Do you use Imgur for image hosting? Please Read!

[Barkley]

Feb 11, 2016 16:57:20 GMT -8 Michael said:

Hello!

Recently Imgur (an online image host) made some changes to their Terms of Service.

From Imgur's TOS:

...don't use Imgur to host image libraries you link to from elsewhere, content for your website, advertising, avatars, or anything else that turns us into your content delivery network.

As a byproduct it appears that some popular forum hosts have been blocked by Imgur, effectively breaking forums due to the missing images. While ProBoards has not yet been affected we want to make sure that this never happens to our customers.

If you currently use Imgur to host any images for your themes, plugins, or anything related to your forum we urge you to update those links and rehost those images elsewhere. Images can be uploaded to your theme extremely easily by going to Admin>Themes and then selecting the "Images" option on the theme you would like to upload an image to. From that page you can upload custom images for your theme.

If you are looking for another online image host for not theme related hosting check out this list of popular image hosts:

postimage.org/
minus.com/
imgup.net/
s5.photobucket.com/
imageshack.us/

We do not endorse these sites, they are simply a selection of the top results from Google when searching "image hosting".

Thank you for reading and don't hesitate to ask if you have questions! 

I've been getting a 'lot' of hanging on custom pages today from imgur.com, and I don't use that company, so is it possible that Proboards are using them in the admin panel?

[Michael]

Feb 25, 2016 18:34:42 GMT -8 Barkley said:

Feb 11, 2016 16:57:20 GMT -8 Michael said:

Hello!

Recently Imgur (an online image host) made some changes to their Terms of Service.

From Imgur's TOS:
As a byproduct it appears that some popular forum hosts have been blocked by Imgur, effectively breaking forums due to the missing images. While ProBoards has not yet been affected we want to make sure that this never happens to our customers.

If you currently use Imgur to host any images for your themes, plugins, or anything related to your forum we urge you to update those links and rehost those images elsewhere. Images can be uploaded to your theme extremely easily by going to Admin>Themes and then selecting the "Images" option on the theme you would like to upload an image to. From that page you can upload custom images for your theme.

If you are looking for another online image host for not theme related hosting check out this list of popular image hosts:

postimage.org/
minus.com/
imgup.net/
s5.photobucket.com/
imageshack.us/

We do not endorse these sites, they are simply a selection of the top results from Google when searching "image hosting".

Thank you for reading and don't hesitate to ask if you have questions! 

I've been getting a 'lot' of hanging on custom pages today from imgur.com, and I don't use that company, so is it possible that Proboards are using them in the admin panel?

No. We would never use external hosting for anything with our software. We always host those materials ourselves on our image servers. Maybe they're coming from a theme you're using? What images are they?

[Former Member]

I really have no idea what to say on this...
Isn't the whole point of an image host, to do exactly as people have been doing?
I don't see any of the others complaining.
This all comes down to them not being smart enough to fully understand what they were getting into when they opened as an image host. They did not think ahead, and make sure to have the server & hosting resources to be able to handle the bandwidth needed to effectively run an image host.

So now, due to their own incompetence, all their users must find an alternative for their image hosting.

I sense imgur.com will not be around for much longer, after this.

[Virgil Sovereign]

Feb 26, 2016 3:09:09 GMT -8 @burkeknight said:

I really have no idea what to say on this...
Isn't the whole point of an image host, to do exactly as people have been doing?
I don't see any of the others complaining.
This all comes down to them not being smart enough to fully understand what they were getting into when they opened as an image host. They did not think ahead, and make sure to have the server & hosting resources to be able to handle the bandwidth needed to effectively run an image host.

So now, due to their own incompetence, all their users must find an alternative for their image hosting.

I sense imgur.com will not be around for much longer, after this.

It isn't "incompetence" to underestimate the extent to which the Internet would flock to their service in particular. Nor is it incompetent to place reasonable restrictions on the use of their free service now that they've reached the limit of how quickly they can bring new hardware online.

"Incompetence" would be using a free hosting service without any kind of a backup and expecting the service to always be around in spite of being such a costly proposition that not even Google, Microsoft, or Apple dares offer it.

[Barkley]

Feb 25, 2016 19:06:53 GMT -8 Michael said:

Feb 25, 2016 18:34:42 GMT -8 Barkley said:

I've been getting a 'lot' of hanging on custom pages today from imgur.com, and I don't use that company, so is it possible that Proboards are using them in the admin panel?

No. We would never use external hosting for anything with our software. We always host those materials ourselves on our image servers. Maybe they're coming from a theme you're using? What images are they?

The grey box at the bottom left of the screen was saying "Waiting for imgur.com" and there was a slow load of the visual editor on various custom pages.

I've never used anybody else's theme, nor use images that aren't from my own hosts in any part of the structure, other than random forum posts.

I've checked the youtube responsive / video responsive codes and don't see imgur.com either.

For the record, it isn't happening now, but it was at the time of writing, and although no biggy, I thought it unusual.

[Michael]

Feb 26, 2016 7:23:39 GMT -8 Barkley said:

Feb 25, 2016 19:06:53 GMT -8 Michael said:

No. We would never use external hosting for anything with our software. We always host those materials ourselves on our image servers. Maybe they're coming from a theme you're using? What images are they?

The grey box at the bottom left of the screen was saying "Waiting for imgur.com" and there was a slow load of the visual editor on various custom pages.

I've never used anybody else's theme, nor use images that aren't from my own hosts in any part of the structure, other than random forum posts.

I've checked the youtube responsive / video responsive codes and don't see imgur.com either.

For the record, it isn't happening now, but it was at the time of writing, and although no biggy, I thought it unusual.

My guess would be a plugin then? 

[Former Member]

Agreed Mr Stone. However, I've noticed an increase in forums world wide that have limited or even removed the option to link images off site, claim this uses too much bandwidth.. many threads I've created over the years have used off site links and with this update or change in policies.. all those images have been removed and I'm unable to edit the threads.. it's become a hassle. But it's just any or all of my threads.. several users/members of those forums are having the same issue. As a moderator for several of these forums.. What should I inform new and old members about the posting of images? After all image is everything.

[Michael]

Feb 26, 2016 10:02:58 GMT -8 @lostintransit said:

Agreed Mr Stone. However, I've noticed an increase in forums world wide that have limited or even removed the option to link images off site, claim this uses too much bandwidth.. many threads I've created over the years have used off site links and with this update or change in policies.. all those images have been removed and I'm unable to edit the threads.. it's become a hassle. But it's just any or all of my threads.. several users/members of those forums are having the same issue. As a moderator for several of these forums.. What should I inform new and old members about the posting of images? After all image is everything.

Linking images from image hosts will be a thing for a good long while yet. I would suggest telling members to host images that are on their computer on the forum itself and images that are already uploaded online to just link them. You can always set up whatever system works best for you! 

[Libra Mike]

Feb 16, 2016 10:16:38 GMT -8 Michael said:

I wouldn't suggest using Imgur at all (for avatars, signatures, or the like). Most likely it would get your forum banned from Imgur as we don't use the same process of domain connection as other forum hosts (which is what caused the problem for them). 

Question. Does it make a difference whether the image in question is part of an Imgur-hosted album of images or not?

For example: Until I saw this thread I'd been using this image as an avatar on one forum I'm registered on:

i.imgur.com/UmNy32z.gif

Subsequently, I saved the image to my laptop, then re-uploaded it directly, so as to no longer use the Imgur link for it.

However, let's say I hadn't adjusted my avatar so. This GIF isn't part of a Imgur album of images that belong to either me or the forum. Does that fact matter or no?

[Michael]

Feb 26, 2016 13:56:14 GMT -8 Libra Mike said:

Feb 16, 2016 10:16:38 GMT -8 Michael said:

I wouldn't suggest using Imgur at all (for avatars, signatures, or the like). Most likely it would get your forum banned from Imgur as we don't use the same process of domain connection as other forum hosts (which is what caused the problem for them). 

Question. Does it make a difference whether the image in question is part of an Imgur-hosted album of images or not?

For example: Until I saw this thread I'd been using this image as an avatar on one forum I'm registered on:

i.imgur.com/UmNy32z.gif

Subsequently, I saved the image to my laptop, then re-uploaded it directly, so as to no longer use the Imgur link for it.

However, let's say I hadn't adjusted my avatar so. This GIF isn't part of a Imgur album of images that belong to either me or the forum. Does that fact matter or no?

That wouldn't matter unfortunately. If they were to check to see where the image is being loaded from or the domain requesting the image it would still show up as your forum.

[Former Member]

Feb 26, 2016 5:20:16 GMT -8 Virgil Sovereign said:

It isn't "incompetence" to underestimate the extent to which the Internet would flock to their service in particular. Nor is it incompetent to place reasonable restrictions on the use of their free service now that they've reached the limit of how quickly they can bring new hardware online.

"Incompetence" would be using a free hosting service without any kind of a backup and expecting the service to always be around in spite of being such a costly proposition that not even Google, Microsoft, or Apple dares offer it.

Sorry, I do web hosting, and when people decide to do image hosting, then change things afterwards, because they did not make sure they can handle the load, is indeed incompetence. No if's and's or but's about it.

Personally, I don't need or use image hosts much. Just for some things, and that's Photobucket.

Seeing an image host go and change their ToS like this, is clearly a sign that they "bit off more than they can chew" and are now facing the consequences of that. No offenses meant, but if you plan on making a service such as image hosting, you make sure you can handle it, and prepare for the "Internet to flock to it".

Limit? Sorry, but the meaning of free image hosting:

An image hosting service allows individuals to upload images to an Internet website. The image host will then store the image onto its server, and show the individual different types of code to allow others to view that image.

Typically image hosting websites provide an upload interface; a form in which the uploader specifies the location of an image file on his local computer file system. After pressing a "Submit" button the file is uploaded to the image host’s server. Some image hosts allow the uploader to specify multiple files at once using this form, or the ability to upload one ZIP archive containing multiple images. Additionally, some hosts allow FTP access, where single or multiple files can be uploaded in one session using FTP software or an FTP-capable browser.

After this process, the image is hosted on the server. Typically this means that the image is available on the web (to the public). The uploader may also be allowed to specify inline links to the hosted image, in order to embed it on other websites e.g.

• Linking with HTML code
• Linking with BBcode
• A clickable thumbnail that is linked to the full image

Usually, the image host will put restrictions on the maximum image size allowed, or the maximum space or bandwidth allowed per user. Due to bandwidth costs, free services usually offer relatively modest size limits per image when compared to paid services, but allow users hotlinking their images.

Does not state anywhere, to limit people to not using the images hosted on sites. Why? Because that's what an image host is for.
Limiting the amount of bandwidth for "free" accounts, is usually done by a set number for bandwidth, then not showing the image if the account goes over the limit.

[Virgil Sovereign]

@burkeknight: I have little sympathy for anyone who dumps their data onto a free hosting service (especially without a backup) and expects the content to just stay there forever, with no rate limits, no storage limits, no restrictions or caveats.

Let's say you open up a free image hosting service. How many servers do you buy? One? Ten? A hundred? What if you buy ten, and within a year half the Internet decides it's their prerogative to dump anything they feel like onto your free servers? Are you incompetent?

How about if you buy a hundred servers and the Internet says to hell with your free service because Google opens up free content hosting a few months later? Now you're definitely broke. Are you also incompetent?

When they started up--seven years ago--imgur had absolutely no way of predicting how popular or unpopular their service would be. They have zero control over how many people use it and what it's used for. It's free. There's no limit to how much people can and will abuse free goods and services. You and I both know that if imgur kept up its free, unrestricted service, and continued to offer low latency and high uptime, eventually the whole bloody Internet would be dumping every byte of non-commercial detritus in existence onto imgur servers.

Hence basically what you're saying is that a company like imgur is incompetent if they want to offer free hosting but they're unable or unwilling to do it for the entire Internet.

Screw that.

You want reliable service with uptime and persistence guarantees? Pay for it. imgur offers commercial packages right there on their site. Deal with capacity limits, rate limits, and all the headaches that give you the right to be ticked off when imgur goes down or decides to change their ToS. You're entitled to complain because you're paying them good money and getting a decidedly finite degree of hosting in return. That's how the real world works. That's why the miscellany on my home board is hosted off a paid service that costs me a few bucks a month. If yours is the same: good for you. If not, get it there, because one thing we can agree on is that imgur may very well say "screw it" to the whole free hosting experiment, and anyone using them as a CDN will be taking a bath.

[Matt]

I would recommend postimage.org as a free hosting service to anyone, I always use this for posting images and it works great. I even use the postimage plugin on my forum.

[Befera]

I just signed up for imgbox.com/ and it's pretty awesome. I definitely recommend it to those of you who need to host a lot of images for your forums, especially those that should/need to be in a gallery (automated store pictures, images to go in board descriptions, etc.).

[whisker]

Feb 27, 2016 11:26:28 GMT -8 Befera said:

I just signed up for imgbox.com/ and it's pretty awesome. I definitely recommend it to those of you who need to host a lot of images for your forums, especially those that should/need to be in a gallery (automated store pictures, images to go in board descriptions, etc.).

I registered just now, and it seems it's limited to square thumbnails. I wanted to upload a banner-type image and all I got was a 200 by 200px thumbnail section of it. There were various sizes of square thumbnails you could choose from, but that was no good for me.