be placed below the embedded images so users can easily access the links and view the images on imgur. I think with this solution the users will be happy because they can view the images and even if the images aren't working as embeddings then still they can click the link of the images. The link should be clickable otherwise many users aren't so good at copy/pasting of the links.

Links should absolutely be way better than having broken images that can't be viewed anyways. Although one would have to visit the link to view image, it would be one way to ease the stress right now, until something is done to rectify the imgur issue.

[Cricktor]

To me option 4 is best and what I chose. I never used imgur, usually ImgBB, but will switch to talkimg as it sounds good from other user's comments and is more under control of people here. I don't see much of a point to try to stick to imgur, make a clean cut to those suckers. They f***ed up once or more and will likely keep up being unreliable. No, thanks!

[ibminer]

I still think some form of DIY is probably the only good long-term solution for the forum, then again I'm a DIY kinda guy in general, so maybe I'm biased.

I'd expect most image hosts to eventually start deleting images, or they just go belly up for one reason or another, get sold to another company with new policies, etc.

Relying on any 3rd party image hosts will eventually lead to missing images when something happens users may not have time to react to, or just that users may not be active during the time they have to react.

Links should absolutely be way better than having broken images that can't be viewed anyways. Although one would have to visit the link to view image, it would be one way to ease the stress right now, until something is done to rectify the imgur issue.

It depends on the image, if a host deletes the image, Bitcointalk's invalid image would be better then a broken link, for SEO.

If the image still exists on the host, the link would be better as it would not hurt SEO and would have a valid link out to an image that works.

That said, I think replacing images with links takes away from the flow of certain threads and, overall, hurt them... especially threads like the art contest, tutorials, and others.

[JollyGood]

Given that imgur seems to be accesible again (for the time being at least) but for the images that now or in future are no longer accessible I think using Option #2 would be a way to simply get it over and done with and let the past be the past.

If imgur will provide an error for future uploads it puts the onus of the member to select an image hosting website which should serve the purpose and also keep a back up of all images uplaoded from now onwards.

It looks like imgur is no longer blocking the image proxy. I didn't change anything on the forum's end, so imgur must've loosened up their limits. I guess it's not necessary to convert img images into links as long as imgur keeps working. But to prevent this from happening again, you'll get an error if you try to embed imgur images in posts from now on.

[shahzadafzal]

Given that imgur seems to be accesible again (for the time being at least) but for the images that now or in future are no longer accessible I think using Option #2 would be a way to simply get it over and done with and let the past be the past.

Nope it's not working... it was working for some time but it's down again for last few days.

As per the current poll stats 54.3% votes already opted for option 2.

But like someone pointed earlier we also have to think which one hurts more in terms of SEO and user experience broken image or broken link?

[joker_josue]

Given that imgur seems to be accesible again (for the time being at least) but for the images that now or in future are no longer accessible I think using Option #2 would be a way to simply get it over and done with and let the past be the past.

I start to think they created a bandwidth control system for each site. That is, when a certain site reaches a certain bandwidth, they block the site for a number of days, until the counter is reset. Perhaps they want to implement a system so that sites pay to use their bandwidth.

This is just my theory. Because I find it strange, for a few days the images work and then they stop working for a while, then they work again. I don't see them manually turning on/off access to Bitcointalk. But it's just a theory, it could be wrong.

[LoyceV]

Given that imgur seems to be accesible again

It's not

[JollyGood]

Nope it's not working... it was working for some time but it's down again for last few days.

Oh no here we go again. If it has failed to supply images again then rendering members unable to upload to imgur is the correct step forward taken by theymos.

I start to think they created a bandwidth control system for each site. That is, when a certain site reaches a certain bandwidth, they block the site for a number of days, until the counter is reset. Perhaps they want to implement a system so that sites pay to use their bandwidth.

Stranger things have occurred in the past, I would not be surprised if your theory was correct and to a degree from their hosting perspective it might be a strategy that keeps them rotating their biggest audience.

Given that imgur seems to be accesible again

It's not

This whole imgur images are available or not on issue will probably be resolved by theymos in the coming days. Option #2 will handle the images-not-found issue with links and as for future images, there will have be to be other hosting solutions. Apart from some learning issues I cannot recall ever having a problem with Postimages