PSA: Imgur - anonymous image deletion

stickyfiddle · April 2023

FYI to anyone uploading photos with Imgur. You need to have an account going forwards - they're about to delete the archive of anonymously-posted images. You can still have an account that uses made up personal info if you don't want to give them anything, but you'll need to have an account

https://help.imgur.com/hc/en-us/articles/14415587638029

https://techcrunch.com/2023/04/20/imgur-will-ban-explicit-images-on-its-platform-this-month/ ;

https://me.mashable.com/apps-and-software/27426/imgur-to-remove-explicit-images-and-old-content

ICBM · April 2023

That’s very annoying. Luckily being a bit obsessive I have the originals of everything I’ve uploaded saved, but presumably it will mean having to re-upload them and edit the links in the posts.

Just when I’d forgotten what a hassle doing the same thing was when Photofuckit decided they wanted money for their crap service...

stickyfiddle · April 2023

Yeah, seems they're looking to increase attractiveness to advertisers, and that means "engagement" or whatever. The new owners (since 2021 iirc) don't seem to realise the value in a site like that is in its current form, not in turning it into all the other generic ad/spam-filled meme websites that are hated by anyone rational

barnstorm · April 2023

I’ve only ever used it when I’ve wanted to post an image here, and it’s no great hardship to create an account so I can continue to do that, I guess.

But it sounds like a lot of useful content is going to disappear from guitar forums (and all sorts of others, I assume) overnight.

usedtobe · April 2023

I’ve got an account, and almost always upload to my account.. only once, quite recently, I did one anonymously.. I can’t remember what, how, or why, but there it is.. I don’t suppose it matters that much that it’ll get binned, seeing as I can’t remember what it was, or where I linked it to.. but grateful for the information, all the same..
im going to be wracking my brains, now, what’s left of them…

edit: just remembered.. short clip of dash cam footage for an email.. too big a file to attach, and I was on my laptop, rather than my phone..

usedtobe · April 2023

Still a bit miffed that they’re changing the site, though..

barnstorm · April 2023

@digitalscream & co, should this be stickied for a bit in case people want to grab their old tfb content before the axe falls?

(I might be overestimating the number of threads/posts that will be affected, just because I've never used another host or bothered to make an Imgur account.)

digitalscream · April 2023

barnstorm said:

@digitalscream & co, should this be stickied for a bit in case people want to grab their old tfb content before the axe falls?

(I might be overestimating the number of threads/posts that will be affected, just because I've never used another host or bothered to make an Imgur account.)

Honestly, I'm in two minds. On the one hand, it's a good PSA.

On the other, it could read like a sales pitch for people to subscribe here, which feels a bit gauche.

barnstorm · April 2023

digitalscream said:

barnstorm said:

@digitalscream & co, should this be stickied for a bit in case people want to grab their old tfb content before the axe falls?

(I might be overestimating the number of threads/posts that will be affected, just because I've never used another host or bothered to make an Imgur account.)

Honestly, I'm in two minds. On the one hand, it's a good PSA.

On the other, it could read like a sales pitch for people to subscribe here, which feels a bit gauche.

I wouldn't have read it that way if I'd come to it cold, FWIW – and given that this seems to be a cycle the internet is doomed to repeat every few years, it would be pretty unreasonable to take issue with the forum offering an option that brings image-hosting in-house.

ICBM · April 2023

Re-hosting them here is the obvious permanent solution for me, since almost all the pics I’ve uploaded are for use here, so the only long-term risk is if the forum itself folds, in which case it won’t matter anyway…

Roland · April 2023

digitalscream said:

barnstorm said:

@digitalscream & co, should this be stickied for a bit in case people want to grab their old tfb content before the axe falls?

(I might be overestimating the number of threads/posts that will be affected, just because I've never used another host or bothered to make an Imgur account.)

Honestly, I'm in two minds. On the one hand, it's a good PSA.

On the other, it could read like a sales pitch for people to subscribe here, which feels a bit gauche.

Cross referenced: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/54241/how-to-post-pics-etc#latest

maltingsaudio · April 2023

I can’t understand why , if you want to use an effectively free service, you should object to letting the people who provide it, know who you are? They have to fund it somehow.

The value of the site is what it generates for its owners, cash is best, as spending exposure and kudos is a bit tricky.

Sure it will be annoying that previously unattributed pictures will disappear, but unless it’s of earth shattering importance, it’s done it’s job after the first million views? And if was so important why not credit/ register the image?

You sign up to put your music and videos on the web why not pictures?

bertie · April 2023

TBH I didn't know you could use it without setting up a user ID, everytime I tried to see other forumites pics, I couldnt, until I signed up (free)

BillDL · April 2023

I've already started encountering threads here with black image placeholders and white text:

Image: https://tfb-user-images.eu-central-1.linodeobjects.com/70b13fb0f76a7ba9ba34b165a388fcb96cf5f55004bd70c97f

RichAC · April 2023

The infrastructure to reliably host and serve millions of photos doesn’t come cheap, and Imgur’s owners need to fund it somehow. The options are selling subscriptions or serving ads (or both).

I don’t have a problem with them enforcing accounts to use the service, especially since they are trying to clean up their act in terms of illicit content. Any service that allows free and anonymous image uploads is going to end up serving some stuff that advertisers won’t want to be anywhere near.

I appreciate that deleting anonymous images will break a lot of forum posts and the like, but an anonymous upload to an image hosting site is about as ephemeral as it gets.

digitalscream · April 2023

OK, I'm gonna go ahead and sticky this one - the argument's reasonable, and there's a lot of Imgur images on here.

@stickyfiddle - I've edited the thread title to more effectively grab attention. Hope you don't mind!

stickyfiddle · April 2023

Yep all good

roberty · April 2023

digitalscream said:

OK, I'm gonna go ahead and sticky this one - the argument's reasonable, and there's a lot of Imgur images on here.

@stickyfiddle - I've edited the thread title to more effectively grab attention. Hope you don't mind!

7 amazing tricks to lose belly fat - you won't believe number 5!

RichAC · April 2023

roberty said:

digitalscream said:

OK, I'm gonna go ahead and sticky this one - the argument's reasonable, and there's a lot of Imgur images on here.

@stickyfiddle - I've edited the thread title to more effectively grab attention. Hope you don't mind!

7 amazing tricks to lose belly fat - you won't believe number 5!

Post a picture of it on Imgur… it’ll be gone in days.

Jonathangus · April 2023

roberty said:

digitalscream said:

OK, I'm gonna go ahead and sticky this one - the argument's reasonable, and there's a lot of Imgur images on here.

@stickyfiddle - I've edited the thread title to more effectively grab attention. Hope you don't mind!

7 amazing tricks to lose belly fat - you won't believe number 5!

Buy a guitar with a tummy cut, and don't worry about it?

Strangefan · April 2023

If I could actuskky upload to imgur I'd be happy but on mobile it just never ever uploads, so frustrating, how much is it a month to upload to here directly?

bobacco · April 2023

@Strangefan - £4.20 a month.

Strangefan · April 2023

Bargain

GoFish · April 2023

maltingsaudio said:

I can’t understand why , if you want to use an effectively free service, you should object to letting the people who provide it, know who you are? They have to fund it somehow.

The value of the site is what it generates for its owners, cash is best, as spending exposure and kudos is a bit tricky.

Sure it will be annoying that previously unattributed pictures will disappear, but unless it’s of earth shattering importance, it’s done it’s job after the first million views? And if was so important why not credit/ register the image?

You sign up to put your music and videos on the web why not pictures?

I get what you're saying, but Imgur has been "free" and sucessful for about a decade (i've been browsing it for years and years).

Should you be forced to "sign up" to put music and videos on the net?

search Enshitification for more info on how we can't have nice things.

m_c · April 2023

RichAC said:

The infrastructure to reliably host and serve millions of photos doesn’t come cheap, and Imgur’s owners need to fund it somehow. The options are selling subscriptions or serving ads (or both).

I don’t have a problem with them enforcing accounts to use the service, especially since they are trying to clean up their act in terms of illicit content. Any service that allows free and anonymous image uploads is going to end up serving some stuff that advertisers won’t want to be anywhere near.

I appreciate that deleting anonymous images will break a lot of forum posts and the like, but an anonymous upload to an image hosting site is about as ephemeral as it gets.

It's probably not so much to do with advertising, but law enforcement.
In various countries, the hosts can be held liable for any illegal images, especially if they don't take reasonable precautions to prevent and remove them. Having the ability for anybody to anonymously upload images, with no checks leaves your service wide open to abuse, so requiring registration at least makes it a bit less simple to use the service for illicit/illegal purposes.

ICBM · April 2023

m_c said:

It's probably not so much to do with advertising, but law enforcement.
In various countries, the hosts can be held liable for any illegal images, especially if they don't take reasonable precautions to prevent and remove them. Having the ability for anybody to anonymously upload images, with no checks leaves your service wide open to abuse, so requiring registration at least makes it a bit less simple to use the service for illicit/illegal purposes.

It could be this - a lot of governments, including ours, are trying to ‘clean up the internet’ by putting restrictions on legitimate users, which firstly won’t work (because illegal users will just go around the restrictions) and secondly will cause massive problems for the legitimate users. There’s just been something about Wikipedia possibly being blocked because some content could be considered “pornographic” - anyone who has ever seen actual porn will know how ridiculous this is - and they simply don’t have the resources to check that every single article is compliant with whatever definition becomes the law.

I don’t know what the answer to illegal content on the net is, but I do know that it isn’t this.

crunchman · May 2023

If it gets to the point where Wikipedia (and presumably a lot of other stuff) isn't available in this country, I will get a VPN.

People up to dodgy stuff will already be using a VPN. All of the government's regulations are completely pointless.

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PSA: Imgur - anonymous image deletion

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