Media Embedding Has Been Disabled

Blog Discussion in 'BeerAdvocate Talk' started by Todd, Nov 25, 2019.

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  1. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,518) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    STAFF Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    As with other recent third-party forum adds-on that are no longer supported, I've had to disable one that extended media URL embedding to services like Imgur, Twitter, Instagram, and others.

    The problem with this add-on was...
    • It relied on sending the embed request to the developer's website, which has become unstable.
    • Due to the above, it also increased load time/client-side overhead on busy pages; like "What beer are you drinking now?" threads.
    • It stripped important data from the original URL when posting to the site. Meaning that we can't easily reconstruct previous embeds and replace them with at least links.
    • It was breaking Instagram embeds this morning and impacting page rendering, which was the last straw for me.
    In hindsight, I should've never installed this add-on. Live and learn.

    Why don't we allow everyone to upload images to the forum? We don't want to become an image host or incur the costs.

    So what now? This could be resolved (at least in part) once we upgrade our forums, but there's currently no timeline and it's a massive project. In the meantime, you can still embed images, however, you'll need to ensure that whatever service you use allows hotlinking (displaying an image on another site using a direct link to it). And YouTube and Vimeo will automatically embed if you drop a valid link in your post. See "Forums" in the FAQ for more.

    Sorry for the inconvenience, but ensuring the site remains operational and as responsive as possible is our main priority.

    Thanks for your understanding and support.
     
    #1 Todd, Nov 25, 2019
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  2. MNAle

    MNAle Initiate (0) Sep 6, 2011 Minnesota

    For Imgur users, use the "Direct Link" option on Imgur, and then use the "Image" icon here, and paste the URL into the image link.
     
    #2 MNAle, Nov 25, 2019
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  3. Snowcrash000

    Snowcrash000 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,041) Oct 4, 2017 Germany
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    That goes for youtube as well, huh? Well, that really sucks... :slight_frown:
     
    #3 Snowcrash000, Nov 25, 2019
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  4. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,518) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    STAFF Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    YouTube and Vimeo should still be supported. These media types are part of the forum's core. Dropping a link into your post should embed the video automagically for now.
     
    #4 Todd, Nov 25, 2019
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  5. TheIPAHunter

    TheIPAHunter Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,026) Aug 12, 2007 California
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Peace, Todd. I love you.
     
    #5 TheIPAHunter, Nov 25, 2019
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  6. Snowcrash000

    Snowcrash000 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,041) Oct 4, 2017 Germany
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Good to know, however, they don't appear to work in today's WBAYDN thread. Might be worth looking into.
     
    #6 Snowcrash000, Nov 25, 2019
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  7. beergoot

    beergoot Grand High Pooh-Bah (9,310) Oct 11, 2010 Colorado
    Mod Team BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Do u have a list of what media sites are supposed to still work? Google Drive and Flickr don't seem to work, so I probably need a viable alternative...

    Thanks...
     
    #7 beergoot, Nov 25, 2019
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  8. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,518) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    STAFF Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    Working now.
    Video: YouTube and Vimeo links will embed. Images: See above and FAQ.
     
    #8 Todd, Nov 25, 2019
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  9. Snowcrash000

    Snowcrash000 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,041) Oct 4, 2017 Germany
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader


    Yup, appears to be working again, thanks for the quick fix.
     
    #9 Snowcrash000, Nov 25, 2019
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  10. LarryV

    LarryV Grand Pooh-Bah (5,408) Jun 13, 2001 Massachusetts
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah

    Thanks Todd, I was noticing the long page loads when browsing WBAYDN. This seems like an agreeable resolution to me. You guys do a great job and I'm grateful for it.
     
    #10 LarryV, Nov 25, 2019
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  11. SudsDoctor

    SudsDoctor Pooh-Bah (1,739) Nov 23, 2008 New York
    Society Pooh-Bah

    I don't see a 'Direct Link' option on Imgur on my iPhone. I've always just pressed on the image until the menu giving me the option to 'Copy Link' appeared.
     
    #11 SudsDoctor, Nov 25, 2019
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  12. MNAle

    MNAle Initiate (0) Sep 6, 2011 Minnesota

    I use the PC web site, which gives a choice of 6 (using their words):
    • Image Link
    • Direct Link
    • Markdown Link (reddit comments)
    • HTML (website / blogs)
    • BBCode (message board & forums)
    • Linked BBCode (message boards)

    "Image Link" will look like: https://imgur.com/gobbledegook
    "Direct Link" will look like: https://i.imgur.com/gobbledegook.jpg

    The URL is slightly different, imgur.com vs i.imgur.com, the gobbledegook is the same, but followed by .jpg for the direct link.

    Hope that helps.
     
    #12 MNAle, Nov 25, 2019
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  13. bbtkd

    bbtkd Grand High Pooh-Bah (7,790) Sep 20, 2015 South Dakota
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    #13 bbtkd, Nov 25, 2019
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  14. PapaGoose03

    PapaGoose03 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,057) May 30, 2005 Michigan
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah

    I get the same Ingur 404 "You took a wrong turn" screen for both links.
     
    #14 PapaGoose03, Nov 25, 2019
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  15. Snowcrash000

    Snowcrash000 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,041) Oct 4, 2017 Germany
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    These both display as an error message for me, which is precisely why I stopped using imgur. I would recommend postimage to anyone, never had any problems with it. Just copy the direct link and you're golden. Just might wanna cut off the advertisement portion that gets added occasionally.
     
    #15 Snowcrash000, Nov 25, 2019
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  16. VoxRationis

    VoxRationis Initiate (0) Dec 11, 2016 New York
    Trader

    My "Media" tab appears to be missing, but I see that others could post before and after I did. I have used YouTube exclusively for video. Has the "Media" tab changed?
     
    #16 VoxRationis, Nov 26, 2019
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  17. VoxRationis

    VoxRationis Initiate (0) Dec 11, 2016 New York
    Trader

    It appears that I can just insert the YouTube link directly in the text box and it will appear. Is that correct?
     
    #17 VoxRationis, Nov 26, 2019
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  18. MNAle

    MNAle Initiate (0) Sep 6, 2011 Minnesota

    I've never had this problem, except occasionally if I try to go directly to an internal page without logging in first. So, I wonder... do you have your imgur images set up for public access?
     
    #18 MNAle, Nov 26, 2019
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  19. Smakawhat

    Smakawhat Grand High Pooh-Bah (7,191) Mar 18, 2008 Maryland
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah

    Is this possible with Instagram? I am assuming it's disabled.
     
    #19 Smakawhat, Nov 26, 2019
  20. Jaycase

    Jaycase Grand Pooh-Bah (3,858) Jan 13, 2007 Illinois
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Those were not actual imgur links. I believe he was just showing the address format of the two types of links using those dummy 'goobledegook' links for illustrative purposes. Actual imgur links have random characters like 'Bc4Rqd.jpg' in the URL.
     
    #20 Jaycase, Nov 26, 2019
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