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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

#261

Post by taneq »

kristofferR wrote: post #156
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.…

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.

Somehow I was surprised to see slimgur here. No accompanying reference to https://voat.co? :)

Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#262

Post by kapkapkap »

girvo wrote: post #246
Dobbs wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is absolutely false. Plenty of large companies are able to negotiate their rates on AWS. You just have to be huge.

Hardly huge. When I was at a web agency with about 70 people on staff here in Australia, we were an AWS partner with negotiated rates, and honestly we weren't doing massive clients really (aside from some government stuff now and then).

How much was the monthly bill ($) ?

Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#263

Post by sbarre »

onli wrote: post #223
lmm wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Edit: I'd argue that links that used to be hotlinks not being hotlinks can maybe be part of a dark pattern. If an UI tried to get people to share a site, and the people do that only because they think the links are hotlinks, then that UI could be a dark pattern and the non-hotlinks a part of that. But the dark pattern is then the UI presenting the hotlink, the "share this image directly" widget, not the hotlink its…

That does not matter. An URL alone does not entice users to do nothing. You need more to get a proper dark pattern, to get the "convincing the user to do things" part of the definition of what makes something a dark pattern in the first place. Please, look as well at the website http://darkpatterns.org/ to see what a dark pattern is about.

So you're saying if it's not on that website it's not valid?

Come on.. If I see a URL that ends in JPG, my understanding is that I am about to load an image. If the site then shows me a page full of ads with my image somewhere on there, that's exactly what you described.

The site is tricking me into doing something that is to their benefit and to my detriment. Showing me a URL that looks like a link to an image is absolutely encouraging me to do something. It's telling me "hey click here you'll see the image right away"..

I did not want to see a page full of ads, I wanted to see a single image, but now the site has monetized me without my consent.

It feels like you're arguing for argument's sake here.

Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#264

Post by 6stringmerc »

boyce wrote: post #224

Spotted this was happening nearly two months ago - surprised it's taken the tech blogs a while to cotton on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11453224

Nicely put; cool to read the tea leaves, so to speak, and see the outcome unfold. Good call.

Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#265

Post by taneq »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #197
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because they probably aren't charities, and can't afford to donat e Free resources for your perpetual enjoyment? Then why did they start a free service to begin with, if they knew from the start it couldn't last? Right, to trick people into becoming dependent on the free service so they'll be reluctant to leave once the shady, UX-degrading monetization starts. You'll forgive me if I'm not sympathetic to that busine…

They still provide a 'free to the user at point of use' service. The service they provide doesn't include hotlinking by other site hosts, that's been normal since about 2000 IIRC.

The service they provided DID include hotlinking from other sites, which was one of their major distinguishing features and which is why I (for one) used them almost exclusively as an image host.

I can be sympathetic to the fact that their previous 'business model' wasn't financially viable while still being annoyed that they've changed it.

Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#267

Post by mbesto »

enjo wrote: post #126
mbesto wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, they could have operated a simple and effectively profitable business, and grown at an economically normal rate. But hey, I guess I wouldn't say no to $40M of a16z's money and a $200M valuation either.

I assume your familiar with their operating costs somehow? I have direct experience at a different (older) host. It was simply not possible to serve the tremendous bandwidth needs without increasingly aggressive monetization. I have no idea what they're costs look like and bandwidth is much cheaper than it was 10 years ago, but I'd wager that there was no profitable business for them at any point without intrusive ad…

> but I'd wager that there was no profitable business for them at any point without intrusive ads.

5 years ago: "but it's profitable enough to hopefully hire another guy or two this summer."[0]

The founder has completely bootstrapped the site since day 1, and has done an AMA on Reddit talking about the whole situation[1]. Ads are absolutely necessary to make it profitable, but clearly taking investment now means they are going to squeeze every ounce of dollar out of the site and hence the sentiment of "aggressive monetization".

[0] - https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/eicjf/im_the_imgur_gu...

[1] - https://www.quora.com/How-profitable-is-Imgur-com

Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#268

Post by GrinningFool »

billmalarky wrote: post #257
conceit wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most of the users cost more than they earn I call bullshit. Can you spell datamining? also: native advertising.

Imgur's users are pseudo-anonymous, just like reddit and HN. Advertisers aren't really willing to pay much for that when they can target accurate user profiles like Facebook or anything that connects with Facebook.

Heavy emphasis on the pseudo part of that I assume? A quick glance at third party sites accessed when loading imgur.com:

   - facebook
   - twitter
   - amazon ads   
   - google ads 
   - quantserve 
   - google analytics
   - scorecardresearch
Because this is pretty much the standard list for any major site, each of those providers has a highly detailed profile built for the average web user. While the top three will often have login data associated, there's plenty of capability for data mining without that. This excludes data other providers can glean from the actions taken and data rendered by those top three providers - I haven't kept up on the state of that and I don't know how possible it still is.

Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#269

Post by billmalarky »

yacn wrote: post #70
finnn wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you get a link that looks like a direct link (eg https://i.imgur.com/whatever.png ) but it's not (always) a direct link. This is what people are complaining about. Sending that link to people sometimes results in them getting redirected to the ad-laden imgur page.

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

It depends if the referrer header is set to reddit. Try clicking a direct link from facebook or twitter.

Re: Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur

#270

Post by wille92 »

Xiol wrote: post #181
HomebrewCC wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Came across an incredible photo series of their dataserver. http://photos.imgix.com/building-a-graphics-card-for-the-int...

> Apple’s operating system offers numerous advantages over other platforms when it comes to image processing, and it is also favored by many designers for the same reasons. imgix has written tools which allow us to leverage these strengths with our service, using OS X for image operations where it provides superior quality and performance. What advantages? If you're running these as headless servers, then what advant…

Same thing jumped out at me--having racks of mac mini's seems like a waste
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