this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2025
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Fedigrow

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Alright, so what is the current recommended way to share pictures on Lemmy? (feddit.org)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Blaze@feddit.org to c/fedigrow@lemm.ee
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Hello everyone,

Following this post, it seems that quite a few users can't see catbox.moe pictures.

Catbox was my preferred option as they have a handy Firefox extension that allows to upload pictures with just a click, and get the link directly in the clipboard.

My understanding was also that by having the pictures on catbox, we avoided storing copies of pictures on every Lemmy instance. Is this still the case? I read a bit about proxying pictures (https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/pull/4035) and it seems like this is more related to keep all media required by an instance locally, to avoid broken links.

So long story short: what should be the recommended way to share pictures on Lemmy?

  1. Use a hoster like https://imgbb.com/
  2. Upload pictures locally
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[–] Blaze@feddit.org 9 points 2 days ago (4 children)

FYI @ShareMySims@lemmy.dbzer0.com

Pinging @nutomic@lemmy.ml and @dessalines@lemmy.ml as I guess they are probably the more knowledgeable.

Also @Shadow@lemmy.ca @TheDude@sh.itjust.works @db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com @Demigodrick@lemmy.zip @ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone for admins of instances with large communities

IIRC @sunaurus@lemm.ee has a 500 KB limit per picture.

And maybe also @Emperor@feddit.uk, @ticoombs@reddthat.com @Illecors@lemmy.cafe and @BurningTurtle@feddit.org

[–] ticoombs@reddthat.com 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Lemmy is still saving thumbnails and (previously) sometimes the whole image! The majority of image issues have been cleared up in my opinion and it works very well. Nearly all of our hosts allow hotlinking as it's basically required for our use cases.

Lemmy also knows when the image is another Lemmy instance (through "magic", or just cross posting). So if you upload once and then use that same link on all other posts then that would still be the same.

The problem I think you have is your usecase also includes posting externally to Lemmy. & to some extent, you don't want those images tied to your Lemmy account. If my users post via my instance then they are welcome to also hotlink the images externally. This is only possible because Reddthat uses a CDN and caches the images as much as possible.

Even if we didn't use a cdn there are plenty of VPS' and proxy software that we could use which would transparently function in the same way. You could even setup your own VPS, some image hosting software like https://chibisafe.moe/ or https://github.com/nokonoko/Uguu or https://github.com/hauxir/imgpush

To sum up:

  • post once to Lemmy instance and then use that image everywhere
  • use a random image host that allows hotlinking to do the same
  • get your own VPS, setup an image upload and use that (and maybe get a domain too!)

The 3rd option you can do completely anonymously via crypto.

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 3 points 2 days ago

Thank you for the detailed answer!

[–] Illecors@lemmy.cafe 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

For my family pixelfed instance I've discovered ffshare - it's job is to act something like a pipe in a unix shell and strip exif data as well as downsize the source before sending it off to the target app.

It's not exactly what you've asked for, but it could be used here. Android, at least.

[–] Elevator7009sAlt@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I was about to say thank you because I have just been finding some random image downsizer online, then I toss it through an EXIF stripper app on my phone and post. But then I checked and found ffshare appears to be just an Android app :( I guess that is what you meant by "Android, at least". I Lemmy from an iPhone and I'm not about to get an Android emulator on my computer just to use ffshare.

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Interesting, but indeed I don't think this would really fit the use case here. Posts to Pixelfed can't be anonymous, right?

[–] Illecors@lemmy.cafe 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I didn't mean pixelfed as an upload target, rather ffshare as a tool to reduce the size of the image and upload directly to lemmy.

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Oh sorry, misread that. That could be an option, but then will that picture still be replicated to all the Lemmy instances? Curiously, nobody touched on that point yet 😄

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It might not propagate to instances which disable image uploads, as we found with diagonlemmy.

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago

Good point. Also a reminder to post there!

[–] ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

supakaity@lemmy.blahaj.zone implemented a custom image proxy for us.

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Interesting, so from your admin perspective do you prefer users to use the Lemmy built-in image upload or use a link to an external hoster?

[–] ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

We let people use the built in uploader, then offload the uploaded image to the proxy, and then redirect requests for the uploaded image URL to the proxy. It was the only way we could really deal with the volume of images without having to either limit images or force them to be external

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Interesting, but I guess if you had the choice that every user would use an external hoster, that would be easier for you?

I'm trying to ease the load on instance admins as well

[–] ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That's not a great user experience, so it's not an ideal approach IMO.

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago

Indeed, but it's okay for me 😅

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 4 points 2 days ago

@Nothing4You@programming.dev and @Die4Ever@programming.dev as I see you from time to talking about databases