Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter • Hacker News Board

Re: Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter

#71

Post by rgbrgb » Fri, Feb 07, 2014, 3:04 AM UTC

judk wrote: post #4

ehutch79 wrote: post #2

I honestly don't see an issue. if you're sharing links to images on imgur, you're denying them ad revenue and just leaching bandwidth. I'm all for adblockers, but complaining you can't direct link images is kinda...

Imgur was founded as a reddit-friendly image host. "The new site for reddit images, written by a redditor. None of the slow ad-laden crap of imageshack!" Now, it is slow ad-laden crap, to the point that I just hit Back button after hitting a link and seeing the page frame load before the image. It has been fascinating to watch the common startup pattern of "I am one of us, making our life awesome" messaging covering…

But isn't it incredibly naive to think you can get something for nothing? I don't really see this as a bait and switch, a site like that needs ads so that they can keep it free for users. Imgur tried a donation based model early on but it just didn't work (costs exceeded donations because donations don't scale linearly with bandwidth costs). I'm not really satisfied with the status quo of giant data silos profiting off of user submitted content but the extreme opposite (always directly linking to images) isn't sustainable either.

I'm working on an ad-based image site [1] that I hope will be perceived as a little friendlier to users but your disdain for ads is not uncommon. Do you have an alternative to ads for making high traffic image hosting sustainable?

[1]: https://surfer.io/

Re: Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter

#72

Post by w1ntermute » Fri, Feb 07, 2014, 3:32 AM UTC

Haywain wrote: post #22

mmahemoff wrote: post #17

I tried linking to a photo I'm hosting in a Pro account: https://twitter.com/mahemoff/status/431487389866139648 Even for a Pro account, the image redirects from Twitter. It doesn't redirect me, but it redirects everyone else (I tested from Incognito mode). Which seems not quite what I thought I was paying for. Also as a paid user, if I click on anyone else's images, they still redirect like they would for a guest/fre…

You may be interested: The first time I clicked the link, it redirected. All subsequent clicks went directly to the image only. (OSX, Firefox Nightly)

Because the resource has been cached, and so a request was not even made. Try clearing your cache and see what happens.

Re: Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter

#73

Post by georgemcbay » Fri, Feb 07, 2014, 4:22 AM UTC

An even worse issue for imgur recently (IMO) is the fact that the site is dog slow unless you hit the img. subdomain.

I don't know if they are throttling it themselves or it has something to do with the cloud traffic reprioritization people have been talking about lately, but I've basically been avoiding clicking any imgur links on reddit because I know they are going to load so slow that I'll just close the tab before the image loads.

Re: Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter

#74

Post by skeletonjelly » Fri, Feb 07, 2014, 5:18 AM UTC

sorahn wrote: post #16

stordoff wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The creator of imgur (MrGrim on Reddit) has said on multiple occasions that hotlinking is acceptable way to use imgur: Four years ago - "I created imgur because the other image hosting sites forced you to see their ad-ridden pages (TinyPIC). I would never do the same to you. If you want to direct link to the image, then by all means do so."[1] Three years ago - "People linking to the page rather than the image is wha…

It was already stated, but Imgur was created by a redditor, for reddit. Facebook already is an image host, twitter is too. I get free access to a usenet server for being inside my ISPs network. Others have to pay to use the same server if their outside the network. It's the same deal.

imgur was created by someone for reddit and digg on the same day.

Re: Imgur is Covertly Redirecting Image Links on Facebook and Twitter

#75

Post by mik3y » Fri, Feb 07, 2014, 5:34 AM UTC

mden wrote: post #70

mik3y wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem I see is reddit isn't an aggregator in the strict sense. Look at the front page, it's riddled with imgur links. How many of them (advice animals, original content, etc) were posted there just for reddit? I'll just say unscientifically, a lot. (After all, that's why imgur was born.) So you're a site with a major feature that (a) drives publishers to another site, and (b) drives viewers to the same site, ev…

What I don't understand is what you gain by adding the ability to store images? Is the point to reduce the need to use imgur? Yes, imgur is adding the ability to add comments to images, but their functionality is a far cry from that of reddit. Let's assume they add for w/e crazy reason the ability to have nested comments and groups with admins and other similar things. Only at that point are they really encroaching o…

imgur becoming a credible threat to reddit's eyeballs (and ad dollars) does not require them to have feature parity. See: Facebook vs Instagram.