So now that Lemmy and the community overall are getting a lot of attention, with /c/memes being one of the biggest communities across instances, I think we should be a bit more strict about certain things.
I’d like your opinion, though. What do you think about a rule about only allowing images, and that such images need to be uploaded to Lemmy instead of linking to something like Imgur. I think that text and videos are a better fit for some other community (at least until we get something where we are able to play videos within Lemmy).
images need to be uploaded to Lemmy instead of linking to something like Imgur
Not a good idea, sites like Imgur allows lemmy to not store the data, which takes up a huge amount of space, accross all instances. It’s better to have image on the instance, yes, but after a bit of work, the lemmy’s devs can show external images inline, just like on reddit.
deleted by creator
That’s fair, but this community is hosted on lemmy.ml so you can still have that rule, images are cached and shared among servers without the need of each server actually having to own it on their server.
Not exactly true, unlike Mastodon I believe only the original instance stores the photo. Even when browsing a remote instance, you’re loading from their server.
Oh, might be right, yeah.
But still, devs should implement showing videos/images from other services to show up here inline, instead of having to click the link!
I think that’s implemented but it’s something specific to Imgur which blocks from viewing and which may require you to code something specifically for Imgur rather than it being a universal thing. On Reddit it works because it was created to be used there.
oh yeah, only if it link directly to an image, not the imgur link itself (which makes sense)
I think it’s cached on federating servers - that’s why copies of beehaw communities still exist on lemmy.world and sh.itjust.works despite defederating
The posts are cached, like the text and comments. The images aren’t AFAIK. The links to the images are also cached, and BeeHaw can’t tell what instance is accessing them, it just sees a request from each user’s computer for the image.
Imgur sucks but I do agree that the images should probably be uploaded to a different site
Sound good. You remember the time, where “meme” only applied to images? I do. I miss those times ;)
I remember when “meme” meant something that reflected information or behavior that had self-propogated to a degree that it entered the zeitgeist. Now it’s pretty much any picture that someone thinks is humorous, even if they made it themselves ten minutes ago. Something used to become memetic as a community function; now there’s people who sit around and try to come up with new “memes” by themselves, even as a way to make a living. Kind of like giving yourself a nickname, lol.
Well, to be precise a meme is a piece media that transfers culture, so it can be anything, although in this context it makes sense to only allow images/videos IMO.
That could just have been an image in the comment.
I’ll count this as your first rule violation.
Will say as jerbao user your reply was way better since it is actually a picture.
I agree with all of this, as long as video will be allowed once there is a useable player for it.
I don’t know if I like the idea of forcing the image to be hosted on lemmy.ml. I think its good to spread out the data in the event 1 goes down? You may end up with a graveyard of broken links
Well, if the instance goes down you won’t be able to access the community anyway. I wouldn’t have any issue with posting somewhere else, but Imgur doesn’t show a preview which makes it really shitty for posting here. I’d be fine with posting on other instance and adding that link, too.
true, its just that the instance is more likely to go down if it becomes a mandated image repository for a large community, right? or am I wrong about that?
I get your point about thumbnails though. Maybe a short list of approved image hosts that work as a thumbnail? or do only pics posted directly to lemmy work as thumbnails?
If you use use the direct image links for imgur, it still shows up with a preview, no. As in the i.imgur.com links
Not sure if this is still the case, but I remember reading earlier that processing uploaded images was using some of the most resources on lemmy.ml’s servers at one point. Given the strain and load on the server already, I don’t think it would be a good idea to put even more on it by requiring images be uploaded directly
I’m neutral about only images and no videos part
Out of all image content, memes are hurt the least if they get downscaled to 400x400
Processing an image is a separate thing from serving images
Instead of Imgur, a good and private alternative, I think cceptable for Lemmy, is vgy.me, I use it in ShareX as image sharing. I prefer an extern host, I think it’s better for the one which put the Lemmy server to host the images. https://vgy.me
i think it’d be a good thing
Unless you’re hosting the storage, it would be wise to contact whoever does host your instance and make sure they don’t have a problem with mandating direct uploads.
But, on this end, it isn’t necessary. It’s easy enough to click through if it doesn’t show directly.
note that when a user pastes an image on lemmy, it gets hosted on the user’s home instance - not to the home instance of the community where they pasted it.
My thoughts:
-
Yeah this will make the community better because images from here look better in jerboa at least.
-
It will mean OClinked from here will lead people to hear and not a third part app.
-
It will burden the instance with extra traffic and storage. Maybe IPFS support on the back end and front end ipfs opt in for users could help that?
-
I think storage costs need to be considered first. It could cause instances to be unable to support the costs of running due to storage and bandwidth fees.
