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Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

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Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#151

Post by mozumder »

amazon_not wrote: post #144
mozumder wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For image-heavy use I found its just cheaper to build your own box and cohost instead of renting.

How do you figure that? You can rent the exact same server as a dedicated server. The difference is, you have no capital outlay up front, you don't need to ship and rack it or replace broken parts and there is only a month-to-month commitment.

The boxes with lots of disk and memory are much more expensive when rented vs buying. SSDs are super expensive to rent, for example.

I made a Skylake Xeon system with all enterprise components for $2k. You can't even rent Skylake Xeons anywhere right now.

Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#152

Post by InclinedPlane »

redthrowaway wrote: post #109
cloudwalking wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, bandwidth isn't free. Imgur can't serve hotlinked content for free, forever.

Which is what drives the circle of life for image hosts. "Man, all the image hosts suck ass and get in the way of me just seeing the damned image. I'm gonna create a new one, without all the cruft!" "This image host is going well, but the bills are killing me. We'll have to add ads, but obviously only where they're unobtrusive." "We're still bleeding cash, but we've got a huge userbase. We need to monetize it better.…

I don't think that's it, quite exactly. I think it's more that when people see stats for lots of eyeballs they too often think "if we monetize those to the max, think of the money we could make" and then that shifts into thinking they're leaving money on the table.

Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#153

Post by vertex-four »

pfarnsworth wrote: post #15

I don't know why reddit would want to take on the burden and cost of dealing with images. It might make it incrementally easier, but with something like RES the entire thing was seamless. Seems like a misplaced focus on a feature that doesn't bring that much value, and a lot more cost. I'll be curious to see how successful this ends up being. If they wanted to concentrate on making the site easier to use, they should…

Long story short, imgur is no longer just an image host - it is an image-sharing site to compete with reddit's image-based subreddits. Providing significant traffic to it is likely slowly bleeding reddit's image-based communities dry.

Additionally, having to upload images to a different website which isn't linked from anywhere on reddit, needing an entirely different account to manage them, is just confusing. Reddit isn't really a pure link-sharing website, and original/remixed content is important to its users - so managing that should probably be something integrated into the site.

Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#154

Post by Houshalter »

empath75 wrote: post #60
pfarnsworth wrote: post #15

I don't know why reddit would want to take on the burden and cost of dealing with images. It might make it incrementally easier, but with something like RES the entire thing was seamless. Seems like a misplaced focus on a feature that doesn't bring that much value, and a lot more cost. I'll be curious to see how successful this ends up being. If they wanted to concentrate on making the site easier to use, they should…

Are they going to host NSFW images also? I wonder how long the darker side of Reddit is going to last in that case. Seems like they're asking for a whole slew of liability issues.

Not any more liability than imgur has. Reddit already removes and ban tons of bad stuff when it's reported to them, even though they host anything.

I'd be more concerned about copyright. Most of the stuff posted on reddit already violates copyright to some degree (e.g. /r/gifs which is entirely people reuploading segments of youtube videos without the consent of the creators.)

Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#156

Post by kristofferR »

redthrowaway wrote: post #109
cloudwalking wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, bandwidth isn't free. Imgur can't serve hotlinked content for free, forever.

Which is what drives the circle of life for image hosts. "Man, all the image hosts suck ass and get in the way of me just seeing the damned image. I'm gonna create a new one, without all the cruft!" "This image host is going well, but the bills are killing me. We'll have to add ads, but obviously only where they're unobtrusive." "We're still bleeding cash, but we've got a huge userbase. We need to monetize it better.…

Yeah. https://sli.mg seems to be the new imgur. I wonder how long until they start going downhill.

I like their moderation log though, that's a good step.

Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#157

Post by oblio »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #152
redthrowaway wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is what drives the circle of life for image hosts. "Man, all the image hosts suck ass and get in the way of me just seeing the damned image. I'm gonna create a new one, without all the cruft!" "This image host is going well, but the bills are killing me. We'll have to add ads, but obviously only where they're unobtrusive." "We're still bleeding cash, but we've got a huge userbase. We need to monetize it better.…

I don't think that's it, quite exactly. I think it's more that when people see stats for lots of eyeballs they too often think "if we monetize those to the max, think of the money we could make" and then that shifts into thinking they're leaving money on the table.

The thing is, while there is huge demand for image hosting sites, that demand is really low "quality". After all, we're talking about sites hosting memes and screenshots from games, not original works of art created after tens and hundreds of hours of laboring in Photoshop.

Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#158

Post by rplnt »

stordoff wrote: post #148
yacn wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "direct links" only ever redirect to the non-direct version on mobile for me. Doesn't happen on desktop though.

I've seen the direct links get redirected to the non-direct page on desktop. It appears to still happen if, e.g., the link is on Twitter - random example https://twitter.com/SilentRENE/status/735732252877819904 (seems to be inconsistent - first time I was redirected, but now it goes directly to the image. Opening the Twitter page in another browser also resulted in a redirect)

I think they redirect to imgur page also when they are shared on facebook.

And aside from that, years back, they've been banning embedding on certain domains.

Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#159

Post by onli »

finnn wrote: post #31
Others wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What dark patterns are they implementing?

"direct" links to an image uploaded sometimes/usually redirect to imgur page, with lots of ads and shitty content, obnoxious, animated overlays that block out part of the image on mobile, etc

None of that is a dark pattern.

A dark pattern is an UI design that motivates users to use the program/site in a way profitable to the site, but contrary to users' interest. To trick people, see http://darkpatterns.org/. Redirecting to the whole page instead of the link is just a hotlink protection (as debatable as that is for an image hoster). Animated overlays in mobile is just shitty advertising and UX. But no dark pattern here.

I saw that multiple times here on HN now that people misuse the term. It's a pity, the original idea is something to be aware of, and diluting what dark pattern means hinders that awareness.

Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#160

Post by vertex-four »

whalesalad wrote: post #35

Looks like it's backed by S3 x-amz-storage-class: REDUCED_REDUNDANCY Content-Type: image/jpeg Server: AmazonS3 Can't imagine that AWS bill...

According to Reddit's source code they're using a provider called Imgix - https://www.imgix.com/ - who I assume use S3.
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