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Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

blog.tymscar.com

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Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#151

Post by t0mas88 »

chatmasta wrote: post #108

Imgur is one of the more annoying UK geoblocks because they persist it with cookies, so if you want to view something you can’t just switch to VPN for a second without also changing browser sessions. Reddit is worse… you can’t even view someone’s profile if they’ve ever submitted a post labeled NSFW.

Why would they do that? (Not a rhetorical question, just curious). It would suffice to block UK IPs for compliance, if visitors use a VPN to circumvent that Imgur would get more traffic and more ad revenue. No reason to put extra work into blocking those users.

Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#153

Post by t0mas88 »

bspammer wrote: post #138
nomilk wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all new to me, but seems odd (startup idea?) why there isn't a SaaS letting me accomplish this on iPhone in a few minutes. (a few youtube searches for 'how to split VPN' are hopelessly theoretical as opposed to practical) E.g. I'd definitely pay $10/month for an app that lets me input domains and which country to re-route traffic through. E.g. a handful of social media apps via US (my country has age verifica…

This also seems like an easy way for VPN providers to differentiate themselves with their apps. The fact that it hasn’t happened makes me think that it’s impossible with unrooted iOS

It's tricky to do for large public websites, because routing happens at the IP level while users want to input a domain name.

That domain could constantly resolve to different IPs, requiring updates to the routing rules, and those IPs could be shared with many other domain names that the user didn't list (for example Cloudflare IPs). So the mapping isn't clean and you're likely to miss some IPs some of the time or incorrectly intercept some traffic that the user didn't want to route through the VPN.

A proxy would not have this problem, it gets to inspect the request and hostname and then decide how to reach that host.

Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#154

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

okuntilnow wrote: post #29
jamesbelchamber wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And backed by popular support.

It’s another good example of internet sentiment being far different to popular sentiment. Polling shows around 70% supported it, though far fewer thought it would be effective. Pretty much matches my views on it.

Polls don't handle nuance, though. Most people would support "children not watching hardcore porn", but most wouldn't support "not allowed to access imgur anymore". The polls don't ask those kinds of question, though, they ask "do you support the OSA", to which the only reasonable answer is "yes and no".

Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#155

Post by zenlot »

theasisa wrote: post #115
tymscar wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I guarantee you that this has not been touched by any AI. I used to use emdashes all the time, then people thought those were AI telltale signs, so I stopped. I loved making lists. Same thing. Now I’m not allowed to say “key detail”??

I'm autistic and get mistaken for AI all the time. At first I was annoyed but now I feel like it is adorable.

[dead]

Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#156

Post by amaccuish »

tvshtr wrote: post #99
apimade wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/container-pro... You can default route domains through a VPN using a Firefox tab container, you don’t need a separate browser instance running!

You can use the official add-on for that https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account... On the surface the proxy option looks like it is only their own VPN service, but you can set up your own too.

Wow thanks for this, was using the above linked addon myself until I read your comment.

Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#157

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

reddalo wrote: post #136
chatmasta wrote: post #108

Imgur is one of the more annoying UK geoblocks because they persist it with cookies, so if you want to view something you can’t just switch to VPN for a second without also changing browser sessions. Reddit is worse… you can’t even view someone’s profile if they’ve ever submitted a post labeled NSFW.

In other words, we're entering a dark age for the internet.

Authoritarian regimes interpret the Internet as damage and geoblock it.

Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#159

Post by eertami »

petercooper wrote: post #12
internet2000 wrote: post #7

> ⌘+F, "vote", Not found Seems the author forgot one step.

The law was drafted by the government of one party, enacted by the government of the other party.

That isn't quite true, because the law was enacted on October 26, 2023, which was still the same party that drafted it.

Of course, it is true that it is being supported by the current government, however the only way a future government could have avoided the law coming into force would be to repeal it with a new act of parliament (because it was already enacted).

Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#160

Post by Theodores »

bilkow wrote: post #120
tymscar wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I guarantee you that this has not been touched by any AI. I used to use emdashes all the time, then people thought those were AI telltale signs, so I stopped. I loved making lists. Same thing. Now I’m not allowed to say “key detail”??

Yeah that's annoying. Maybe you could add a disclaimer on your blog saying you do not use AI to write and then just write however you like the most? I think it would help both yourself and those who want to avoid AI content.

The 'no AI used' disclaimer is a nice idea, however, how long is that going to last?

We could all have disclaimers or identifiable 'stickers' such as what we had in the olden days of IE6, to send people over to Firefox/Chrome/whatever.

However, next time the tech bros scrape the web, their AI beasts could learn the trick, to decorate their piffling output with similar disclaimers.

In the olden days, 'the camera never lied', however, nowadays, 'the camera always lies'. Even if it is not AI, you know it has been staged and Photoshopped to within an inch of its pixels.

So, what to do?

One way would be to have 'guilds'. Maybe tie it into academic institutions, where teaching staff are at the sharp end of AI use and exacting penalties for AI abuse. Imagine if there was a 'guild of human writers' and being in it meant better SEO with the consequence of abusing AI meaning getting kicked out of the guild.

Ultimately though, without any 'guild system', it all comes down to quality content.

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