Imgur inaccessible to UK - VPN doesn't work

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Cottis

Well-Known Member
I have used Imgur for years to host pictures for various applications, many of which I use on this forum to display hosted pictures in good quality without jamming up the forum host servers.

Just went to login today to find an image and was met with a "content cannot be displayed" type of message. Did some quick googling and it appears that have Imgur have turned off the UK taps because the ICO have found them in breach of whatever regulations relating to the use of children's data. Imgur have, rather than paying fines or doing whatever the ICO demanded, have decided to just exit the UK. Apparently taking all my images with them. Or at least not allowing me to get them back.

My mate was here when I found out. He has a VPN on his phone so tried to access it via that and it also did not work. Apparently Imgur do not allow VPN's. Gggrrrrrrrrrr!

I am guessing that means that any image links I have in various threads on this forum will now no longer display.

I guess I will start again with a new image hosting site. Can anyone advise a good one that the UK government approves of?
 
Kinda makes the thread below pretty useless

C

Thread 'This weekend's leather project'

Unlike a recent thread where I encouraged people to have a go at a basic leather project, I would not suggest trying this unless you are experienced and/or enjoy frustration. I've always really disliked making sheaths but for some reason i decided that this weekend I would turn some of this

1dhzmdc.jpg


In to this





I was going to do pictures of the full process as I know some of you like seeing that but I ended up forgetting after taking a few, so this is all there is. You get the gist. Cut stuff out, stick it together, stitch it together...
  • Like
 
Cottis said:
Kinda makes the thread below pretty useless

C

Thread 'This weekend's leather project'

Unlike a recent thread where I encouraged people to have a go at a basic leather project, I would not suggest trying this unless you are experienced and/or enjoy frustration. I've always really disliked making sheaths but for some reason i decided that this weekend I would turn some of this

1dhzmdc.jpg


In to this





I was going to do pictures of the full process as I know some of you like seeing that but I ended up forgetting after taking a few, so this is all there is. You get the gist. Cut stuff out, stick it together, stitch it together...
  • Like
Click to expand...

For what it’s worth, if I view that thread via a server in France through Nord VPN I can see the images ( but can’t if I turn the VPN off).

Doesn’t fix the bigger issue but might let you get your pictures!
 
Rake Aboot said:
Welcome to Labours Britain
Click to expand...
Always happy to whack Labour but in fairness, the ICO has existed for years and all political parties supported the implementation of the Online Safety Act which is basically responsible for these incursions in to perfectly legitimate online behaviour.

When I say that, i suppose I am considering what I use Imgur for which is basically to provide hosted images of leather work, the odd picture of hunting/shoot related stuff and even more mundane images that are in no way inappropriate but I have no idea what other stuff people upload to Imugr and whether that is accessible to children.

My view is that parents should be responsible for what their children access and should be provided with support to help them limit stuff they do not want children to view, rather than implementing draconian measures on responsible adults who choose reality over a doctored and dumbed down version of life.

It is painful isn't it?

Seems I can either go through a manual process to ask for my data and images back or look in to using one of these VPNs to gain access. Never really felt the need to use one before but maybe it is time to consider circumventing some of this BS so I can go about my normal daily life.

Trouble is, that doesn't solve the issue of implanting hosted image URLs in to forum threads so others can view the images like I do on this forum. I am guessing others would need to also use a VPN to view material from Imgur.

Might have to get a VPN to give me quick access to my data and then move it to some other image hosting site that is happy to have its arse tickled by the ICO in terms of compliance, and then use that so that everyone can view content I wish to put on the forum.

Monumental PITA.
 
@csl

From your point of view, is it preferable for folk to use a hosting site in terms of not clogging up SD servers or does it not matter these days. I always went the hosted image route as I felt putting so many images directly on to the SD would use up capacity etc. Is there a limit to what i can upload directly or does the quality suffer or does it create issues for you guys?

I find Imgur easy to use and it is super reliable but if it doesn't matter to you guys, I might just upload stuff directly to your servers. Or I wonder if moving images from my Google accounts to Google drive and then offering a private link would allow a similar image host without clogging up your drive capacity?
 
Cottis said:
@csl

From your point of view, is it preferable for folk to use a hosting site in terms of not clogging up SD servers or does it not matter these days.
Click to expand...
I remember having to sort it when they suddenly started charging for Photobucket. It does seem, more and more, that storing it on our own server is becoming the way to do it when it is something we want to keep long term.

By the way, storing a backup at home/elsewhere too should always be the preferable way of doing it. Storing it ‘on the cloud’ could be for ever but it also could be temporary too!
 
Cottis said:
I have used Imgur for years to host pictures for various applications, many of which I use on this forum to display hosted pictures in good quality without jamming up the forum host servers.

Just went to login today to find an image and was met with a "content cannot be displayed" type of message. Did some quick googling and it appears that have Imgur have turned off the UK taps because the ICO have found them in breach of whatever regulations relating to the use of children's data. Imgur have, rather than paying fines or doing whatever the ICO demanded, have decided to just exit the UK. Apparently taking all my images with them. Or at least not allowing me to get them back.

My mate was here when I found out. He has a VPN on his phone so tried to access it via that and it also did not work. Apparently Imgur do not allow VPN's. Gggrrrrrrrrrr!

I am guessing that means that any image links I have in various threads on this forum will now no longer display.

I guess I will start again with a new image hosting site. Can anyone advise a good one that the UK government approves of?
Click to expand...
I also noticed this as we have had all our forum images stored in Imgur for years.

We now use Flickr - quite an easy site to use & so far, so good :thumb:
 
Monarch Country Products said:
I also noticed this as we have had all our forum images stored in Imgur for years.

We now use Flickr - quite an easy site to use & so far, so good :thumb:
Click to expand...
I went ahead and bought a VPN from Nord just to really see what the fuss is about. It was cheap and wow, should have done it years ago.

In the first instance, I can now access all my pictures on Imgur (I think via the Swiss servers) so I can move them all to a new platform (thanks for the advice about Flickr, I will try that one)

The best thing though is setting the server to Andorra and they have legislation that doesn't allow Youtube adverts. I watch a lot of golf content on Youtube and they tend to be incessantly interrupted by adverts. Now they just play straight through. Brilliant.

I am sure there will be other benefits like sport streaming etc but I have not looked in to that yet. Certain websites appear better or worse depending on which country server you use.

And then I suppose there is the privacy benefits although that is not something I really feel I benefit from but I guess you never know what is happening behind the scenes in terms of data collection etc.

Overall, it has been a positive learning experience. I think I was just living in the dark ages before :rofl:
 
Is there a way admins can allow you editing of older posts to we can change the image links? I’ve got a couple of build threads where I can upload the photos to a different host but it would be ideal to change the post themselves rather than tacking it all on at the end out of context
 
harrygrey382 said:
Is there a way admins can allow you editing of older posts to we can change the image links? I’ve got a couple of build threads where I can upload the photos to a different host but it would be ideal to change the post themselves rather than tacking it all on at the end out of context
Click to expand...
Add the edited version as a new post and I'll merge them.
 
Cottis said:
I went ahead and bought a VPN from Nord just to really see what the fuss is about. It was cheap and wow, should have done it years ago.

In the first instance, I can now access all my pictures on Imgur (I think via the Swiss servers) so I can move them all to a new platform (thanks for the advice about Flickr, I will try that one)

The best thing though is setting the server to Andorra and they have legislation that doesn't allow Youtube adverts. I watch a lot of golf content on Youtube and they tend to be incessantly interrupted by adverts. Now they just play straight through. Brilliant.

I am sure there will be other benefits like sport streaming etc but I have not looked in to that yet. Certain websites appear better or worse depending on which country server you use.

And then I suppose there is the privacy benefits although that is not something I really feel I benefit from but I guess you never know what is happening behind the scenes in terms of data collection etc.

Overall, it has been a positive learning experience. I think I was just living in the dark ages before :rofl:
Click to expand...
Another game changer for me was using Firefox with uBlock Origin, which will block all ads on YouTube, at the cost of very mild delay on some videos. Well worth drowning out all the irritating ads, in my opinion. I didn’t know Andorra had that legislation however, fascinating!
 
doof said:
Another game changer for me was using Firefox with uBlock Origin, which will block all ads on YouTube, at the cost of very mild delay on some videos. Well worth drowning out all the irritating ads, in my opinion. I didn’t know Andorra had that legislation however, fascinating!
Click to expand...
Youtube does eventually circumvent this when enough cookies have been downloaded and the cache starts filling up and then suddenly adverts (in spanish ha ha) start appearing but the benefit is the actresses are very pretty and by clearing the cache and deleting cookies, you can go back to normal again until it fills again a few weeks later.

Overall it is pretty good.
 
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