Generating thumbnails with imgur

[potofsoup]

So, one way to host art is with a private imgur gallery. I think they don't actually like hotlinking, but then again, they do offer that as an option to the side of every image, so now I'm not sure.

Edit: shy_magpie found some helpful info about their TOS, which basically boils down to: hotlinking is okay as long as it's not (a) nsfw, or (b) commercial use. The workaround to that is to use an embed unit. The CDN stuff is probably just "don't use our server hosting to make money."

Anyway, in my proposed image reblog idea, quickly generating a thumbnail is pretty key to the process. Imgur is actually really good with that! Lemme show you how simple it is.

So, you go to imgur, you upload an image, and then you click on the image. This is the panel of link options you have on the right:


For just the raw image, you want the one called "Direct Link"

But at the bottom, you can also click on different thumbnail sizes and types, and the links automatically update to be the image that you want (even though the image preview doesn't).

Now here's the magical thing: Different thumbnail sizes is just the same file name, with an extra letter added to the end.

For example:
https://i.imgur.com/rfjKH8z.jpg is the original image
https://i.imgur.com/rfjKH8zt.jpg is the tiny thumbnail. (width=100)
https://i.imgur.com/rfjKH8zm.jpg is the medium thumbnail. (width=200)
https://i.imgur.com/rfjKH8zl.jpg is the large thumbnail. (width=400)

Which means that generating and linking to a thumbnail is the simple matter of adding a letter.

So if you're the artist and you're embedding from imgur, your textarea reblog snippet can be something like:

<user name="USERNAME"> posted: <a href="POSTLINK">post title</a><blockquote><img src="IMGUR_THUMBNAIL"></a><blockquote>

And if you are someone who wants to reblog from an artist -- if they've indicated permission -- you can also just take their imgur link, add "s" or "m" to the url, and use that as a thumbnail!

Comments

[shy_magpie]

Concerning your concerns: I'm pretty sure direct linking is the polite term for hotlinking, their permission is implied since they provide the info for you in a variety of formats. Plus the site was originally created asan image host for reddit. I googled a bit and I guess they are ok with use on forums but prefer you use the embed unit for nsfw and albums. Kinda mixed results for use on non-commercial blogs which their FAQ doesn't really settle for me.

[potofsoup]

That's super helpful! I've edited the post to include the stuff about the embed unit! <333

[shy_magpie]

reblogged here

[stovenbucket]

ive used imgur before for other things, so i kinda know how to use it but like,,
do you, personally, recommend it? cause i might end up going with it eventually, i suppose. just wondering if its better or worse than anything else we've got at this point.

[potofsoup]

Hmmm.... the instant thumbnail feature is a pretty big sell for me. shy_magpie found some helpful info about their TOS, which basically boils down to: hotlinking is okay as long as it's not (a) nsfw, or (b) commercial use. The workaround to that is to use an embed unit.

I have my own server space, so I'll probably just use that for the stuff I post to AO3, and use Backblaze B2 for my nsfw stuff.

[the_genderman]

So, do you know if the embed unit thingy works on AO3? or if that would just be a massive annoyance to have a brand-framed NSFW image in the middle of a fic or something? And like, if the gallery has to be private in order to host NSFW art, wouldn't sharing it with a massive imgur frame around it kind of defeat the point of that? (I might be missing a few things.) Because I'm sure I could figure out how to do the embed deal here on DW (except that I have a DW gallery for sharing here?), but putting stuff on AO3 would be more of the issue.

[potofsoup]

Yeah, I'm not sure! And since I already have two nsfw hosting options and don't actually have an imgur, my laziness currently trumps my desire to be helpful for fandom.

What I currently plan to do with my nsfw art is to use Backblaze B2, since that means I don't have to "out" my own website, and even though it's a bit clunky, not particularly more so than DW.