Imgur pictures being erased ! Forum archives ?

[BlueTemplar]

Seems like Imgur recently updated its terms of service, and :

Images submitted by free users are deleted after not being accessed for 6 months.

https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Imgur

So, a repeat of what happened to ImageShack, but less bad ? (At least so far...)
https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/ImageShack

Since these forums were already hit by the ImageShackpocalypse :
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 2#p2827272

And I assume quite a lot of people kept using third-party image hosts like Imgur, the old forum upload limits being *quite* restrictive :
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 5#p4688695

Has anyone gotten in touch with the Archive Team to help them backup pictures linked from the Matrix Forums ?
https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/ ... ts_of_URLs

[*Lava*]

Sounds just like banks.

You don't access your account in 6 months and your account is blocked.

I thought the internet was supposed to make life easier?

[ncc1701e]

I thought the internet was supposed to make life easier?

Except if you are using Imgur.

[*Lava*]

The same thing happened to Photobucket. So it shouldn't be a surprise.

Here is the thing... if you want your images to hang around you need to directly upload your images to the post. Using image hosting services, as we have seen with Photobucket and now Imgur, eventually slip away into oblivion. The same can be said for linking to blogs, which for the most part, also eventually slip away into oblivion.

My favorite miniatures forum, The Lead Adventures Forum (LAF), not only has the ability to upload images into your post, but also has a members gallery which an individual can upload images to and then link them to posts.

If folks want their images to have longevity, you should plan accordingly.

Here for example, is an image from my LAF gallery:

[BlueTemplar]

Also, it's considered to be bad netiquette (or at least used to be) to embed content from 3rd parties, because you're profiting from their storage and bandwidth, without (usually) giving anything in return.

(The above is a counter-example of course, since it's for illustrative purposes, and you are advertising them, but I would still have directly linked their website.)

[*Lava*]

Yep, it was an example.

The recommendation I would give for folks is to use the attachments feature to upload photos directly to your post and bin 3rd party hosting.

In the end, your going to have to pay to maintain photos elsewhere.

[BlueTemplar]

I'm probably going to set up Nextcloud on a home server, if only for backups... but I need to check whether one of available to me fiber ISPs now gives more than a /64 for residential connections. (I want it on a separate suffix.)
(Could also check what the prices for business connections are these days... Or just keep my ISP and get a custom router since IIRC that was the hold up when I last checked a couple of years ago.)