Show HN: Avoiding Imgur Link Rot

#1

Post by rvavruch » Fri, May 05, 2023, 10:40 PM UTC

Over the last decade I've built a number of different digital asset managers (mostly media files) that met the needs of my companies at the time. It is an area I enjoy working in. A month ago, when asked what was next for me, I jokingly said I would build another DAM.

Then on Saturday, two weeks ago, I learnt that Imgur was going to delete all anonymous & NSFW files on the 15th of May. It was pointed out that this would mean broken links in communities that had relied on Imgur. By the Sunday I had decided that I would build another DAM, initially with the intent of avoiding Imgur link rot.

It was challenging to find time to spend on this, the project was put together over about 8 evenings. It still has rough patches, this is an early MVP (a Michael Seibel "brick").

I have many ideas of where to take this project, but for now it only does one thing: backup Imgur files and produce new links that are easy to swap out for old soon-to-be-deleted Imgur links.

Show HN: Avoiding Imgur Link Rot
haasie.com

Re: Show HN: Avoiding Imgur Link Rot

#2

Post by quickthrower2 » Fri, May 05, 2023, 11:52 PM UTC

First off: great work!

The age old question is how you afford to run this, and how if you get popular do you not become an imgur yourself and have their same pressures to delete, moderate and make money.

Re: Show HN: Avoiding Imgur Link Rot

#3

Post by tennisflyi » Sat, May 06, 2023, 1:15 AM UTC

Is RedGIFs not Imgur for porn?

Re: Show HN: Avoiding Imgur Link Rot

#4

Post by cantsingh » Sat, May 06, 2023, 1:17 AM UTC

Could it be configured so if I go to, for example, https://i.haasie.com/something.png and you haven't already backed up from imgur, you back it up when that URL is hit?

Re: Show HN: Avoiding Imgur Link Rot

#5

Post by flangola7 » Sat, May 06, 2023, 1:18 AM UTC

quickthrower2 wrote: post #2

First off: great work! The age old question is how you afford to run this, and how if you get popular do you not become an imgur yourself and have their same pressures to delete, moderate and make money.

I say we need basic universal internet infrastructure in the same way we have roads, libraries, hospitals, mail service, etc. Fundamental services like email, image and video hosting, backup storage, small cloud nodes, and so on. All partially or fully publicly funded, with no bloat or wasted overhead trying to commercialize it into an advertising platform filled with spyware and dark patterns.

Re: Show HN: Avoiding Imgur Link Rot

#6

Post by [deleted] » Sat, May 06, 2023, 1:31 AM UTC

flangola7 wrote: post #5

quickthrower2 wrote: post #2

First off: great work! The age old question is how you afford to run this, and how if you get popular do you not become an imgur yourself and have their same pressures to delete, moderate and make money.

I say we need basic universal internet infrastructure in the same way we have roads, libraries, hospitals, mail service, etc. Fundamental services like email, image and video hosting, backup storage, small cloud nodes, and so on. All partially or fully publicly funded, with no bloat or wasted overhead trying to commercialize it into an advertising platform filled with spyware and dark patterns.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Avoiding Imgur Link Rot

#7

Post by Dalewyn » Sat, May 06, 2023, 1:39 AM UTC

flangola7 wrote: post #5

quickthrower2 wrote: post #2

First off: great work! The age old question is how you afford to run this, and how if you get popular do you not become an imgur yourself and have their same pressures to delete, moderate and make money.

I say we need basic universal internet infrastructure in the same way we have roads, libraries, hospitals, mail service, etc. Fundamental services like email, image and video hosting, backup storage, small cloud nodes, and so on. All partially or fully publicly funded, with no bloat or wasted overhead trying to commercialize it into an advertising platform filled with spyware and dark patterns.

You're going to need to do a lot more than that to convince me that the internet is a human right and public need.

And yes, you do need to convince me: If it's "publicly funded" then I (and everyone else) am/are paying for it. Personally, I would sooner pay for another US navy aircraft carrier.

Re: Show HN: Avoiding Imgur Link Rot

#8

Post by quickthrower2 » Sat, May 06, 2023, 1:57 AM UTC

Dalewyn wrote: post #7

flangola7 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I say we need basic universal internet infrastructure in the same way we have roads, libraries, hospitals, mail service, etc. Fundamental services like email, image and video hosting, backup storage, small cloud nodes, and so on. All partially or fully publicly funded, with no bloat or wasted overhead trying to commercialize it into an advertising platform filled with spyware and dark patterns.

You're going to need to do a lot more than that to convince me that the internet is a human right and public need. And yes, you do need to convince me: If it's "publicly funded" then I (and everyone else) am/are paying for it. Personally, I would sooner pay for another US navy aircraft carrier.

I would say connectivity to the internet is a public need. Since so many government services are online, bank branches and post offices will keep closing and so on and so internet connectivity is to society what trains and buses are. So the government needs to ensure everyone can connect. It may be that 99% of the time there is nothing to do: John pays ISP or Telco and gets connected. But for rural or poor people they need to help people who can’t connect for whatever reason.

In terms of a government funded imgur backup: nah not convinced!

Re: Show HN: Avoiding Imgur Link Rot

#9

Post by teej » Sat, May 06, 2023, 1:59 AM UTC

tennisflyi wrote: post #3

Is RedGIFs not Imgur for porn?

Imgur hosts a lot of porn and was the preferred image host for some popular NSFW subreddits.

Re: Show HN: Avoiding Imgur Link Rot

#10

Post by myself248 » Sat, May 06, 2023, 2:16 AM UTC

flangola7 wrote: post #5

quickthrower2 wrote: post #2

First off: great work! The age old question is how you afford to run this, and how if you get popular do you not become an imgur yourself and have their same pressures to delete, moderate and make money.

I say we need basic universal internet infrastructure in the same way we have roads, libraries, hospitals, mail service, etc. Fundamental services like email, image and video hosting, backup storage, small cloud nodes, and so on. All partially or fully publicly funded, with no bloat or wasted overhead trying to commercialize it into an advertising platform filled with spyware and dark patterns.

It's sad to me that we went away from everyone just having their personal web space as part of their ISP package. Ditto email. It meant more smaller providers had to play nice and we didn't have a few major companies arbitrarily deciding what to host and what to drop.

I don't believe it should be government funded, but I wish there was a protocol that would let my ISP allocate a few GB of resources on my behalf that stay online even when my PC is powered down, and then I could reference them anywhere, and there's be a succession protocol in case I move to a different ISP so links don't break, etc.