Hi, I'm discoball.
Unfortunately, as most of you are aware by now, the creator of imgtc.com (which I think was the 2nd most popular outgoing link on Voat) purged his account and abandoned his subverse.
It was a huge shock to me as well.
I've spoken to jmtullock over email, and although it sounded like there was a lot going on in his life, he's never even so much as hinted at abandoning his work or this community. It's even stranger that he left without a warning.
Once imgtc goes dark, which I suspect it will, Voat will once again be littered with dead links. In the meantime, I encourage everyone reading this to back up their images now or risk losing them forever. It's sad, but from the looks of things, imgtc will soon be but another in a long line of dead image hosts.
That said, I'm gonna keep working on imgoat.com.
You don't have in use it. In fact, I think you should use whatever service you're most confident in and comfortable with. But I'm in this for the long haul, and it would be ridiculous to quit now that we're getting more love than ever. I've been working long nights (thanks, insomnia) making improvements to the site, which I've listed below, and have even bigger ideas for the future...
Updates:
· Forced SSL, meaning all data remains private even as it's passed back-and-forth between your web browser and our server.
· Implemented a Warrant Canary.
· Max file size increased to 10 MB.
· WebM support (edit: work in progress...)
· Redirect to actual image (rather than a confirmation page) after successful upload.
In addition, I've spoken with the Boats for Voat developer, and he's agreed to make sure our images don't get all fucked up on Boats (unlike some other hosts).
I'd also like to thank @lmkevin for volunteering to help with some programming. If any other code goats on here are interested in volunteering, we'd love to have you on board.
edit: Oh, and thanks to @elnino for featuring us first in the sidebar of /v/pics. :D
Future updates:
If we decide to monetize, should it be with ads, donations, or something else?
How would you feel about adding user accounts?
Or the ability to download all of your uploaded images at once, in the even of a catastrophe?
I'd like to know your opinion on what we should focus on next. What does Imgoat need in order to be the best damn image host on Voat. Let me know in the comments (bahhh).
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[–] turtlesarepureevil 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
I figure just use direct imgur links for individual images and host albums elsewhere while using imgur as backup. Let them hemmorage.
Or advise people to not use direct links (a decent chunk)/adblock for the non-imgur site. @derram write a script to archive imgur album links pl0x.
[–] discoball [S] ago
I'm opposed to using Imgur, for a number reasons:
Imgur has been known to delete controversial images, such as those that might be hosted on Fat People Hate or various other subverses.
It's running on VC now, so every click it gets (even to hotlinked images) only serves to make Andreessen Horowitz more money as the site appears to get more traffic. If it's ever sold, or floated on the stock market, you can bet it will have one of those absurd "tech" valuations, similar to Twitter.
Lack of input. If we build something ourselves, we get to decided what to include, and perhaps more importantly, not include.
[–] turtlesarepureevil ago
The deletion, from what I've heard, was preceded by publishing the image to the imgur community. If that step is removed, then that shouldn't be a problem.
I honestly don't care who is throwing money at it as long as I can have direct links and not see ads. If someone wants to be the patron of lost causes they can go ahead.
> Or advise people to not use direct links (a decent chunk)/adblock for the non-imgur site.
What's your plan if your site gains traction and big subreddits like r/donald decide its their favourite and they direct link to your site 95% of the time?
[–] [deleted] ago
[–] turtlesarepureevil 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
This just comes off as an emotional rejection. No one wants to look at ads and the popular consensus seems to be dislike of imgur. Honestly don't see what's so wrong with my proposal.