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Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

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Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#241
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can't upload photos from desktop Yes, you can. Open dev tools, set it to mobile, and set it to android. A "+" button will pop up and work fine.

Nice! That does work. Thanks for that. I'm still a little baffled as to why they don't just allow that on the desktop site, though.

I would put my money on they don't want to have to support server side image processing. Since their mobile apps all scale images client side its a huge cost savings vs having to support that server side.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is typical marketing-speak. I am becoming temporarily deaf whenever I hear it. Read it the following way: We have a reason to do it but we don't want to tell you so instead we will tell you a little bit of righteously-sounding bullshit so that most of sheep base is satisfied. Yes, that's "sheep", because you are not our customers, our customers are those companies we sell your information and your focus to.

I really don't think there are sheeps around who actually believe that. Everybody knows this is just marketing speak in a way, marketing people are expected to speak. Or maybe, there are people who would believe it, but they have an account already. And most simple do not care. They read, they have to create an account to get the content, so they do create an account.

> Everybody knows this is just marketing speak in a way

I hate this idea that, as a society, companies are permitted to bullshit people and the onus is on the consumers to be able to parse the borderline lies from full truths. My wife used to work closely with people with moderate mental illness - you wouldn't believe the predatory scams, advertisements and "offers" they fell for.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#243

“This is to help people view photos in Instagram and understand how to have the best experience on the platform, be part of the community, connecting and interacting with people and the things they love” How does blocking access help people view things? How does blocking access help people understand how to have the best experience? Access is a better experience than access denied. Creating an account and lurking doe…

If you're in a browser with adblockers and you're not signed in, there's not much they can do to monetize you effectively. I assume this is just a means of forcing people who use instagram in the browser to at least admit who they are so they can tie browsing to a known tracking id. I'm honestly surprised instagram even lets people use the app in any meaningful way on desktop at all.

Instragram has ads?

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#244

I stopped using Quora when I kept getting interrupted to sign in/up when not logged in. I did the same for Pinterest. I had deleted and wiped my LinkedIn account for a long time but recently re-activated it for a job search. I'll delete it again when I land a job. Reddit is getting there but not so annoying that I will stop using it. I get the most value out of Reddit but there are so many ways to get information and…

Oh yeah. I really liked Quora in the beginning. There were some good answers to the questions there. Then it got worse, and when it started prompting me to login, I bailed and I've never gone to Quora ever again.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#245

As a photographer, I urge all other passionate photographers to get off of Instagram. It's more important now than ever to be the authority of your own content. I know it's not as fancy but just start by hosting your own simple blog. I made an effort to build my own Instagram like section on my site just to host my own images. It even has a web assembly lib that scales the images client-side so I don't have to deal w…

I've been slowly piecing something like this together for myself using jekyll. I'm not familiar with the tools you're using, but the demo site looks very nice. Good job!

Are there other examples of turnkey self-deployed sites like this?

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#247
There is a way to avoid the login requirement, if you want to enlarge a photo or video, or read its accompanying text. I'm not an Instagram user, and I never will be. But, sometimes I want to read a post by a friend or a business.

While viewing the gallery page for an Instagram user, right click on the post you want to access and select "Copy link location," or whatever your browser calls it, then paste the link into a new tab.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#248
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can't upload photos from desktop Yes, you can. Open dev tools, set it to mobile, and set it to android. A "+" button will pop up and work fine.

Nice! That does work. Thanks for that. I'm still a little baffled as to why they don't just allow that on the desktop site, though.

Because Instagram isn't really intended for sharing your DLSR-shot, desktop-processed labour-of-love photo. The compression, rescaling and colour mismanagement they apply to uploads should tell you that.

It's quite possibly the worst way on the Web to present photos-as-art yet photographers keep signing up to it.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is typical marketing-speak. I am becoming temporarily deaf whenever I hear it. Read it the following way: We have a reason to do it but we don't want to tell you so instead we will tell you a little bit of righteously-sounding bullshit so that most of sheep base is satisfied. Yes, that's "sheep", because you are not our customers, our customers are those companies we sell your information and your focus to.

No, this is their reason, just from within their distortion field. This is helping the user view photos, because the user should be logged in and using the app, the app provides the best experience and this web interface is a distraction that gets in the way of that. Edit: I guess it wasn't sufficiently clear, the second sentence here is not my own personal opinion.

So in other words Instagram claims to know how every single user wants to interact with the platform better than they themselves know, and so now users don't even get to decide for themselves.

I have two reactions to this:

1. I absolutely HATE this kind of arrogance from companies.

2. I don't believe them. I think it's far more likely they are doing this to juice their metrics, rather than honestly thinking that taking away options will make everyone like them more.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't think there are sheeps around who actually believe that. Everybody knows this is just marketing speak in a way, marketing people are expected to speak. Or maybe, there are people who would believe it, but they have an account already. And most simple do not care. They read, they have to create an account to get the content, so they do create an account.

> Everybody knows this is just marketing speak in a way I hate this idea that, as a society, companies are permitted to bullshit people and the onus is on the consumers to be able to parse the borderline lies from full truths. My wife used to work closely with people with moderate mental illness - you wouldn't believe the predatory scams, advertisements and "offers" they fell for.

Isn't it more like "corporate" speak? The thing that makes me want to blow my brains out is when politicians or government representatives do this on TV and the "journalist" interviewing them just sits there and nods...
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