FYI: Tinypic blocking "international" users

[phoenix]

Edit: Tinypic is once again open, but their message says "for now". I'd still advise using other sites as it doesn't seem likely to last as a longterm solution.

Image host Tinypic has suddenly ceased allowing access to most of the world - can't upload, can't VIEW any images hosted on the site as of today. (I believe the US, UK and Australia all have access - I know for sure that Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland do not.)

So, PSA. Please stop using Tinypic. Most people cannot now see images there. I'd advise too against using its parent site Photobucket either, as this ridiculous action was presumably taken with its cooperation/consent/command and may be intended to shovel people onto that (crap) service.

Also, if you've images hosted on Tinypic - icons, gifs, style images - I know a lot of people would appreciate if you moved them. The internet's not supposed to only work properly in one or two countries and it'd make it better for us to see frightening gifs instead of can't-load icons.

Suggestions of image sites in the comments? I know of imgur.com and imageshack.us EDIT: Also blocking international users are two quite decent accountless sites, and there are many others.

Temporary workaround, thanks Jen! http://community.livejournal.com/killtheuniverse/17850.html

Comments

[aurora]

I hate tinypic so much right now. :(

[phoenix]

Me toooo. Have been ranting on Twitter with other blocked people.

[aurora]

It looks like they undid the fuckery, at least for now. God, I hope they got inundated with displeased comments.

[frith]

I use Flickr. You get upload 200 pictures/videos for free, but there is a size restriction. I don't mind the size restriction, I usually post pictures smaller than the restriction. And when my account has filled up to the 200 limit, I create a new account. The old accounts don't expire.

[jd]

Although it's worth mentioning that Flickr images can be traced back to accounts from the URL, so it doesn't have the anonymous component that tinypic did.

[frith]

My Flickr-hosted images that I post on DreamWidth do link back to Flickr, but I don't post my real name there either. In fact, my usernames on flickr are all variants of 'blank-frith'... since I use Flickr as a host for images I use here and my Flickr images are set to _not_ show up in search results, I don't think my anonymity has been breached. Kind of like cross-posting to LJ and leaving a reply-on-DreamWidth link. Am I wrong?

[jd]

Well, you're not wrong in that it's totally up to you to decide what your standards of anonymity are and what works for you, but what I meant is, if you have the URL of a Flickr image, even if it doesn't look like it contains a username, it's possible to trace that image back to a Flickr account. So, Flickr is not anonymous in the same way that tinypic is anonymous (can't be traced back to anyone, as I understand it).

So it's not a very good substitute for the people who were looking for that end of anonymity.

[frith]

I wasn't aware of that... Next time I encounter a tinypic url pointing to a picture I'll have to try right-click > show image (or maybe > show page source) to see if I can see the name of the folder/account.

P.S.: I'm enjoying the splash of colour in this exchange, your ceiling-cat and my rabbit. 8^)

[damanique]

Honestly, when I started being on the internets and making layouts and icons and banners and such, there were a lot of free hosts like Geocities, TBNS and 250megs and whatever. But they failed, one after the other. They'd go belly-up, disable hotlinking, have incredibly tight bandwidth, and so on. I got sick of it. So I've had my own webhosting (www.damanique.net) primarily dedicated to images and some college projects since 2003. Including the domain name, I pay 17 bucks a year. That's 1,42 euros a month. I can handle it. I pay more for coffee.

I don't know, but it seems a much bigger convenience than using all these craptacular image hosts that continue to pop up and eventually disappear year after year.

I've alternatively been using my Livejournal Scrapbook too, since hey, I'm still paying for that. It'd be so awesome if Dreamwidth had its own image host service... someday.

[brigid]

Haha! I used to use geocities too and remember when they stopped allowing remote hosting. BOOOO.

Annnnnd... I also have my own hosting! I mostly use photobucket, though, so that if anybody DOES hotlink it's pb's bandwidth and not my own.

[damanique]

I can keep track of stats via my webhosting, so I can track down files that generate an unusual amount of traffic. Depending on how useful they still are (usually old images posted somewhere ages ago), I rename or delete them. :3

[dar]

Damn, I had no idea domain names were so cheap.

[damanique]

I got mine from http://www.webreus.nl - my .net is 6,99 euros a year. The hosting's 9,99.

Usually the hosting is the more expensive part, not the domain name. These guys are cheap as hell, but it's not like I'm asking for dedicated colocated hosting for my super-popular million-user-traffic social media website or anything. Their customer service is pretty much non-existent and they haven't updated their PHP or MySQL versions. But that's okay - they do what they're for. I've never caught my images being down ever.

[dar]

Hmm. I can tell I'm gonna need a Kaylee if I ever get one. Well, I have an idea for one, just not the content to fill it yet.

[damanique]

If you ever want to set up a public blog of sorts, the cheapest way would be to register a free one at Wordpress.com - then registering the domain name, and having the domain point to Wordpress' servers (any decent webhost does this for free). Then you pay Wordpress a small yearly fee for mapping the domain name to your blog. Should still be cheaper than webhosting (and having to set up the whole blog on your own webspace.)

[tajasel]

403 on the LJ post linked.

[phoenix]

Ugh, damn. I've marked it as locked now. I wonder why - maybe it got too much attention for the OP's comfort.

[sophie]

Post seems to be public again, but I've also heard that tinypic have reversed this now anyway.

[afuna]

I'm still boggling over the decision -- why tinypic, why? (And why so little notice, too?)

[ursula]

If you want to check out a particular US-only website, proxify.com and its clones can be useful. (I've used it to show friends stuff that's only available on the US version of Google Books.)

[damanique]

Tinypic works for me again - and even stranger, is displayed in Dutch.

Earlier this afternoon there was no message, but now the site states the following:

We heard from many of our users in regards to these changes and we appreciate your feedback. Tinypic has restored linking to your images and enabled uploading. Please rest assured no content was removed from the site. We tried to notify users on Tinypic and requested they move their content to Photobucket. Unfortunately this messaging was insufficient and has taken many of our users by surprise and we apologize. Our intent was to begin combining some of the best features of Tinypic and Photobucket, thereby offering users a better experience. Any changes in the future will be better communicated. Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience.