Attention....loss of Images

[mgcjag]

We are a UK forum hosted on a UK server (E type UK)...most of the photos are on Imgur.....they have now stopped access to their site from the UK....a change would mean hosting our forum outside the UK....just for info you cant see all photos on JL from the UK as there are some Imgur photos on JL that can't be viewed if your in the UK.....anything is possible at a cost and with "staff".... I'm sure Heuer will give a more precise answer...Steve

[Heuer]

Blame the UK Government, they introduced the online safety act which requires all photo hosting companies to police their users by providing either a valid credit card or photo ID to prove you are over 18. The UK Government threatened to fine IMGUR as they have refused to implement such a device as a) it can be easily bypassed, b) they don't agree with the UK legislation and c) there is a big cost involved.

Under the act all websites and Forums are required to provide a risk assessment and check members ages or they will be fined or shut down. So I will need all your bank details, passport scans and photos please!

UK residents are the only ones affected, well apart from China, North Korea, Iran and a few more 'progressive' countries. No workaround and even using a different image host is no guarantee as they could also be closed or forced to block UK users. I have 7,400 E-Type photos hosted on IMGUR and whilst I could put them elsewhere there is no practical way of linking each one to specific posts. So any money you may have paid us for this content can be spent on a VPN. They are seamless in operation and you should be using one as a matter of practice on your mobile if you use public WiFi.

Rory - you are not affected unless you are temporarily residing in the UK

[Heuer]

Joy of joys, the Government have now decided to ban or limit the use of VPN's by everyone. I have employed some 11 year olds to devise a work around! Smart DNS or Proxy Servers I think.

Whatever happened to parent responsibility? Mobile phones cost upward of £500 so it must be parents gifting these to their 5 year old kids.

[paydase]

Terrible...

[johnetype]

The VPN issue is a sideshow; the critical resource for the forum is its IP and that's embodied in the data and images posted by everyone.

If we choose to give ownership of that IP away to Third Party sites to host that data for free we loose control and become hostage to fortune to their inevitable moneterisation of our IP and access restrictions we can no longer control. We get blank images on our browser's and the value of this wonderful resource and everyone's hours of effort to contribute and maintain diminished to zero.

There's no free lunch in this world. We must get our images back under our own hosting control. There are other small, niche but critical forums like ours that have solved the problem without giving away their images so it can be done.

It'll mean Sponsors, adverts or a subscription but if we don't change, this resource will vanish.

[Gfhug]

I have employed some 11 year olds to devise a work around! Smart DNS or Proxy Servers I think.

Makes you sound like Dickens’ Fagin I’m waiting for one of your orphans to complain and you responding with “shut up and drink your gin” (Ron Moody?)