this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025

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226

What's your best recommendation for an Imgur alternative, especially in terms of perceived longevity? (lemm.ee)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

32 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Now, no doubt this is my own dumbarse fault, but I'm coming to find that relying on Imgur to preserve my pic-content across the mini-articles I write and share on the Lemmysphere is just... well, I mean it's just so utterly hit-or-miss that it's become completely unreliable, daggit.

For example, I happened to check on the Satania review I first posted ~10mos ago, and discovered that the Imgur page source had been deleted without notice, altho oddly, the lead full thumbnail / image still remains. Like, what...?!

Point is-- there seems to be utterly no rhyme nor reason for the image deletions, whether the content is uploaded via official acct or not, or is kid-safe vs NSFW stuff, or is new vs old stuff, or even via file-size issue (I think, not totally sure).

Anyway, yeah... it's clearly past time to get the hell out.

So what would you recommend, mateys, and how reliable do you think that host is? (I'm completely cool with paying a monthly fee via PayPal in order for our content to last)

Note: the lead pic is just an anti-Imgur thing I randomly discovered, lol.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

AWS S3, Glacier Instant Retrieval storage class. $0.004/GB/month + read traffic costs.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

Don't use Imgur as social media. Don't even use it as image hosting nowadays, its main point (image available directly via URL) is increasingly being enshittified. Use Catbox or GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

find any GH repo.
start a new issue.
drop image onto new issue.
copy URL.
close new issue page because you have your image cdn link, which is what you came for.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f886759a-e3a5-47f2-99f0-478c48e16e97

Or just commit them to a git repo. GH won't harass you unless you have over 50mb file sizes or a repo over 1GB https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/working-with-files/managing-large-files/about-large-files-on-github

Or publish them to cloudflare pages, which has great file size limits and unlimited bandwidth https://mattsayar.com/why-does-cloudflare-pages-have-such-a-generous-free-tier/

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

The first method is risky to rely on. There is no guarantee they will keep hosting your media, especially since they had a kind of vulnerability not too long ago

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm probably a little biased since I use it as a repository for art receipts, but Internet Archive. I started using it after learning that images uploaded to Imgur expire after a certain amount of time or if they get no views after a certain amount of time. The Internet Archive is just that, an archive, so uploads expiring or the site being discontinued should be the very least of your worries!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Hmm, nice stuff; thanks for sharing! I guess my biggest issues with using the IA is that it's pretty slow, which is probably not a good combination for hotlinking about six images at a pop, up to a meg each, for dozens of offsite viewers at a time. I strongly suspect that it could be pretty pokey given those factors.

The IA of course is also a hot target by IP holders, and has gone down at times, and really, could vanish entirely at any point given the circumstances.

images uploaded to Imgur expire after a certain amount of time or if they get no views after a certain amount of time.

Actually I've had stuff that I uploaded privately ~10yrs ago that's still up on Imgur, and I've had some public posts that got traction at the time deleted after only ~8mos or so, plus other combinations of those factors, including file size issues. Right now it's pretty baffling trying to understand their method, and I would guess it's more of just some internal issue relative to Imgur, for example, maybe they just say 'this data bank is having issues, so let's migrate the paid content, delete the rest, and retire the data bank, replacing it with newer hardware.' Something like that, anyway...

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

https://catbox.moe/ is awesome. Can't say how long it will last, but it has lasted a long while so far. Donate if you can.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Looks like a lot of ISPs block access to catbox, seems like a limited choice.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Any list of those ISPs? I usually use catbox, would like to see if my content isn't visible to a lot of people

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

https://catbox.moe/faq.php

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Thank you!

@[email protected] , that might explain the issues you were having with it. Are you still having trouble at the moment?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

If you're willing to use a techy solution, I can recommend Cloudflare Pages.

It allows you to host a basically limitless amount of files for free, with the only drawback being that each file cannot exceed 25MB.

And I would claim that Cloudflare is about as reliable of a host as it gets.

(You also get free domains that looking like this: JohnnyEnzyme.pages.dev)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Mother of Pearl, I'd be happy just doing up files slightly under 1MB.

Really...??

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

You want someone to host your meme photos forever for free? That is sort of lol. You need paid hosting. I'm happy to recommend this (formerly buyshared.net, started by the buyvm guys) at $8/year: https://namecrane.com/store/da-shared-hosting

You probably want your own domain name too, but I you might be able to alternatively use a subdomain of namecrane.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

You want someone to host your meme photos forever for free? That is sort of lol.

Note that I literally just said:

I’m completely cool with paying a monthly fee via PayPal in order for our content to last

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

catbox.moe. And it's free, though you can donate.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

I wonder how this compares to other similar services? (another I've seen used here is imgchest)

And specifically, is there one that allows you to edit alt-text (so it's there when you copy the markdown)? Folders would be nice, too.

Though one thing I can say is according to the FAQ .svg is (not un)supported which is interesting (something that didn't seem to work on imgur, at least when I tried it).

@[email protected]

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Thanks!

Side note: my cat is already an expert at such regular donation, altho it's always good to change things up, so to speak.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Nice meme

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

ftfy

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

{"data":{"error":"Imgur is temporarily over capacity. Please try again later."},"success":false,"status":403}

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

lol

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Hm, the imgur app on Android has never crashed on my devices. Are you on iPhone?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Note: the lead pic is just an anti-Imgur thing I randomly discovered, lol.

(anyway yeah, I'm an android)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I have the official app but use NextDNS to block the ads. I've never had crashing issues. And I'm on a 6-year old Android phone. Note 10+

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

But what service, Ryan?

That's sort of the point, yeah?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

If it’s for your usage, you have a little cash to spare, and you can follow software guides, I would recommend a VPS with Apache or Nginx web server. OVH has VPSs for about ~$5/mo. for 40GB of space.

For a little more money, you could use a web host and not have to worry about installation or security.

Dreamhost has a $8/mo. plan with 50GB storage, and $14/mo. unlimited storage.

Either way, you’d also need to spend less than $20/yr. on a domain name.

You can just do a simple HTML index (w3schools can teach you in ten minutes) and then use ssh (FileZilla) to put images into a folder structure of your choosing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Is there a way to set up a vps as a seedbox with a cloud storage provider as storage? VPSes have almost no storage, and I already have a cloud storage provider with a fuckton of space; so spending $30+ a month on a dedicated seedbox seems unnecessary.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Yes, you could use the VPS as your web server, and probably map a connection to your other storage.

Or, if you’re confident it won’t cause problems, run a web server directly on your current storage provider if that’s possible (such as with a dedicated server).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, for actual trustworth longevity, having under your name and wallet really is the best way to do it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Plus, you can move your files to a different provider very easily—especially if you’re routinely backing up.

And iOS and Android both have apps for sending files over ssh.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

$14/mo. unlimited storage.

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