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Post 23 Dec 2019, 10:56 • #1 
Administrator
Joined: 12/31/69
Posts: 966
On assessing the state of the forum's images, it has come to my attention that PostImages is randomly adding spam links to posted photos. Much though I want (NEED) to clean these up, I am leaving them for you to see what I am talking about. Any harm, has probably already happened, and it will take a minimum of months to recover.

Check out these example posts. I stress these people are not responsible. The common factor is PostImages.

Nothing can be provided for nothing. There is always a cost!

[ETU: Spam links have now been removed.]
`
viewtopic.php?t=65416&f=3#p343940 "nearest compass bank"
viewtopic.php?t=65501&f=2#p344934 "capital one atm in my area"
viewtopic.php?t=65538&f=2#p344976 "barclays locator"
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=65575&start=25#p345499 "santander atm near me"
viewtopic.php?t=66138&f=49#p349849 "santander bank around me"
viewtopic.php?t=65476&f=7#p350066 "navigate to gas station near me"
viewtopic.php?f=49&t=65579&start=125#p353517 "closest exxon"
viewtopic.php?t=66226&f=2#p350490 "closest bp station"
viewtopic.php?t=66308&f=2#p351235 "closest shell gas station"
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12832&start=25#p353637 "closest gas station to"


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Post 23 Dec 2019, 14:29 • #2 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/10/09
Posts: 1651
Location: US-OH
Either I'm blind or my computer is filtering them to the trash because the links don't appear in the examples you provided. In any case, I won't use postimage here in the future.


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Post 23 Dec 2019, 14:37 • #3 
Administrator
Joined: 12/31/69
Posts: 966


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Post 23 Dec 2019, 14:44 • #4 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4093
Location: USA-CO
Same result as Tiptop. I see nothing extraneous. In the past, I have seen ads when going through a link or thumbnail to Postimage, so I don't doubt the situation exists.

Looking forward to using FFR-native hosting, and would gladly go back and replace images now linked to Postimage and P-bucket if I could edit my old posts. I still have all those images on my PC. Appreciate the offer to do at the admin end, though; please let us know how to assist (provide images organized to fit original posts). Thank you for making the change to ".cc" in older Postimage links.

All of this is a very welcome improvement to FFR that will make it an even more valuable forum in the long run.


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Post 23 Dec 2019, 14:47 • #5 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/10/09
Posts: 1651
Location: US-OH
I was blind but now I see


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Post 23 Dec 2019, 15:12 • #6 
Administrator
Joined: 12/31/69
Posts: 966
Tomah wrote:
would gladly go back and replace images now linked to Postimage and P-bucket if I could edit my old posts. I still have all those images on my PC. Appreciate the offer to do at the admin end, though; please let us know how to assist (provide images organized to fit original posts).

If the images are still online, I can fix these. If they are not, I would need the originals sent to me. The only difficulty with replacing postimage images, is of they are linked from a thumbnail. The link is not actually a link to the larger image. I can get the image okay, but connecting them is not so easy. Later, I will look and see how many images your posts contain. Last night, I intended setting up an email address, where people could send me their photos or PhotoBucket archives, but sleep overcame me first. It will be images [at] fiberglassflyrodders [dot] com .

Tomah wrote:
Thank you for making the change to ".cc" in older Postimage links.
Someone only had to tell me what the problem was. It was a 2 min fix. Same issue when people saw error messages. Nobody told me what these were. In that case, problems would have been resolved much quicker.

On the topic of editing old posts? I have a feeling that the permissions system does not allow individual overrides on this, but I will check it out. There is more than one reason why old posts cannot be edited and one of them is that editing could potentially break them. The older they are, the more likely this is.

There is a certain fishing-related forum, where I found a great many spam links edited into old posts. Members had had their accounts compromised (weak or shared passwords) and either a 'bot or a human had spammed individual letters in their old posts. The lowercase letter "i" was a common example. Almost invisible, and who will look at old posts?

It's winter, and the winter blues can affect some people. Restricting edits is prudent.

But, they are all generalities. We try to do the best for everyone. Sometimes, it is just a compromise. I will look at this... but probably not today...

Thank you for posting and thank you for your offer and gratitude.


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Post 23 Dec 2019, 15:14 • #7 
Administrator
Joined: 12/31/69
Posts: 966
tiptop wrote:
I was blind but now I see
Maybe links in posts need to be more obvious? I am not sure what color to choose. I do not want to underline, because that will cause difficulties with all linked images.


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Post 23 Dec 2019, 21:04 • #8 
Sport
Joined: 12/04/11
Posts: 72
Location: US-MI
We went through this some time ago on ORCA when post image pictures appeared surrounded with ads for Russian hookers. The person making the post cannot see these add on images, only others who view them. It often takes a screenshot to convince the person doing the posting that this is actually happening.


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Post 23 Dec 2019, 21:31 • #9 
Administrator
Joined: 12/31/69
Posts: 966
That is usually a sign of malware on the person's computer... but there was malware on ORCA pre-2012.

Here, there is no doubt, or obscuring. They are simple text links, posted at the same time as the images.


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Post 27 Dec 2019, 13:38 • #10 
Guide
Joined: 06/28/18
Posts: 338
Location: Bozeman, MT
Thed new process works well and is intuitive to use. Thanks


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Post 27 Dec 2019, 14:38 • #11 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/10/07
Posts: 1632
Location: The Netherlands
May I add that which link option you use makes a big difference what Postimages does when showing the picture(s)?
I always use the second link option ('Direct link') and using this link no ads appear at all (I used it to show this picture too):

Image



Using this link also shows the data in the link used is much 'cleaner' as having only the data needed to show the picture:
Image



While the other link options (most probably use the 'Thumbnail for forums' or 'Hotlink for forums' link option) used adds much more data (additional sub-links).

For instance:
Image

You can see the ad ('closest exxon') link at the end.


Here is for example another of my pictures using Postimage and the 2nd link option. Again, no ad appears:
viewtopic.php?f=32&t=60247&start=25#p356266


Last edited by ibookje on 27 Dec 2019, 14:42, edited 1 time in total.

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Post 27 Dec 2019, 14:42 • #12 
Administrator
Joined: 12/31/69
Posts: 966
I can see your logic, but the first 2 examples (at least) were posted using such a link.

Another observation is that spam links were not added to linked thumbnails.

It seems that most people have naturally gravitated away from PostImages anyway. This is good, because it is less work for moderators to carefully check these posts, and good future-proofing to ensure the images stay safe.

The biggest problem now seems to be people posting unacceptably large images to the posts. We may reimpose size restrictions, if people do not crop, and/or resize their images, if they are determined to use these 3rd party image hosts.


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Post 27 Dec 2019, 14:48 • #13 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/10/07
Posts: 1632
Location: The Netherlands
Obviously the way the free hosting sites 'advise' users to use a certain link ('... for forums') is how they can add additional data (ads) to make money.


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Post 27 Dec 2019, 15:28 • #14 
Administrator
Joined: 12/31/69
Posts: 966
ibookje wrote:
Image
Thank you for posting proof that PostImages is adding spam links. I can now go ahead and clean up the posts. :)


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Post 27 Dec 2019, 21:53 • #15 
Administrator
Joined: 01/10/06
Posts: 7811
Location: Holly Springs, NC
The biggest problem with PostImage, Photobucket, TinyPic, and others is they have already let us down at least once. Imgur is talking a good line, but who knows how long they will last. Flickr is talking about subscriptions. I expect all of these external sites will let us down in the future.

The image sharing sites are designed for the social media equivalent of Kleenex - use, view, and discard. We use these sites as photo archives. They were not designed for us. Our need will probably outlast many of them. FFR has already outlived many internet wonder companies - anyone remember GeoCities? Lycos? ezBoard? AltaVista? Pets.com? Wang? Jawbone? Yuku?

If you can store images here, please do. If we can make the process better, we will. But no matter where you store your images, please, please, please keep a copy for yourself.


Tom


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Post 16 Jan 2020, 09:58 • #16 
Guide
Joined: 07/22/11
Posts: 153
Location: Lower slower delaware
This is happening on a number of other sites. Some are just excepting it and other's have done what you are doing. I like what you are doing. I don't like somebody adding spam to my picture up loads, it makes it look as though I'm sponsoring what ever their selling. I'm glad you are taking time to stop what they are doing. It's bad enough people have to put up with those robo calls with out them interfering in people's enjoyment.


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Post 16 Jan 2020, 10:30 • #17 
Administrator
Joined: 12/31/69
Posts: 966
Thank you...

Slowly, I am cleaning things up. I discover more as I go.


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Post 13 Feb 2020, 15:07 • #18 
Guide
Joined: 09/29/15
Posts: 126
Location: US-MN
What free sites can a person use so we dont run into issues mentioned .I use to use photobucket on my computer with the add on link so you can see pictures.But I mostly use my phone .


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Post 14 Feb 2020, 09:53 • #19 
Administrator
Joined: 01/10/06
Posts: 7811
Location: Holly Springs, NC
Please use the forum image uploader. See the posting pictures look on the forum opening page.


Tom


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Post 14 Mar 2020, 13:28 • #20 
Administrator
Joined: 12/31/69
Posts: 966
jgestar wrote:
Please use the forum image uploader.
Another PostImages complaint

Continued...

Please, no more Post Images! - jgestar


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Post 22 Mar 2020, 14:26 • #21 
Sport
Joined: 01/30/16
Posts: 86
Location: Bologna ITALY
I didn't know about this connection hidden of Postimage, I have continued to use it and I mind having caused problems. I thank the administrator to have told me, I will now be more careful.


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