The Decline of Imgur on Reddit and the Rise of Reddit's Native Image Hosting

Post by criley2 » Tue, Jun 20, 2017, 5:51 PM UTC

ortusdux wrote: post #61

novia wrote: post #27

Imgur recently started doing something really annoying on their mobile site. If you keep scrolling past the picture you were linked to, it shows a bunch of other pictures that were not posted by the person who posted the first picture. These extra pictures seem to be generally in the same category as the picture that was meant to be linked to, so if the original picture is a slightly risque photo, the photos that fol…

That is still better than the giant animated cat paw they had a year ago. It was active just before reddit went live with their image service and I imagine it was a desperate grab for some last minute conversions. https://www.reddit.com/r/IgnorantImgur/comments/4aqf2r/fuck_...

Post by redm » Tue, Jun 20, 2017, 5:53 PM UTC

komali2 wrote: post #132

redm wrote: post #43

This is not really a surprise, this cycle happens from time to time, i.e. Photobucket, ImgShack, etc. As soon as Imgur took funding the die was cast. They have to show more ads, get more traffic to their pages, and drive engagement. Imgur was at its best when it was simple to upload and link. Those days are gone.

I don't see how you can make money from the following model: >Upload an image to easily directly link to elsewhere. From the single ad view of the OP that uploads, they expect to make enough money to fund the thousands of people that will then download the image? Doesn't make sense. I wish it did, because that's a user-friendly world, but somebody is paying to keep that server running.

Post by komali2 » Tue, Jun 20, 2017, 5:55 PM UTC

redm wrote: post #143

komali2 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how you can make money from the following model: >Upload an image to easily directly link to elsewhere. From the single ad view of the OP that uploads, they expect to make enough money to fund the thousands of people that will then download the image? Doesn't make sense. I wish it did, because that's a user-friendly world, but somebody is paying to keep that server running.

Perhaps but that's how these services get so popular in the first place. There are mechanisms where free image hosting makes sense. Remember when we used to pay for email? There are always ways to monetize products indirectly, or have value add, when direct monitization doesn't work well.

Post by ryandrake » Tue, Jun 20, 2017, 5:57 PM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #112

novia wrote: post #27

Imgur recently started doing something really annoying on their mobile site. If you keep scrolling past the picture you were linked to, it shows a bunch of other pictures that were not posted by the person who posted the first picture. These extra pictures seem to be generally in the same category as the picture that was meant to be linked to, so if the original picture is a slightly risque photo, the photos that fol…

Reddit killed the model that allows them to be financially viable and "not annoying". I suspect the alternative is to shut down. The bit of community that exists solely within imgur can't be enough to subsidize the bandwidth costs of everyone else, can it? Thus far every image hosting site has gone the cycle of initially good, annoying attempts at monetizing, then shutting down. Which, of course, leaves a trail of fo…

Post by jxramos » Tue, Jun 20, 2017, 6:02 PM UTC

komali2 wrote: post #119

tyingq wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit killed the model that allows them to be financially viable and "not annoying". I suspect the alternative is to shut down. The bit of community that exists solely within imgur can't be enough to subsidize the bandwidth costs of everyone else, can it? Thus far every image hosting site has gone the cycle of initially good, annoying attempts at monetizing, then shutting down. Which, of course, leaves a trail of fo…

I want to talk about that community, because it genuinely boggles my mind. Their culture is as if they were crafted by /r/circlejerk as some sort of cosmic joke. They repeat the same memes ad nauseam, in every post , seemingly completely unaware. They lack any measure of what I consider healthy internet cynicism - if you post a picture of your face and say "I beat cancer!", you're getting upvotes, and there won't be…