Post subject: Photobucket drops (free) hotlink support - avatar users note
Noxxa
They/Them
Expert player, Moderator (4131)
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4083
Location: The Netherlands
For those not in the know: image hosting service Photobucket is starting to block images it hosts on third-party sites, unless the Photobucket user updates their account (at a cost of $39,99 per month, or $399,99 per year). More on this here: https://www.ghacks.net/2017/06/30/photobucket-now-charges-399-for-third-party-hosted-images (Insert jokes about today's (ir)relevance of Photobucket here) The reason I'm writing this here is because many users (as of right now, 208 to be exact) still use Photobucket for avatar hosting - and unless any one of them intends to get a paid Photobucket account, they probably should find a new image host for their avatar before it gets replaced with the below image. ---- UPDATE 15/07/2017: Due to increasing issues I've now batch-replaced all remaining PhotoBucket avatars with the following: ---- I've already seen a few avatars on this site affected, and I've removed them accordingly (and in some cases replaced with an archived imgur version). In the future, I'll be more likely to just remove them outright. The following list of users is, as of this post, using a Photobucket avatar:
Acryte
aireca
AKheon
Anch
AniMeowzerz
Arjin
asteron
asutoro
AzureLazuline
Bag of Magic Food
Bamahut
BeefOwl
Bhezt Rhy
bigfed12
Blaze
Bobmario511
boct1584
BrainStormer
Brose
c-square
Chauncii
CheesusCrust
Chris
ChTBoner
chyren
cideprojekt
CoolBumpty
CoolKirby
corronchilejano
CrispyYoshi
curtmack
CyruS
daniayaw
Dark Fulgore
Darkdata
Darkpsy
DefEdge
Deign
detonator300
dezbeast
DrSaturn
Duderson
dunnius
DUT
Edward_Tohr
ElectroSpecter
Elpis TK31
Eltinho
Essentia
eXMario
Fabian
FanoTheNoob
Ferret Warlord
FFPwner
Forge121
Fortranm
Fortune
FractalFusion
gabrielwoj
GoddessMaria
Grincevent
GSGold
Harri103
Hatim
hegyak
Hina98
Hoandjzj
Itsu de Mo
Jessica Ingmann
jlun2
Joseph Collins
JRL_
Jungon
Jurk0wski
Jymos
KaitouKid
Khaz
Kingcobra52
klmz
KlydeStorm
Knucinos
Kofiman
kooz
kotetsu213
KRocketneo
Kyrsimys
laughing_gas
Leeadamaa
legoking831
lipucd
Marcokarty
MediaMagnet
merick888
Minion
mkdasher
mklip2001
MMAN
mmbossman
Molotov
Moogle
MrE2Me
mrz
mr_roberts_z
Mysterypea
NameSpoofer
NapstrPSX
Necromancylord2
NekoMan
Nemo2342
NicholasCobalt
nifboy
NintendoLegend
Nonames
nungnuu
oOSnowMan
Otakutom
Ouzo
P.JBoy
p4wn3r
Paddy
PangaeaPanga
Patashu
Pekopon
pirohiko
Pointless Boy
Priam
PSI Slime
quietkane
RachelB
Randil
reflect
reiki
Rellics
RetroHolo
ReyVGM
Romi
Rridgway
Saethori
samurai goroh
Sata
Satoryu
Satyrium
Schnretzl
SDR
SeNn
Serghi
sgrunt
shad0wzer0
Shaded Spriter
ShadowOfMyles
shallow
SideofClouds
SigmaKitteh
Skull Kid
skychase
Smallhacker
sora3087
Spekkio
SpiDeY
Starwolf
superbacon
SuperFlomm
superjupi
SuperMario12
Swift Finch
Sword
Swordless Link
t0ast
TASeditor
Tee-N-Tee
themidnightbum
TheRandomPie_IV
Thereisnospoon
TJF588
Toothache
Tornado9797
TorZelan
Tragedy
TriHex
TRON
TRT
Uncle Mario
undeRCoveR
urbanman2004
VAVAGON
vsmk3
Wandering Road
WarioMCP
was0x
Wemes
White
WoodenDoorKnob
Wren
wxb
X172
xebra
xenos
xRavenXP
YautjaElder
yuigenron
zeeky
zefiris
Zeldara109
Zeupar
zggzdydp
Zugzwang
Zurreco
Zzyzzyxx
I realize most of this list is inactive anyway and is not going to update their avatar, but this warning is still relevant for anyone who is still active and is on this list.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Active player (489)
Joined: 1/12/2007
Posts: 682
Thanks for the heads up. Photobucket has been a crock for many, many years now (ever since direct linking became basically impossible). Updated my avatar.
GoddessMaria
She/Her
Experienced player, Reviewer (836)
Joined: 5/29/2009
Posts: 514
Location: Hell...
If only there were good alternatives that also works with Mood Avatars... Either way, I will update mine. EDIT: Updated the default avatar. Still hoping that I can find an alternative for Mood Avatars. ^^;
Current projects: failing at life
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11251
Location: RU
I use sourceforge for mood avatars. That thing is way more reliable and predictable than most image hostings. Bonus points for subversioning them for me, and providing me a local copy.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
GoddessMaria
She/Her
Experienced player, Reviewer (836)
Joined: 5/29/2009
Posts: 514
Location: Hell...
How does it work? I'm not familiar with SourceForge.
Current projects: failing at life
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11251
Location: RU
It's an average subversion hosting, if you're familiar with that. Direct links to images aren't very intuitive, but they work for some years for me already. For example https://sourceforge.net/p/feos-tas/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/Misc/Avatars/feos1.gif?format=raw returns my main avatar image, and it gets downloaded if you use that link on its own, but it also lets you embed such images. Checkout link seems to work the same: https://svn.code.sf.net/p/feos-tas/code/trunk/Misc/Avatars/feos1.gif
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Warepire
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 3/2/2010
Posts: 2174
Location: A little to the left of nowhere (Sweden)
The same can be achieved with GitHub, except there is no need to install any programs locally as GitHub has an "Upload files" feature much like a file host.
GoddessMaria
She/Her
Experienced player, Reviewer (836)
Joined: 5/29/2009
Posts: 514
Location: Hell...
I'm sorry, but I am unable to follow how to really do it. I've tried to Google search on Github and it's wanting me to post the link rather than upload it outright (to the wiki, i think?) and Sourceforge is confusing me. x-x
Current projects: failing at life
Editor, Skilled player (1401)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2081
Quick question: Are sourceforge and github cool with people just using their services for image hosting? While tasvideos is more than likely too small for anyone to notice, I can't imagine that's in either of the sites' TOSes.
Patashu
He/Him
Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 3999
Wow, I forgot my avatar was on Photobucket, lol. I'll fix it in a bit.
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
I'd say just use imgur, personally. They may of course eventually decide to break hotlinking images, but until they do, imgur's a free, no-account-needed image host. (And I know my avatar has been broken for awhile, I've been lazy about fixing that. It's not imgur's fault).
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
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Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1976
Location: Making an escape
The issue with imgur is that, as far as I know, they don't let you retain filenames, which is fine if you want to use just a single image, but if someone wants to keep the entire mood set, TASVideos would have to do some reprogramming. I don't want to have to lose Stuv. :(
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
Experienced player (670)
Joined: 11/23/2013
Posts: 2206
Location: Guatemala
I use dropbox for my avatars, but before that I used photobucket... Thankfully not anymore... <_<
Here, my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/dekutony
Editor, Player (53)
Joined: 12/25/2004
Posts: 634
Location: Aguascalientes, Mexico
Thanks for the heads-ups. I may not post frequently, but always lurk around. I have been using Photobucket almost since its start (apparently I created my account on May 13, 2004 & it started its service on May 8, 2003...). That said, I haven't noticed any picture breaking up but oh boy is it going to give me a headache having to re-host and update my profiles (since I pretty much use everywhere) @_@
I'm the best in the Universe! Remember that!
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11251
Location: RU
GoddessMaria wrote:
I'm sorry, but I am unable to follow how to really do it. I've tried to Google search on Github and it's wanting me to post the link rather than upload it outright (to the wiki, i think?) and Sourceforge is confusing me. x-x
Github link: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vadosnaprimer/fretboardf/master/feos1201.gif You need to have a github account and to create a repository: https://github.com/new Then you just use the Upload files button on the repository's page. After that you open the uploaded files in the browser and copy the direct link of the Download button. If you want to rearrange your files, install tortoisegit, clone your repo, make the edits. Commit and push them. Voila, you have a dropbox-like environment, with versioning. The only downside is that you can't obtain direct links from your local copy, only from the server. But I'm not sure.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
GoddessMaria
She/Her
Experienced player, Reviewer (836)
Joined: 5/29/2009
Posts: 514
Location: Hell...
Thank you both, feos and Warepire! I'm very sorry for bothering you both so much over this!
Current projects: failing at life
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Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
scrimpeh wrote:
Are sourceforge and github cool with people just using their services for image hosting? While tasvideos is more than likely too small for anyone to notice, I can't imagine that's in either of the sites' TOSes.
Yeah. A sure way to make them also drop support for external image linking is to abuse the system for something it wasn't intended for.
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11251
Location: RU
Warp wrote:
scrimpeh wrote:
Are sourceforge and github cool with people just using their services for image hosting? While tasvideos is more than likely too small for anyone to notice, I can't imagine that's in either of the sites' TOSes.
Yeah. A sure way to make them also drop support for external image linking is to abuse the system for something it wasn't intended for.
It's there for a reason. People are using images they host in the repos all over the github wiki. https://help.github.com/articles/adding-images-to-wikis/
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
feos wrote:
It's there for a reason. People are using images they host in the repos all over the github wiki. https://help.github.com/articles/adding-images-to-wikis/
Wouldn't be extremely surprised that if external linking of images becomes too common, they will restrict the use only on that wiki. After all, bandwidth use is never free.
Editor, Player (53)
Joined: 12/25/2004
Posts: 634
Location: Aguascalientes, Mexico
Seems that it (finally) hit my account, so most images I've ever linked are now broken. Good thing is that I was warned on time and was able to backup the images (Thanks again Mothrayas). Had to disabled the mood ones as I haven't had the time to upload them elsewhere and it was now breaking the site
I'm the best in the Universe! Remember that!
Noxxa
They/Them
Expert player, Moderator (4131)
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4083
Location: The Netherlands
Since increasingly more avatars got affected (and I received reports about broken avatars breaking size limits), I've gone out and batch-replaced the remaining (187 at this point) avatars with this. Hopefully this will entice anybody seeing this as their avatar to replace theirs now. EDIT: I did archive all replaced PhotoBucket URLs, so if you lost your image URL, PM me.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Joined: 11/20/2004
Posts: 236
Location: United States
Good news, Mothrayas. I finally took notice of the avatar situation (this is one of the few places that I'd left alone, apparently...) and have remedied it. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, via bulk-action!
I'm not that hard to find... if you know where to look. -=( http://jolikmc.tumblr.com )=-
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I fixed my AV.
When TAS does Quake 1, SDA will declare war. The Prince doth arrive he doth please.
Editor, Experienced player, Reviewer (966)
Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 3107
Location: Sweden
Is there a good reason we still don't allow users to upload avatars to tasvideos.org itself? It feels very 2004. This offsite picture storage is always shaky, the avatars aren't big in filesize (we restrict it already) and it would probably improve page loading.
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Many forums even allow uploading images at will (to be embedded in posts). Not that I'm asking for that (it would probably be a bad idea), but having people's avatars hosted at the tasvideos server might be viable.