“Urgent” edit due to new Imgur ToS and loss of images

Question

I reviewed two “urgent” edits that were done because the editor referred to a Meta post Imgur TOS change on May 15th could cause the loss of thousands of StackExchange images!

The first answer and the linked dupe resoundingly say…

Nope!
SE Uses a corporate version of Imagur which guarantees image persistence

I’ve rejected these edits based on this info from Meta. Thoughts anyone?

Thanks Allan for bring this up here. Good to get a bit of discussion happening on this. — Monomeeth, Apr 22 at 21:27

bmike · Accepted Answer · 2023-04-21 21:39:24Z

4

My understanding is there's no need to panic or change most posts:

SE runs a corporate version of Imgur, so image persistence is guaranteed.

I'd hold off on editing or making approvals based on the post you referenced... Good work rejecting those edits and raising the issue here.

The only posts where we might have a problem are those where someone uploaded directly to Imgur and did not use the corporate version.

This query may assist us in detecting any outliers from the "don't panic" mass of images hosted for this site via Imgur.

answered Apr 21 at 15:16

bmikeMod

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2

IMHO this is only part of the story. This Meta.SE post mentions two types of IMGUR links: Those created with the "include picture" functionality (-> stored in the corporate version) and those uploaded by users before posting (-> not covered). I've adapted the query mentioned for AD, there are 14 posts impacted.
– nohillside Mod
Apr 21 at 15:28
I've edited two without a lot of thinking, but after looking at all of them, the loss of the pictures (or even just links to pictures) probably won't cause issues.
– nohillside Mod
Apr 21 at 15:46
14 is a rather tiny number - I don’t mind spending an hour or so fixing images if it so warrants @nohillside
– Allan
Apr 21 at 16:01
1

@allan look at the posts and decide for yourself :-)
– nohillside Mod
Apr 21 at 16:13
Thank so much for catching an important edge case @nohillside I hope my edit does it proper justice.
– bmike Mod
Apr 21 at 21:39
3

@nohillside - there are actually over 500 posts with images hosted on i.imgur.com that are potentially at risk. I've linked to a query that will link the exact posts that use those images.
– Mithical
Apr 22 at 18:36
@Mithical So, in the context of total number of posts on AD, it's still a miniscule amount. Still, may be worth pursuing edits in the case of the most viewed posts.
– Monomeeth Mod
Apr 22 at 21:26
@Monomeeth - Indeed. The edits I suggested to start that process are what sparked this meta post ;)
– Mithical
Apr 22 at 21:29

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