Image Sharing Alternatives

    In a nearby thread today I have raised the issue of image sharing in the context of long term sustainability of the website - making sure our data does not balloon so large as to be unmanageable if we ever have to change web providers.

    In addition, AI image generation raises all sorts of issues, one of which is that many people (not excluding me) are tempted to explore the technology.and post endless streams of draft graphics.

    It seems to me in past years on other forums that people were urged to used image sharing websites (I seem to remember imgur as a name?) and then post their images here as links rather than uploads. The posts end up looking the same as now, but the images are stored elsewhere and don't count against our storage or transfer limits.

    So this thread is to solicit ideas from our tech-oriented people on ideas how to implement such a system. We will obviously continue to have image uploads here as well, but lots of short-term-use photos could just as well go somewhere else.

    There are definitely options! Others are no doubt using them, so I just have a general thought.

    There are a number of sites that can help organize images and delegate space for sharing. Users can share links from platforms like Flickr, Imgur, Photobucket, DeviantArt, and Pinterest (among others) on which users can store a library of our own collection. I used to use Reddit and Facebook (which aren't necessarily suited for that), but I’ve left, so I don’t have a personal preference at the moment.

    Quote from Eikadistes

    Flickr, Imgur, Photobucket, DeviantArt, and Pinterest

    Thanks for that list - that's what I've lost track of. I will take a look at those. Obviously no one wants to post and then lose images, so we need to investigate how long images stay there. I suppose there's some kind of facility through Google that does something similar

    Cleaner, Faster, Greener: Rethinking How We Build Websites
    Every website we visit carries a carbon footprint, but visionary designers have been rethinking how they can be built and optimized for greater sustainability.
    unframed.lacma.org

    I just ran across this article, which is interesting but probably only peripherally pertinent. Haven't made it to the exhibition, so I'm not aware of its focus. It does have a catalog, though, for any digital design geeks 🤓 :/:)

    Re: Imgur

    "On April 19, 2023, Imgur changed their terms of service and announced that they would delete inactive content that was not tied to an account.

    ...

    The new terms went into effect on May 15, 2023.[10] The move drew significant criticism, as removing archived images would compound the challenge of link rot that other photo services have also faced. The move also followed a similar move by Tumblr in late 2018.[11]"


    I only vaguely remember this controversy.