Why haven’t we made a proper paid image host for Bitcointalk?

[BuckyLucky]

I keep wondering why we still don’t have a serious Bitcointalk image host where people who care about quality just pay and it stays stable.

But then I think maybe the model is cursed here.

Bitcointalk posts live forever and many of them have a lot of traffic. If an image gets embedded in a popular thread, it can keep getting loaded for years and now the whole forum is your bandwidth bill. How do you price that without annoying people?

If anyone here has run a host or has real numbers, I’d love to hear what actually kills these projects.

Hope we can figure something out soon, i was thinking of building something like this for the experience and knowledge.

P.S. Talkimg is a cool project but limits the file size to 2.5MB which is kinda annoying for serious people who value quality. Maybe they can also join this conversation and we can all help them to improve.

[PX-Z]

Talkimg is run by a community member and that is enough. If the size limit is the issue i guess you are free to make a suggestion about that if you you will need more high quality image. Which might cause a big problem, loading on a forum page where images is loaded at the same time.

[BuckyLucky]

Talkimg is run by a community member and that is enough. If the size limit is the issue i guess you are free to make a suggestion about that if you you will need more high quality image which might cause a big problem, loading on forum where images is loaded at the same time in every page.

of course, its great. but i think we should all try to find a solution to increase this limit to 6MB minimum. that's the goal of my post

[TryNinja]

P.S. Talkimg is a cool project but limits the file size to 2.5MB which is kinda annoying for serious people who value quality. Maybe they can also join this conversation and we can all help them to improve.

You can't embed images bigger than 2.5 MB on BitcoinTalk... that's why @joker_josue put this limit in place.

Do you just want a place to upload 10 MB+ images and link them here? They won't load on the posts, so you can only post the url.

See:

If an image doesn't load consistently (or at least frequently), and it doesn't break any image rules that would cause it to be rejected by the proxy, send me a link to the image or proxied image.

Image rules are:
- Must be less than 2.5 MB
- The entire transfer must take less than 3 seconds.
- The proxied server must not keep the connection open for "a long time" without transferring data.

[BuckyLucky]

P.S. Talkimg is a cool project but limits the file size to 2.5MB which is kinda annoying for serious people who value quality. Maybe they can also join this conversation and we can all help them to improve.

You can't embed images bigger than 2.5 MB on BitcoinTalk... that's why @joker_josue put this limit in place.

Do you just want a place to upload 10 MB+ images and link them here? They won't load on the posts, so you can only post the url.

See:

If an image doesn't load consistently (or at least frequently), and it doesn't break any image rules that would cause it to be rejected by the proxy, send me a link to the image or proxied image.

Image rules are:
- Must be less than 2.5 MB
- The entire transfer must take less than 3 seconds.
- The proxied server must not keep the connection open for "a long time" without transferring data.

I see, interesting. So there is nothing we can do to change this limitation? That's kinda disappointing, not that it's super important, but would be good to have more limit.

[Vod]

of course, its great. but i think we should all try to find a solution to increase this limit to 6MB minimum. that's the goal of my post

6MB maximum?    At maximum web resolution, images should take up no more than 300 to 900k.   Why do you want to upload a full editable image just to display?

[BuckyLucky]

of course, its great. but i think we should all try to find a solution to increase this limit to 6MB minimum. that's the goal of my post

6MB maximum?    At maximum web resolution, images should take up no more than 300 to 900k.   Why do you want to upload a full editable image just to display?

I was mainly thinking that gifs have the biggest issue regarding their size. The 2.5mb limit is fine for images.

[Vod]

Btw thank you guys for jumping in with your knowledge and try to explain everything. 

Think of it this way.  A poster (picture of a model) in your room is cheap.  The actual model would be... not.

[BuckyLucky]

Btw thank you guys for jumping in with your knowledge and try to explain everything. 

Think of it this way.  A poster (picture of a model) in your room is cheap.  The actual model would be... not.

thats a way to think about it for sure  , but why not have a nice looking and expensive poster as well to complement the expensive model 

[BuckyLucky]

so is proxying images that important? most modern forums dont bother proxying them.

[vapourminer]

so is proxying images that important? most modern forums dont bother proxying them.

tracking and opsec.

at one point someone put embedded tracker images into posts so theymos did the proxy thing

as far as i remember.. any corrections welcome.

[LoyceV]

I keep wondering why we still don’t have a serious Bitcointalk image host where people who care about quality just pay and it stays stable.

You can quite literally do this yourself: pick your favourite cloud hosting provider, just pay them, and you can upload as much as you want.

I was mainly thinking that gifs have the biggest issue regarding their size. The 2.5mb limit is fine for images.

I'm not on Bitcointalk for the animated GIFs.

[CONVOAI]

Bro, instead of relying on any other service, create your own personal image hosting server. There are plenty of ways to create your own image server. You can find them by searching on Google. Just like everyone has a personal mobile phone, everyone uses their own laptop, and has a personal room to stay, create an image hosting server for your own use. Then you won't have to rely on anyone else, and there won't be much pressure on one person or one server.

[rat03gopoh]

I see, interesting. So there is nothing we can do to change this limitation? That's kinda disappointing, not that it's super important, but would be good to have more limit.

Perhaps you could propose a donation of forum server storage, say up to 500TB/month, to expand this forum into an GIF museum.
If thyemos approves your proposal, I'll have to ignore you, as I use Win 95 to access the forum.

[dkbit98]

Talkimg is a cool project but limits the file size to 2.5MB which is kinda annoying for serious people who value quality. Maybe they can also join this conversation and we can all help them to improve.

So what if Talkimage have limitatioin, when Bitcointalk forum also have limitation for image posting.
There is no point in uploading and posting high quality image here, it's not like this is some artistic-design forum.
Smaller size images also means that pages are opening much faster, and it's trivial to resize them on your own device.

[Mia Chloe]

Perhaps you could propose a donation of forum server storage, say up to 500TB/month, to expand this forum into an GIF museum.
If thyemos approves your proposal, I'll have to ignore you, as I use Win 95 to access the forum.

I doubt Theymos will allow it. To start with, it was part of the reasons why Theymos disabled animated avatars. The problem is not the hosting site the problem is the forum servers. The aftermath of overloading servers is slower page load ups and a couple other things and I don't people would want to trade them for GIFS.

GIFs have their application in ads and stuff for the forum but increasing the upload limit op is suggesting is of no use there are ways to maximise quality without increasing size. To assist I only suggest they add the compression tool back in talkiMG.

[macson]

I see, interesting. So there is nothing we can do to change this limitation? That's kinda disappointing, not that it's super important, but would be good to have more limit.

I don't want to see a post with a single, huge image that takes forever to load and fills my screen, it's basically useless and annoying to see that.

The current rules are basically perfect and don't need to be changed.

If you want to post a larger image, just post the image URL. It's that simple.

[taufik123]

-snip-

If anyone here has run a host or has real numbers, I’d love to hear what actually kills these projects.

Hope we can figure something out soon, i was thinking of building something like this for the experience and knowledge.

P.S. Talkimg is a cool project but limits the file size to 2.5MB which is kinda annoying for serious people who value quality. Maybe they can also join this conversation and we can all help them to improve.

What hosting projects failed?
don't you see how Talkimg is built and is it not enough for you yet?

Even though if you look in more detail at the development of Talkimg from the beginning until now, the service owned by talkimg is not really run for free,
it requires a considerable amount of costs also from server maintenance and some bugs that occur, security that is implemented,
as well as the cost of paying for Cloud Server which is quite expensive for each month.

Then you are given free access to the uploads you make and have been supported by this forum community.
You need to see some new servers, new backups and ever-updated data statistics that are being worked on by @joker_josue,

new Server  _____________________
Currently, the TalkImg dedicated server (VPS) is located in Michigan, US. It uses AlmaLinux 8, 64-bit OS, with 4 cores of CPU, 4 GB of RAM and a 100 GB hard disk. For security reasons, it also uses Cloudflare's protection system, in addition to the server's own DDoS protection system. It is prepared to scale at any time, as needed.

new Backups ___________________
- A ZIP is created weekly with all the new image uploads from the last week, which will be available for download for 15 days, here: talkimg.com/tempbackups/
- A ZIP is created monthly with all images that have been accessed at least once by the Bitcointalk image proxy, and that have not already been included in previous zips. They will be available for download for 60 days, here: talkimg.com/tempbackups/btctalk_bk/
An API is available for those who request it to facilitate the download of these backups. A weekly offline backup of all images uploaded to TalkImg is also made.

new Statistics ________________
Total statistical data, since the project started (April 28, 2023):

Images: 247 516	Disk Space: 75.2GB

Last update: 06/01/2026

Monthly statistics:
[First 15 days]
[May'23][Jun'23][Jul'23][Aug'23][Sep'23][Oct'23][Nov'23][Dec'23][Jan'24][Feb'24][Mar'24][Apr'24][First Year]
[May'24][Jun'24][Jul'24][Ago'24][Sep'24][Oct'24][Nov'24][Dec'24][Jan'25][Feb'25][Mar'25][Apr'25][Second Year]
[May'25][Jun'25][Jul'25][Ago'25][Sep'25][Oct'25][Nov'25][Dec'25]

And pay attention to this Change Log which was built from 2023 until now.

Change Log:

• 25/05/2025 | ZIP v0.65 - Reworked the way of processing and compressing the image, added log information for the user.
• 09/05/2025 | OP updated with server and backup system information.
• 27/07/2024 | OP added donation information via Lightning.
• 27/04/2024 | v1.30 - Script update, with several bug fixes. More highlight the tool for zipping larger MB images. More details here.
                    | ZIP v0.60 - Improvement in compression and more details about it for the user.
• 26/03/2024 | OP updated with information about events and new service features.
                    | v1.20 - Added the possibility of uploading images via link. (Temporarily Suspended)
• 14/11/2023 | OP updated with the link "TalkImg Service Status", where it is possible to check uptime.
• 07/11/2023 | ZIP v0.45 - It is now possible to convert WebP and BMP images. Improvements to zipping configuration.
• 25/09/2023 | ZIP v0.34 - Launch of the new tool to compress images larger than 2.5MB.
• 18/08/2023 | v1.19 - Several graphic adjustments were made, for better visualization of some information.
• 07/08/2023 | OP updated with total project statistical information.
• 10/07/2023 | v1.17 - Added more information about donations.
• 05/06/2023 | v1.16 - Added button to resize image before upload, and improvements in the way to select the link to embed.
• 30/05/2023 | OP updated the translations list.
• 28/05/2023 | OP updated with information about system backups.
• 26/05/2023 | v1.14 - The file is now renamed at the time of upload, to a random name.
• 19/05/2023 | v1.13 - Auto checked terms when uploading, to facilitate use via TOR browser and similar.
• 17/05/2023 | Updated to OP with more information (Server/Account/Links, Scripts & Add-ons).
• 15/05/2023 | Upgraded the server to better performance.
• 13/05/2023 | v1.12 - Adjustments to the Flood Protection system.
• 09/05/2023 | v1.11 - Improvements to the user area.
• 06/05/2023 | v1.10 - Created The option for the code to incorporate BBCode already with the actual height and width of the image. Settings in the area of user accounts.
• 03/05/2023 | OP updated with some more details about the project (Long Term).
• 02/05/2023 | v1.03 - Added information for donations.
• 01/05/2023 | OP updated with some more details about the project.
                    | v1.02 - Adjusting the supported size of 2.5MB and at the hosting level.
• 28/04/2023 | v1.00 - Launch of the TalkImg website.

It's really not easy and not completely free for the developers and you're allowed to use it however you want without having any problems like other hosting even though it's only limited to 2.5MB.

If the 2.5MB restriction is a bit annoying, then what size file do you want to Upload?
If you don't want any restrictions then create your personal hosting server and compare how much you will spend, It really isn't cheap.

[OgNasty]

so is proxying images that important? most modern forums dont bother proxying them.

tracking and opsec.

at one point someone put embedded tracker images into posts so theymos did the proxy thing

as far as i remember.. any corrections welcome.

I remember that. I forget who the user was but it was a big deal. I believe they were referred to as “tracking pixels” at the time if anyone wanted help searching around for this historical event.

[taufik123]

I remember that. I forget who the user was but it was a big deal. I believe they were referred to as “tracking pixels” at the time if anyone wanted help searching around for this historical event.

Is this what you mean about tracking pixel issues?

Again you are giving the foundation too much power.


Mod Edit Note: Shove your tracking pixel up your ass, BCB. Cheers, Raoul Duke

Well, ain't that nice. Tracking pixels... noting every IP address that views his post.

Why am I not too surprised?  

Then Theymos makes improvements and increases privacy so that it can no longer Tracking Pixels

To improve privacy and eliminate mixed content warnings, images in posts and PMs are now proxied through images.weserv.nl. Tell me if this broke anything.

And you've talked about this pixel tracking

edit : without tracking pixels please

I believe those tracking pixels are why this site started using an image proxy service.  It is no longer possible to expose someone's IP using that method.