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It's been eye-opening how far-reaching Imgur really is - for example, some of the images on the Core Devices (the new Pebble folks) website are actually on Imgu

It's been eye-opening how far-reaching Imgur really is - for example, some of the images on the Core Devices (the new Pebble folks) website are actually on Imgur. This simple block is relatively trivial to bypass - but if they disappear tomorrow, a lot of things break.

jsheard 11mo ago
> but if they disappear tomorrow, a lot of things break. Tale as old as time, long-running forums are graveyards of dead Photobucket, Tinypic and Imageshack embeds. Imgur has lasted longer than most but the cycle will probably repeat eventually, especially since they were acquired by faceless corpos a few years ago.
- bennyp101 11mo ago
  A service shutting down, or being replaced is very different to one being blocked at a country level because of waves hands things
  - NooneAtAll3 11mo ago
    > waves hands things government censorship called it for what it is
    - jsheard 11mo ago
      The Online Safety Act is clear-cut censorship but that's not why Imgur left the UK. They were facing fines for violating the UKs data protection laws, specifically a set of rules that were introduced years before the OSA was even passed. Their parent company hasn't pulled any of their other services from the UK either, which you'd expect them to do if their goal was to protest or avoid the OSA.
      - card_zero 11mo ago
        ... in regard of age checks, yes? https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzxv5gy3qo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzxv5gy3qo If you follow the links to earlier articles you get to this one about fining TikTok: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65175902 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65175902 "There are laws in place to make sure our children are as safe in the digital world as they are in the physical world. TikTok did not abide by those laws." ... "When you sign up you can be targeted for advertising, you can be profiled, your data contributes to an algorithm which feeds content," said the Information Commissioner. So even before the OSA, the idea was: social media sites using algorithmic feeds must prevent children's access, and just asking "are you over 13" isn't enough. That's a demand for age verification, in practice.
- rafabulsing 11mo ago
  I've said before that the age of an internet user can be estimated by how many free image hosting services they have seen come and go, like rings on a tree trunk.
- Figs 11mo ago
  > Imgur has lasted longer than most They did a big data purge years ago, and were already enshittified almost a decade before that.
  - chrisjj 11mo ago
    Only "removing old, unused, and inactive content that is not tied to a user account" right?
NooneAtAll3 11mo ago
makes me thankful for imgur deleting anonymous uploads a year or 2 ago that made multiple forums I've been on rush to download everything to their servers

jsheard 11mo ago

> but if they disappear tomorrow, a lot of things break. Tale as old as time, long-running forums are graveyards of dead Photobucket, Tinypic and Imageshack embeds. Imgur has lasted longer than most but the cycle will probably repeat eventually, especially since they were acquired by faceless corpos a few years ago.

bennyp101 11mo ago
A service shutting down, or being replaced is very different to one being blocked at a country level because of waves hands things
- NooneAtAll3 11mo ago
  > waves hands things government censorship called it for what it is
  - jsheard 11mo ago
    The Online Safety Act is clear-cut censorship but that's not why Imgur left the UK. They were facing fines for violating the UKs data protection laws, specifically a set of rules that were introduced years before the OSA was even passed. Their parent company hasn't pulled any of their other services from the UK either, which you'd expect them to do if their goal was to protest or avoid the OSA.
    - card_zero 11mo ago
      ... in regard of age checks, yes? https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzxv5gy3qo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzxv5gy3qo If you follow the links to earlier articles you get to this one about fining TikTok: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65175902 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65175902 "There are laws in place to make sure our children are as safe in the digital world as they are in the physical world. TikTok did not abide by those laws." ... "When you sign up you can be targeted for advertising, you can be profiled, your data contributes to an algorithm which feeds content," said the Information Commissioner. So even before the OSA, the idea was: social media sites using algorithmic feeds must prevent children's access, and just asking "are you over 13" isn't enough. That's a demand for age verification, in practice.
rafabulsing 11mo ago
I've said before that the age of an internet user can be estimated by how many free image hosting services they have seen come and go, like rings on a tree trunk.
Figs 11mo ago
> Imgur has lasted longer than most They did a big data purge years ago, and were already enshittified almost a decade before that.
- chrisjj 11mo ago
  Only "removing old, unused, and inactive content that is not tied to a user account" right?

NooneAtAll3 11mo ago

makes me thankful for imgur deleting anonymous uploads a year or 2 ago that made multiple forums I've been on rush to download everything to their servers