Please STOP using imgur

Hackerman

Hackerman

User
Summer said:
Well, what about the classified on reddit, they use imgur?
Click to expand...

Shhhhhhhhh

LOL

The real answer is self hosting.

This would be an easy answer.....

Buy a domain name.... any name. I would call it FCPICS.com

Run a simple app to allow members here to upload pics to that site and link them to the forum.

One of the mods could do this. Or, a dedicated member.

Cost would be about $20 to make it all happen and then about $20 a year to keep it up.

Simple answer to an ongoing problem here.
 
KeroZen

KeroZen

Chronic vapaholic
Because they need the traffic? Because reddit is too big to ban? Or maybe they have deals we are not aware of? I think they need each others more than they acknowledge.

But maybe the classifieds was just an excuse and it's just about our topic. @Stu knows better.
 
Stu

Stu

Maconheiro
Staff member
KeroZen said:
But maybe the classifieds was just an excuse and it's just about our topic. @Stu knows better.
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In my communications with them, I never got the impression that our subject matter was the issue. They insisted that it was simply the fact that our classifieds section violates their TOS regarding non-commercial use. If they were basing their decision on something other than that, I can't be sure. But if that is/was the case, they didn't allude to it in our discussions so I'll take what they said at face value.

FWIW they also deny that they locked my personal account, so they are either not being truthful, are incompetent, or both.

:peace:
 
Hackerman

Hackerman

User
@Stu Hey bud, why not set up a domain like I suggested. It's a 2 second job for someone with your knowledge. And, for under 20 bux, it seems like a simple solution to an ongoing problem at this site.

Just tossing it out.
 
Hackerman,
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Stu

Stu

Maconheiro
Staff member
Hackerman said:
@Stu Hey bud, why not set up a domain like I suggested. It's a 2 second job for someone with your knowledge. And, for under 20 bux, it seems like a simple solution to an ongoing problem at this site.

Just tossing it out.
Click to expand...
I have no interest in setting up an image hosting site when so many other options like postimage and imgbb are already available. Besides, it wouldn't fix the problem for the gazillion imgur images already on FC.

The options are already there for us to use, so I don't see how a new domain really accomplishes much. :2c:

:peace:
 
Hackerman

Hackerman

User
Well, the main reason being that the same thing wouldn't happen AGAIN. There has been image site after image site that has either held your images hostage for pay, or cut you off completely. And, I'm sure it will happen again.

Owning your own site would eliminate that.

Besides, October 26th is right around the corner so it might be a moot point.

Just tryimg to help.
 
KeroZen

KeroZen

Chronic vapaholic
Hackerman said:
Cost would be about $20 to make it all happen and then about $20 a year to keep it up.
Click to expand...

$20 gets you about 20 minutes of work at the usual freelance rates. Setting a server, domain and secure image hosting solution takes much more than that.

Stu said:
Besides, it wouldn't fix the problem for the gazillion imgur images already on FC.
Click to expand...

That's the idea of the script/app I was thinking about. Would be a 3 steps process: first a catalog creation (compiling the jobs list, saving the original images URL as well as the post ID's), then a scrapper script (fetching all images from imgur and uploading them to the new host), then ultimately a patcher script (that you would run from your logged account browser, and it would edit all posts from the catalog and replace the links)
 
Stu

Stu

Maconheiro
Staff member
KeroZen said:
That's the idea of the script/app I was thinking about. Would be a 3 steps process: first a catalog creation (compiling the jobs list, saving the original images URL as well as the post ID's), then a scrapper script (fetching all images from imgur and uploading them to the new host), then ultimately a patcher script (that you would run from your logged account browser, and it would edit all posts from the catalog and replace the links)
Click to expand...
That's all well above my ability, but if someone can write those scripts, well I wouldn't rule out giving it a go. We'd also need someone to write the code to facilitate image hosting on the domain, unless there is an off the shelf option out there.:shrug:

:peace:
 
cybrguy

cybrguy

Putin is a War Criminal
Yeah, Ten years ago or so I set up a image hosting site for a family member who had a baby and wanted to post photos. It was just a picture gallery for hosting pictures on and didn't allow others to post to it, and it was still a pain in the ass and needed regular attention. I bought the domain for them, set it up as a gallery (I think I used Coppermine) paid 3 months in advance for hosting and then I turned it over to the Dad to take care of. He managed to fuck it up in no time. I think he gave up even before the 3 months prepay was over.
I would think anything that allowed posting to would be much worse in terms of necessary attention even if you ignore the potential of bad actors intentionally fucking with it. Sites like this need security, it is not optional. Personally I doubt it is worth the effort it would take given the hosters already out there.
Now, doing something like "the other place" has done is a different story, and once admin access comes back that is a good idea, but I don't see how creating our own hosting site would be manageable for FC unless someone is willing to commit a lot of time to it. JMO of course...
Hackerman said:
Cost would be about $20 to make it all happen and then about $20 a year to keep it up.
Click to expand...
You are forgetting the $10 to $30/mo for hosting the site...
 
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KeroZen

KeroZen

Chronic vapaholic
Hosting should be the simplest part (although we could have bad surprises again with their terms of service if they deem that our images are not fit... and since many of our members enjoy posting bud pictures...)

But we need more than storage. And who's willing to take all responsibility and become the owner? That implies responding to inquiries, like DMCA take down requests when there are copyright infringements and other kinds of complaints etc.

Then like @cybrguy we need a secure image hosting solution system, that is robot proof and user friendly. It will be hammered by bots and malicious users the very second it gets online.
 
A

asdf420

Well-Known Member
could just make it require an x-referred-by or something. or add it as a subdomain of fc and use the same forum cookies.
 
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asdf420,
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KeroZen

KeroZen

Chronic vapaholic
Until @vtac comes back, there's nothing we can do on the domain and forum. And when he comes back then we'll be able to talk about hiding the classifieds and maybe imgur would lift the ban.

Until then that hosting site would have to be a personal initiative from a member. Living under prohibition I can't take that risk myself.
 
KeroZen,
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cybrguy

cybrguy

Putin is a War Criminal
KeroZen said:
And when he comes back then we'll be able to talk about hiding the classifieds and maybe imgur would lift the ban.
Click to expand...
We could, and we want to try so that users can easily see the thousands of images already hosted there. But once we have admin access I think it is in our best interest going forward to enable the feature in the forum software that will allow us to upload pictures directly with our posts rather than a third party hoster and then linking them to our posts. Much easier for the poster and under our own mods control.

Added: The only reason I can think why we might NOT want to host our own images would be if the domain hosting fees were to rise significantly due to more bandwidth or more storage used, but if that were to happen I imagine folks would be glad to kick in a few bucks for the benefits and control we would get.
 
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Stu

Stu

Maconheiro
Staff member
cybrguy said:
I think it is in our best interest going forward to enable the feature in the forum software that will allow us to upload pictures directly with our posts rather than a third party hoster and then linking them to our posts. Much easier for the poster and under our own mods control.
Click to expand...
I doubt that's going to happen. @vtac is well aware of the ability to integrate image hosting within FC and rejected the idea out of hand. It had to do with security issues IIRC. 3rd party hosting is here to stay, so we might as well accept it and try to find the best option(s) for members to use going forward.

:peace:
 
OF

OF

Well-Known Member
KeroZen said:
I'm still concerned about images longevity. On imgur we had the insurance that they would not delete pics. On other sites it's not that clear.
Click to expand...

I share that as well. I tend to post technical photos and go to some considerable effort to describe what's going on, often the same basic information and photos for a number of reasons.

Unlike what ImageShack did to us a while back, the reason I changed to Imgur, those photos are still available for those who really what to see them. I will take Stu's suggestion going forward and post the link instead of the 'BBCode' version to make it easier (guys won't have to use the 'reply' trick) but balk at those who beg/demand I change for their convenience. Sorry about that. Yes, I'm a bit upset that a couple years posts are now useless in large part since the photo is lost forever with ImageShack. I'd have to guess what was there, post by post, to try to recover that from my camera.

Imgur gets a separate request any time anyone looks at a page (25 posts) so that photo loads whether needed or not. I can understand their reluctance to pay for such service, IMO we have screwed ourselves by being so popular?

Perhaps I'll change and 'start all over again' for a third time, but for now I'm with Stu and KZ (who is wise in so many ways....), there's a 'work around' for those interested.

OF
 
Whisper

Whisper

Well-Known Member
Does anyone here know why some photos will open and others will not? ( imgur ) I even joined the imgur site to be able to see some post I couldn't. Frustrating as fuck.
 
Whisper,
cybrguy

cybrguy

Putin is a War Criminal
The excuse they give is (apparently) that they don't like this boards classified section so they have blacklisted us making using their service on FC significantly more difficult and frustrating and not worth the effort. Normally if you can see an image from their site on FC you already have it in your cache.
Most of us have just moved on to other services like tinypic.com or imgbb.com that don't make us jump hoops. There are several others.
 
cybrguy,
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Whisper

Whisper

Well-Known Member
The problem I was having, had to do with trying to open other people's pictures. Someone had some wood blanks posted that others could clearly see, that I am unable to see. It was an older post, so maybe that's the problem? The photos themselves were just pieces of wood to be turned. Thanks, Summer and cybrguy. :tup:
 
Whisper,
Solomon

Solomon

Talk to the Beard
Testing tinypic

v4m5qg.jpg


Wow, that works well. Thanks!
 
Solomon,
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