[threads with dead images]IMGUR Hotlinks not working - how to still access resources

[Avery]

I was not sure whether this is supposed to be a tutorial, but to paste it in into every relevant thread was too much and I still felt like it rather belongs to the resource section.

So what is the point:
Imgur has removed their hotlinks, and even though the images still exist on the site, they don't work where they were used via these.
This has lead to many people getting frustrated and while I get it, I would just recommend to kindly let the artists know and not pressure them too much about reuploading, since that is a MASSIVE task that can take many hours depending on the thread size. You are asking here for other people's free time for free just for your convenience.

Given that, there is no immediate need to reupload, the images are still accessible, you just have to jump through some hoops.

Let us use whtdragon's tiles as an example:

whtdragon's tilesets addons, fixes and more!

So I've been debating on doing this for awhile, and I'm still not quite sure how to organize this stuff out, so bare with me while I get things straightened out, but basically I've been working on tilesets for awhile in between animal sprites and other stuff, just kind of looming in the backdrop...

forums.rpgmakerweb.com

Obviously, the images are gone:


If you now right click on the element, you can "Inspect" the image:


Now you can access the link to the image:


What you want is the data-url:


Now you can for example copy the whole like into the editor to get that bit out:




There you go!
And while I know you have to put some work in, it is worth it and we talk about free things! ;3

 

[ATT_Turan]

And please actually read the threads first. I've seen posts complaining that images are down and asking for reposts in threads that already had zipped archives available.

Just download the pack and look at it on your computer, it only takes a minute.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Yo, I pinned this. Doing the Lord’s work, Avery.

 

[karusomine]

Thanks for the tutorial! Also just for information... If you want to change image hosting from imgur, I think imgbb is better than imgbox. If you search the forum for 'imgbox', a lot of the links are equally cooked as imgur links. Meanwhile all imgbb links are still good. Of course there's no guarantee what's gonna happen in the future, but for now just to be safe, I guess.

 

[ATT_Turan]

@karusomine I don't see a reason not to just attach the images to the posts using the forum functionality.

I suppose if you're active on multiple sites and want to cross-post them, that's a thing. But it's always been a thing over the years on the Internet that various sites try to discourage and break hotlinking. So this is the latest big kerfluffle, but it's always been risky.

 

[karusomine]

@ATT_Turan I guess using image hosting site is nice because you're like making your own folder/gallery, and can freely share them by just using the links. Usually no limitation too (in size and dimension).

But yeah the first option to post image should be just use the insert image function.

 

[TheoAllen]

And while I know you have to put some work in, it is worth it and we talk about free things! ;3

Why put some work if we can automate things
Meet the console command!

The process is simple.
Press F12 to bring up the console command.
Paste this code in the console, run/press enter

let domBBImages = Array.prototype.slice.call( document.getElementsByClassName("bbImage") )
domBBImages.forEach(function(dom) {
     if (dom.dataset.url && dom.dataset.url.includes("imgur")) {
            dom.src = dom.dataset.url
      }
})

And it works!


And if you don't want to do this for every page you visit in this forum, you can automate it with Tampermonkey.

How to automate this using Tampermonkey:
After installing the extension. Go to its configuration menu. Add new script


Add this

// ==UserScript==
// @name         Imgur Hotlink Fixer (RPGMakerWeb)
// @namespace    http://tampermonkey.net/
// @version      1.0
// @description  Forum proxy link broke imgur hotlink
// @author       TheoAllen
// @match        https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/*
// @icon         data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==
// @grant        none
// ==/UserScript==

(function() {
    'use strict';

    let domBBImages = Array.prototype.slice.call( document.getElementsByClassName("bbImage") )
    domBBImages.forEach(function(dom) {
        if (dom.dataset.url && dom.dataset.url.includes("imgur")) {
            dom.src = dom.dataset.url
            }
    })

})();

Save, and don't forget to toggle it ON.

No more manual labor!


EDIT:
To clarify:

Imgur has removed their hotlinks, and even though the images still exist on the site, they don't work where they were used via these.

It wasn't Imgur that removed their hotlinks. It is the forum proxy link that broke their hotlink. Replacing the src attribute from the HTML tag to their hotlink works wonders.

 

[Shaz]

That still looks like work to me!

 

[TheoAllen]

To quote Avery, we talk about free things! :3

 

[Avery]

I knew there had to be a way to automate it, but I never did this before and then again...

we talk about free things

xD

Thanks for the clarification!

 

[whtdragon]

Hey just so ya'll know I'm testing out a new way to host the images, and I'm gonna try and update all my threads with it if things work out fine.