We seem to have a problem with (some?) Imgur images linked in forum posts - they're now being displayed as a rectangle with text "Content not viewable in your region". I noticed it first with the most recent "Updates from the Forge" post, but it also affects e.g. the two posts by CrowberryCake in the Tabletop Design forum. I'm wondering if this is a UK-specific problem, perhaps an unhappy consequence of the Online Safety Act.
I think it must be - the images are all fine for me in Austria... Not sure what to do about that. It would be rather time inefficient to replace every imgur image in back-posts with a different option, but we could switch to us locally hosting images for future newsletters.
Yeah, it looks like the whole of Imgur is unavailable from a UK IP now. Hopefully this isn't a permanent situation.
I found some further information (https://help.imgur.com/hc/en-us/articles/41592665292443-Imgur-access-in-the-United-Kingdom) on this, it sounds pretty permanent and is surely related to the OSA.
Given we have tended to recommend imgur for image hosting that does suck rather. Might it be worth making an announcements post about it to let everyone know, do we think?
Yes, I think an announcement is a good idea. Do we have any alternatives to imgur that we could suggest?
Found some additional context on this from the ICO (https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs/2025/09/statement-update-on-imgur-investigation/).
As far as alternatives go, I'm personally going to just self-host my images going forward but that's not really a viable option to use as a blanket suggestion. I'm not super familiar with what other options are out there these days, since Imgur was so good I've not had to look around for ages.