Feedback Hot linked (embedded) images now converted into attachments

Amin

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From now on, our forum software will automatically convert hot linked (embedded) images into attachments.

Meaning that images hosted at domain.com and hot linked in a forum post like this:

Code:
[IMG]https://www.domain.com/image.jpg[/IMG]

will automatically be turned into attachments hosted on our server and inserted into a forum post like this:

Code:
[ATTACH=full]123456[/ATTACH]

EXIF information and any associated links are preserved.

Why do this? A few reasons:

1) It prevents images from becoming broken. Say a host like PBase decides to stop allowing direct linking. Everyone using that host has all their forum images stop showing.

With all the financial news about Yahoo these days, including their upcoming potential acquisition by Verizon, I'm concerned about what could happen to Flickr. If all of our Flickr embeds were to become broken, it would gut our forums. I am trying to stay ahead of that possibility.

As it is, many of our members accidentally break their forum images by editing or re-organizing images on their host. Our image showcase threads are full of older, broken images.

2) It lets us provide faster page loading. Some members post very large file size images, well over 1MB per image. A thread full of images like that will simply drag on the typical mobile internet connection and even many desktop connections. By changing them to attachments, we can resize them to a max 1600px image dimension and do some light compression. The difference in image quality is negligible, while the page loading difference can be noticeable.

3) It lets us serve images securely (https) even when they are hotlinked from non-secure (http) sources.

At any time, members with an active account (not banned or deleted) can continue to have full control over deleting any of their images by editing a post and deleting the associated attachments.

I realize that some members may see this change as making it harder to control their images. For example, you may be someone that embeds their Flickr image on many different sites at the same time. Deleting that image from Flickr may be your way of taking it down from multiple sites all at once.

In order to make it easier to delete or re-use attachments here, we've added a new attachment manager. You can access it from your control panel as shown below:

attachmgr.png


I hope everyone likes the change. Let me know!
 
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Great idea! I've been a bit concerned about the upcoming Yahoo changes too, and have not found a suitable alternative...

Same here. Hard to imagine that the future for Flickr is anything other than, at best, benign neglect. Google Photos still doesn't allow embedding.
 
Apparently this change has resulted in my linked image being just as small as the thumbnail I posted, i.e. ruining my posts. If there's a way I can get the small image to bring up the full size image on this forum, then all is good, otherwise it looks like I can't post anything.
 
Apparently this change has resulted in my linked image being just as small as the thumbnail I posted, i.e. ruining my posts. If there's a way I can get the small image to bring up the full size image on this forum, then all is good, otherwise it looks like I can't post anything.

Dale, I just checked a few of your images in another thread and when I click on them, I get a full size photo. Is it working differently on your end?
 
Good idea, Sue. Maybe most members of Amin's photo sites can join.

I was considering zuver.com.au which is $3/m or $~38/y (AUD) Its not much storage though. So I paid to upgrade my imageshack account which was probably a silly thing to do, they have taken the money but the upgrade doesnt seem to have "taken".

Then theres 500px. Does anyone share from there?
 
I use 500px, but on a very limited basis, tightly curated mono work only. The Lightmancer.uk link in my Sig points there. The beauty of Ipernity for me is it works like Flickr used to before Meyer broke it. It's reliable and relatively inexpensive compared to the competition.
 
After receiving feedback from members on all the sites, I got the software developer to modify the code so that all links (including links from the images) are preserved during the conversions. It breaks the lightbox functionality, but keeping the links was a priority.

Also, EXIF data is preserved during the conversion unless the image has to be resized (dimension longer than 1600px).
 
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