Imgur blocks access to most VPN IP addresses so any posts using the host will result in many users being unable to see the content. Sometimes only remote viewing is affected but is also often blocked when trying to open in new tab and view at the parent site.
Consider uploading to the fediverse or using a privacy-respecting hosting service like postimages.
I honestly don’t get why folks use external image providers. Lemmy is perfectly capable of providing post images, just attach it and there you go. Or is it about saving free space on a server?
Also, anyone in the UK not using a VPN won’t be able to see them, since imgur chose to block the UK rather than adhere to age verification laws.
Whatever one thinks about that legislation, other countries (including the whole of the EU and Australia) are likely to do the same and it seems likely imgur will become a US-only resource…
Don’t use VPN! Easy! /S
Trick: If it’s asingle image, you can still download it with save link as…
If it’s a gallery, it’ll unfortunately download a .json file. I’m not sure about gifs.
i’ve been using imgbb as an alternative for a few years, they’re proba gonna enshittify soon but it’s not bad as of now. i make sure to save anything i share to the web on the wayback machine SPN tho…
I’m more shocked people still use Imgur for anything anymore.
It’s funny really… what was the quote? You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain.
Imgur was started back in the day to provide a no-bullshit image host, because all the others were too corporate / too monetized / too much bullshit/enshittification. So MrGrim started Imgur to fix that.
Then MrGrim took a bunch of VC money, and they eventually sold out, and now the result is the sad shell of what it once was today.
I’m on Fedia and not using a VPN, I never see imgur thumbnails in the posts, I always have to manually click on a link. I rarely bother to click.
I have to use a VPN to see imgur pics because the UK government is run by wankers 😭 And I don’t even live in the UK proper, I’m in N. Ireland, but I’m subject to those bullshit laws with zero recourse.
Did I just become an IRA man? 👀
The IRA existed for a reason, that reason never really went away.
I live in California and still get randomly geoIPed to the UK. I start noticing it when imgur stops loading.
It’s true and I won’t turn off my vpn for companies that do this crap.
Prepare this is gonna get a lot worse, though.
You don’t see imgur because you use a VPN.
I don’t see imgur because I won’t enable their Javascript.
We are not the same.
How do you disable site specific JavaScript?
NoScript extension
I don’t see imgur because I use a vpn and also because I am in the UK. We’s diffrunt.
Innit
imgur is a swamp
Used Imgur for decades? But never browsed it. That seems weird.
No I’ve never bowsed imgur but I made the mistake of uploading a photo of my wife holding a chicken so I could post it to a back yard chicken forum, and the comments were enough to ensure I never posted anything there again.
Basically an unmoderated cess pool.
There is/was public upload and private upload, the UI was/is shit though.
There are comments? I had no idea!
I thought people just uploaded the image grabbed the URL and pasted it elsewhere.
Are you using an app or domething?
For years in kde it was just right click and a URL popped into the clipboard.
They made it into a quasi-Reddit like fifteen years ago. Back then, Reddit was mostly text posts, while Imgur only ever had image posts and later videos (including screenshots of text, of course). These days that’s not as much of a distinction — however on Imgur, short quippy comments always prevailed, and lots and lots of gif comments. After a while, this sucked even ten years ago when I used Imgur for a while, and I don’t imagine the situation improved lately.
Anyway, when uploading an image to link it elsewhere, you can just not publish it for others on the site to see it and comment.
P.S. Gotta say, though, the most fun I’ve ever had on social media is when people browsing by ‘new’ on Imgur decided that for one day they would upvote anything and everything that comes by. As a result, exceptionally weird stuff actually made its way to the main feed. I haven’t seen such abundance of weirdness and quirkiness even on the early 2010s Tumblr when it was still fresh and hip.
You can select hidden or public when uploading to Imgur. If you select hidden, no one sees it unless they have the direct URL to the image. If you select public, it uploads to the public feed and everyone on Imgur can potentially see it. It’ll pop up on Newest, and anyone browsing that category can upvote or downvote it.
If your public post gets enough upvotes, it’ll rise to the front page of Imgur. Much like Reddit. And yes, the community can comment on all public posts.
I’m in the UK. I can only see imgur when I do use a VPN.
I’m also in the UK, and imgur blocks my VPN, so I get the worst of both worlds.
same goes for anyone using catbox.moe.
it’s become such a problem I’ve started to block users and communities because 95% of their posts are shared catbox links.
catbox is operated by a nerd like us not some greedy corporate, i personally haven’t ever been blocked by them… they’re the best pomf-like site atm imo
PieFed allows you to block entire domains. With a PieFed account, you would be able to just block
catbox.moeand never see another Catbox post again from anyone.
It sounds like that’s some network providers that block catbox, rather than vice versa.
Why can’t I access Catbox/access files on Catbox (files.catbox.moe)?
Good question! It turns out certain governments in the world hate freedom of information, don’t have net neutrality, don’t see online service providers as legally exempt entities, or a combination of the three! You will have issues accessing Catbox/files on Catbox if you are connecting from the following countries or providers:
Probably the most significant ones on there from a standpoint of users here are “Australia”, “Rogers”, “Comcast”, and “Verizon”. It sounds like all of those blocks are pretty easy to bypass (like, they’re either DNS-level or can be disabled by users on their router, where there’s a blacklist toggle that’s on by default).
I’ve never once even managed to get anything from Catbox via Tor, via different routes. Seems to be a rather widespread problem.
They must’ve hosted something egregious to make a whole bunch of ISPs and entire countries block them.
Shit even without a VPN, it might not work unless you make damn sure to link the correct direct image link and not the imgur container link. This has been an issue with imgur on other social media for years now.
Could you please specify how to tell them apart?
The correct one has a file extension.
You get the image URL by right-clicking on the image and selecting ‘copy image link’ or whatever it is in your browser. It looks like ‘i.imgur.com/33blahbleh.jpg’, whereas the page URL is ‘imgur.com/gallery/cat-making-pizza-33blahbleh’.
If you use the app, I doubt it that they give you the direct image URL anywhere.
