Imgur now blocks several VPNs and have issues loading embedded previews in several fediverse platforms. So instead of using imgur, you could use one of the following alternatives for uploading your images.
https://postimages.org/
https://imgbox.com/
https://imgbb.com/
https://www.imagebam.com/
We should include Pixelfed here.
I feel like that’s a different use case?
I post things to Imgur so I could reference them in posts on other platforms. I don’t want the images tied together.
Pixelfed is an Instagram variant
I feel like using this for the sake of posting pictures to Lemmy would just clog up Pixelfed instances with things not even meant for them. Pixelfed is a community, not really an “image host”, even though it technically has that capacity,.
Upvoted for the Fediverse and FOSS features, but if you’re looking for a simple FOSS image hosting service devoid of any social features then also look up for any Lutim instance
Some working instance (there are less and less for service being free and focussed on hosting images makes it a cost hard to sustain for any volunteer individual or association)
Pixelfed is a really good option. I have only added the websites that I have used, but have been planning on make a Pixelfed account.
Lemme see if this works
It does!
Ooo it even does in jerboa, kind of, but it’s static, just takes a second to load.
Lemmy try this one
I’m just talking to myself here
Last one I promise
You need to use the direct links to the file ending with the file extension (.webp or .gif). Otherwise, you are asking it to embed a whole webpage, which is not possible. You can find the direct link by right clicking on the image and pressing copy image link.
Here are the proper embeds, if these don’t work, then jerboa doesn’t support embedding animated images.
Working great on kbin! Jerboa might not properly support animated gifs yet.
Man, I remember when the imagur guy made a post saying hi everyone I made a site we can use for pictures on Reddit. How’ long ago was that?
I think imgchest.com deserves more recognition. It has a UI that’s a lot like old imgur, doesn’t compress the hell out of images and the person that runs it seems pretty cool.
(I’ve also talked to the person who runs postimages, and they seem pretty cool to fwiw.)
Any thoughts about uploading images straight to lemmy.world vs using these sites to host? Is either option vulnerable to takedowns?
Images could eat up the server resources of your instance. Using a third-party service reduces the burden on them.
Anything that you don’t host yourself are vulnerable to takedowns. But as someone who has been using postimages.org for many years now, I have never had any such issue with them, and haven’t heard of anyone else facing them as well. The other three services I linked also have a good reputation as reliable services.
As an instance admin I gladly host user files.
One thing to take into account is that images posted by an instanceA user on an instanceB community will still be hosted on instance A.
So as long as an instance doesn’t host more users than it can handle it should be fine.
You can just use fediverse (eg. kbin) to upload your image directly, without any of those instances?
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. The individual hosts of the Fediverse are limited on space, and jamming that limited space full of images, rather than using an external image hosting service, is worse for the sustainability of these spaces
In addition, help out your instance admins by resizing the image if you don’t need it in high resolution.
Uploading a 250Kb file rather than a 2.5MB one makes a difference when thousands of users are doing it.
Shouldn’t this be a per instance policy? Why would the onus be on the poster?
Because pretty much all instances are being run by volunteers and hobbyists, and not a for-profit who is profiting from your content. This is just something nice to do for reducing the resources they require to run the service.
Uploading directly uses server resources which are voluntarily provided, that’s why using external providers and just posting links instead is usually better.
It’s kind of crazy how these popular services are always insistent on killing themselves off with these horrible changes.
Those services are seldom profitable. Especially as they get larger, their costs rise. Meanwhile, imgur, as a service that provides embedded content, has little opportunity to make money off of their users. They rely on infinite growth and ever more people investing money into them to keep financially viable.
But there is no infinite growth and imgur has reached its limits. Now they need to bind users to their platform and rely on ad revenue. So old content gets purged, along with nsfw content, in order to entice advertisers.
They look good. Large size limit of 200 mb and NSFW-friendly. But unfortunately, according to their FAQ, they are blocked in Australia, UK, Ireland, Iran and Afghanistan (the latter two are not surprising though).
Catbox claims to keep files forever. I find this claim dubious, what’s the catch?
How about for videos, OP? Any recommendations other than Streamable?
Someone mentioned imgchest.com and seem to work well. Here is a video I just uploaded https://imgchest.com/p/a8463xlg4xj
Also let me know if the below embed works on Lemmy. It seem to work on kbin, but I am not sure if lemmy supports video embeds.
Awesome find! I’ll give it a shot and recommend it to our community. Thanks!
Edit: Indeed, it works!
Hey, to embed properly you need to use the direct link ending with .mp4. Otherwise, only a thumbnail of the video will be shown. You will find the direct link by clicking on the dropdown that appears when you hover the video at imgchest.com. Here is a proper embed of your video.
Looks like they are a paid service. But still cool.
Can somebody explain on the purpose of these sites?
The whole time when I was using reddit I would just upload from my gallery to the app, never had to use an image uploader website, it sounds like a pain to use.
That’s because you arrived when reddit already had its image hosting.
Before you could only upload a link, so you had to find a hosting site.
It’d be the same if lemmy didn’t have one.
And in fact it’s like that for me, I didn’t configured pict-rs, so I can’t upload images to my lemmy instance, I need to configure it or use a hosting site.Wow image-hosting is a thing. Why don’t they just have something so essential out of the box, is it expensive or something
It requires a lot of storage space. Much more than for just text.
Also, additional liability for hosting images uploaded by literally anyone, that could depict abuse, or be copyrighted.
Ahh so if somebody did that, the blame would fall on the site that has the image posted
Using them do add one or two extra steps before posting. Images can hog up server resources and using these third-party sites reduces the burden for the server of your instance which is run by volunteers/hobbyists with money often coming from their own pockets. Its just a nice thing to voluntarily do.
Which one of these alternatives delete the gps/exif data automatically on upload?
I will have to test this manually across sites to know because none of them advertises themselves as doing this. But nevertheless, the best practice would be to strip down such data yourselves before uploading. There are many apps that will allow you to easily do that.
Do any of these have the ability to link an album? I often put multiple photos together, and post the that link to my communities.
Postimages support that. They will give a gallery link if you upload multiple files together. If you have a free account, then you can add or remove images from the galleries later as well.
Here is a gallery I made just now https://postimg.cc/gallery/pzt46sv
has anyone got hosting sites for uploading videos/GIFs?
imgchest.com supports gifs and videos.
That’s a good suggestion. Especially since they support videos as well.
embed test
(it works on Lemmy,
not kbin tho)I can see it embedded on kbin if that’s what you mean.
oh right I tried viewing it on there and could still only see the alt text.
maybe I didn’t wait long enough for it to load
Click on the image icon on the side of the alt text and you will see the image. If you want, you can set images in posts to autoload from settings.
It works on kbin. I am on kbin.social.
