Imgur has blocked the UK

Vonhelmet · Tuesday at 14:04

ChrisD. said:
There's nothing more secure about using a VPN versus not using one. All you're doing is encrypting already encrypted traffic. VPNs are a tool to allow secure remote access to sites (ie, a corporate VPN to access work stuff), or to remotely access your home network, and in this case to circumvent geo location content restrictions. Don't believe their marketing because it's exactly that.

I’ll concede I’m not an expert here, but whatever you’re saying a VPN isn’t, a proxy is even less so.

Robbo · Tuesday at 14:05

@arknor I've seen that from the ICO, but Imgur haven't referenced it anywhere themselves. That's quite obviously the reason though!

Guest2 · Tuesday at 14:06

I already like how there are groups on the S3ND image & video sharing site for 'Monday night MILFs'

Imgur never had this, brilliant

arknor · Tuesday at 14:08

Robbo said:
@arknor I've seen that from the ICO, but Imgur haven't referenced it anywhere themselves. That's quite obviously the reason though!

I think its mainly because imgur doesnt differentiate between adults and children and they don't wish to change the site to suit the UK

Haggisman · Tuesday at 14:18

Uther said:
Maybe that would happen somewhere like France, but here the British just blame the immigrants

Fixed that for you!

visibleman · Tuesday at 14:29

Has anyone seen the below error message?

Code:

{"data":{"error":"Imgur is temporarily over capacity. Please try again later."},"success":false,"status":403}

Have been VPN'ing to various countries and i just seem to get the same error message; i'm assuming my provider is blocked rather than Imgur having a capacity issue :confused:

Feek · Tuesday at 14:36

I've created a workflow in Automator (along with a bash script in /usr/local/bin) so I can right click a file, select 'upload to ftp', and it just uploads it to my own hosting, then copies the link with img tags either side. Sorted. Might be useful @Cromulent @Raymond Lin

/edit - testing

Darkpilgrim · Tuesday at 14:39

visibleman said:
Has anyone seen the below error message?

Code:

{"data":{"error":"Imgur is temporarily over capacity. Please try again later."},"success":false,"status":403}

Have been VPN'ing to various countries and i just seem to get the same error message; i'm assuming my provider is blocked rather than Imgur having a capacity issue

I get the same error using PIA

aaronyuri · Tuesday at 14:40

Vonhelmet said:
I’ll concede I’m not an expert here, but whatever you’re saying a VPN isn’t, a proxy is even less so.

Web traffic (HTTP) is now encrypted by default using TLS (encrypted HTTP traffic is called HTTPS). That means that the connection between your client (your PC/phone/etc with a web browser) and the server is already secure. In the OSI model, this is layer 7 encryption/application layer.

By using a VPN, you are underlaying encryption at layer 3 on top of this existing layer 7 encryption. Or, if the VPN is based on TLS, then you are double encrypting layer 7. Realistically, the double encryption is no more secure than single encryption.

What a VPN does to, is make your source connection to the server appear to come from a different origin (whichever VPN server you choose to connect to). That can circumvent geographical IP restrictions, but doesn't make you any less invisible, in that sense. There is far better anonymity in Tor or onion routing than a VPN.

Nasher · Tuesday at 14:40

ChrisD. said:
There's nothing more secure about using a VPN versus not using one. All you're doing is encrypting already encrypted traffic. VPNs are a tool to allow secure remote access to sites (ie, a corporate VPN to access work stuff), or to remotely access your home network, and in this case to circumvent geo location content restrictions. Don't believe their marketing because it's exactly that.

It stops your ISP and systems within the UK from intercepting and monitoring your traffic. That's more secure.

Bypassing the OSA itself entirely is protecting yourself and adding a layer of security now.

Raymond Lin · Tuesday at 14:40

Feek said:
I've created a workflow in Automator (along with a bash script in /usr/local/bin) so I can right click a file, select 'upload to ftp', and it just uploads it to my own hosting, then copies the link with img tags either side. Sorted. Might be useful @Cromulent @Raymond Lin

I do have my own hosting, but it's for wedding stuff and I only ever access it via the website's backdoor and don't know how to FTP to it lol

Armadillo · Tuesday at 14:44

visibleman said:
Has anyone seen the below error message?

Code:

{"data":{"error":"Imgur is temporarily over capacity. Please try again later."},"success":false,"status":403}

Have been VPN'ing to various countries and i just seem to get the same error message; i'm assuming my provider is blocked rather than Imgur having a capacity issue

Generic message for Imgur blocking that exit node of whatever vpn you are using. On Proton, if I use Ireland, I get that, if I use Switzerland, it's fine.

Van Diemen · Tuesday at 14:46

andy_mk3 said:
Wow. That is utterly ******* stupid. Imgur has been my go to ever since photobucket went to crap.

Same here, was great for posting pics on forums.

Anyone know of any alternative sites we can use?

SupraWez · Tuesday at 14:52

Upload Image — Free Image Hosting

Free image hosting and sharing service, upload pictures, photo host. Offers integration solutions for uploading images to forums.

imgbb.com

Not blocked yet.

Diddums · Tuesday at 14:55

Van Diemen said:
Anyone know of any alternative sites we can use?

As above, ImgBB. I've been using it for ages without issue.

Raymond Lin · Tuesday at 14:55

We could use dropbox, there is a free 2gb limit.

However, to link a file to it, it require editing of the last few letters in the URL....a bit convoluted.

Raymond Lin · Tuesday at 14:56

Diddums said:
As above, ImgBB. I've been using it for ages without issue.

You need to fix your sig

Feek · Tuesday at 15:01

SupraWez said:
Upload Image — Free Image Hosting

Free image hosting and sharing service, upload pictures, photo host. Offers integration solutions for uploading images to forums.

imgbb.com

Not blocked yet.

But utterly useless. Unless you pay for imgbb, it doesn't allow hot linking of images. You can't see that, they appear perfectly OK to you but MM is full of threads with no images. It's so bad we're on the verge of banning it.

visibleman · Tuesday at 15:15

Armadillo said:
Generic message for Imgur blocking that exit node of whatever vpn you are using. On Proton, if I use Ireland, I get that, if I use Switzerland, it's fine.

Yeah, it's a shame that a lot mine are blocked although luckily a quick trip to Poland seems to be working.

With such a terrible bill put together with common sense and experts saying so, who knew this sort of thing would happen?

ChrisD. · Tuesday at 15:19

Nasher said:
It stops your ISP and systems within the UK from intercepting and monitoring your traffic. That's more secure.

Bypassing the OSA itself entirely is protecting yourself and adding a layer of security now.

And routes said traffic and DNS lookups via a VPN provider which instead gets to see everything. Where do they have servers, what laws are they governed by? What do they do with your data? A lot of providers have shown time and time again that despite what they say, they do keep traffic/logs and they do give it up in other countries such as the US when required to do so by law.