Imgur is Kaput

[panky]

The nice folk at Imgur have decided to block access from the UK. Any post you have made will no longer be visible (see my signature below) and you won't even be able to see the pictures you've uploaded to the site. Bloody marvelous

[xantia_v6]

For some background, see https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzxv5gy3qo

I will attempt to recover the imagur images that are linked from this forum and dynamically relink them so that they display normally, but I need to do some maintenance on the scripts first.

[panky]

Thank you, that would be great.

[Jaba]

You could use a VPN set to another country. Windscribe or Proton do a free one.

EDIT: Just tried it and still no joy so ignore my suggestion.

[panky]

I downloaded Opera search engine as it has a free VPN in the extensions tab. It worked but everyone would need to download it for it to be of any use. Then I got to thinking - free VPN? how are they financing that no such thing as a free lunch - possibly selling you information to third parties so I got rid of it.
My Avast anti-virus (the paid for one) has a VPN but the flippin thing doesn't work

Imgur pulled out of the UK because it refused to comply with the demands of the Online Safety Act
The IT specialist on the Mini Forum posted this. Food for thought:-

'The world is in a frightening state of affairs.

The Online Safety Act is a huge thing and the scope of what it has affected in the UK is massive so I can't write a summary. Let's just talk about it with regards to what it aimed to do, whether it achieved its aim and what effects us right here right now.
It claims to stop kids accessing dangerous material on the internet. Let's say porn. Can kids in the UK still access porn on the internet? Yes, they download a VPN just like has been discussed in this thread. What's the difference now? It's probably a free VPN and it's possible that the VPN provider is a bad actor and selling their data to a third party.

We're enthusiasts of a small British car that went on sale in the 50's. Can we access pictures in build threads? Nope. Was there any danger in those build threads? Nope. Does the Government care about that? Nope. What's different now? Users are using free VPN services to access build thread pictures. Those free VPN providers might be bad actors and be selling their data or worse.

Anyway that's my rant, you can read a better summary here: https://www.eff.org/...rity-and-speech'

[xantia_v6]

By the magic of software, all imagur image links posted to this forum (before today) should now be working again for UK users.

Any imagur image links posted after today will not work until I do another manual image backup run (which maybe once a month, or may be a lot less frequent).


Note that image links in signatures are not currently handled by my scripts.

[Jaba]

Thanks for fixing Imgur Mike. All seems well with previous images except for two recent missing ones in Toms blog post.

[Jaba]

I downloaded Opera search engine as it has a free VPN in the extensions tab. It worked but everyone would need to download it for it to be of any use. Then I got to thinking - free VPN? how are they financing that no such thing as a free lunch - possibly selling you information to third parties so I got rid of it.
My Avast anti-virus (the paid for one) has a VPN but the flippin thing doesn't work

I have been using a VPN for many years now currently paid for annually but for free at times in the past. The privacy thing does not bother me overly.
Google knows far more than I would really like as does Facebook which I dabble in occasionally. But I have nothing to hide so I just carry on for a simple life. I only use a VPN to be able to stream iPlayer and sounds when I am away in my French holiday home.

Anyway Mike has worked some magic and we can forget about Imgur and the Online Safety Act but not about what a risky place the world wide web has become for some.

[panky]

"By the magic of software, all imagur image links posted to this forum (before today) should now be working again for UK users"

That's brilliant thank you. Hopefully admins on other forums will have the same idea - especially commervanfan - on which I have posted many many photos of restoration, modifications and general faffing about. Thanks again, you are THE man

[xantia_v6]

Thanks for fixing Imgur Mike. All seems well with previous images except for two recent missing ones in Toms blog post.

Can you link the relevant post so that I can see what happened?

"By the magic of software, all imagur image links posted to this forum (before today) should now be working again for UK users"

That's brilliant thank you. Hopefully admins on other forums will have the same idea - especially commervanfan - on which I have posted many many photos of restoration, modifications and general faffing about. Thanks again, you are THE man

If it is a phpBB forum, then I published the scripts in 2017 during the Photobucket debacle.

[panky]

Unfortunately it's a XenForo platform. I've asked the Admin if he can take a look.

[Jaba]

Thanks for fixing Imgur Mike. All seems well with previous images except for two recent missing ones in Toms blog post.

Can you link the relevant post so that I can see what happened?

This one: viewtopic.php?t=16175&start=810

[xantia_v6]

That is because the post has a link to the frame, not the raw image.

Code: Select all

https://imgur.com/BPKlXGr

should be

Code: Select all

[img]https://i.imgur.com/BPKlXGrl.jpg[/img]

My scrpt only finds image files enclosed in

Code: Select all

[img][/img]

tags.

[Jaba]

Just noticed that pictures posted by Jugotrans are not showing. 2 links below to demonstrate:
viewtopic.php?t=23681
viewtopic.php?t=7399&start=1080

[panky]

I think they're his signature pictures which Xantia_V6 said couldn't be fixed.