this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2025
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Alright, so what is the current recommended way to share pictures on Lemmy? (feddit.org)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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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[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The problem with media files is more general, it's not just pictures.

This is also why we've never had a (functioning) video platform on the fediverse: Hosting (storage + bandwidth) costs real money. Actually a lot of money. Who pays for it?

Community hosting of large media files would solve the problem (the instance server would only store a hash value). But, there's a lot of questions/problems, such as:

  • what if all seeders go offline simultaneously?
  • privacy issues (seeders can see who requests their data)
  • legal issues (what if somebody uploads illegal material and you seed it?)
[–] muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The first issue would happen eventually yes but that would theoretically be after 99% of the interactions the post would see have already happened. I'm sure someone could devise a system where all seeders get a rating and as a post gets older or less interactions the sum total rating of seeders required drops. Basically u could have heigh rated seeders seed the only copy.

Issue 2 is a harder one but having ur IP known isn't too much of an issue. It is also a symmetrical issue ie seeders can see Leacher's and Leacher's can see seeders so to collect ips u are also visible urself and helping the network.

Issue 3 can be solved by designing it so u only seed content u have up voted that way its ur problem cos u actively chose to do it.

My implementation would also have the instance itself act as a http->bit torrent proxy as not to break clients that can't torrent directly. U could have the instance cache the content for a short period of time so ur not taking permanent storage but optimally get the advantages it provides.

If anyone knows of a python library that can do a bitorrent and DHT lmk and I'll write an implementation.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 weeks ago

so to collect ips u are also visible urself and helping the network.

Yeah well that's exactly my problem.

I don't like that anyone can now figure out my IP address and therefore know where I live. I value my privacy.