Monday, December 5, 2016

maintenance mode

CURRENT STATUS: backfilled through October 2014

I've been using Imgur.com to host the screenshots seen on this blog since back in 2011. However, unbeknownst to me - not that ignorance is any excuse - using it in such a manner is forbidden by the Terms of Service. As a result, and due to an inquiry I had made recently, Imgur has salted the earth and blocked any viewing of said screenshots on this blog. That sucks! Especially since they didn't tell me about it, not that they needed to since what I was doing was forbidden by the ToS. I don't know if that used to be the case, back when I started using it, but that's the way it is now! And to think, I used to have an Imgur Pro account.

The Good News: I already had a Dropbox account with more than enough storage space, and I'll be slowly going through and backfilling all of those beloved screenshots.

The Bad News: This is going to take a long time, during which this blog will be nothing but sweet, sweet words.

I've had my work cut out for me, gentle readers. You'll probably see some reviews, but I'll be spending a lot of time bringing these hard-won screenshots back to you.




Addendum 12/8/16: If you are dying to see some screenshots, they are still where they've always been. Finding the appropriate album at https://kmxexii.imgur.com should load them all, after which you can refresh the review post and see it as it was originally intended. I'm systematically deleting the images and albums as I update the links to Dropbox-hosted material, though, unless someone has a really good argument that can convince me otherwise. Virtually no one has trawled the more recent albums so keeping them around doesn't feel palatable after Imgur's stealth-ban.

The plus side, unless you have a really slow internet connection: No more 640 x 480 images! Everything is being linked at the 1280 x 960 I took it at, at least until I get to the stuff where the Imgur copy is the only surviving backup. Go take a look at Ancient Aliens in gorgeous, hi-res.

13 comments:

  1. [Marty McFly]That's heavy[/Marty McFly]

    Don't sweat it, and best of luck to you man!

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  2. Damn, man. Which part of the terms of service is that? I might need to double-check it myself. Seems odd that you wouldn't be allowed to use an image host this way. Isn't that what they're for?

    Good luck getting everything back in order. Where you gonna host the screenshots now?

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    1. Under "Stuff Not to Do":

      "Also, don't use Imgur to host image libraries you link to from elsewhere, content for your website, advertising, avatars, or anything else that turns us into your content delivery network."

      migrating everything over to Dropbox.

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    2. Very weird. Depending on how you interpret it, it can basically mean that you're not allowed to link to imgur images from other websites att all. o,o

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    3. i think there's a fine line that i crossed and then wallowed around in since I was using Imgur to host every screenshot ever on this blog, which for megawads runs in excess of 30 and sometimes 40 images per review. posting the occasional thing you uploaded to imgur on a website = good, Imgur loves you. Using it as a bandwidth-hogging image host = bad, Imgur hates you.

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    4. incidentally, Imgur considers this sort of hotlinking an offense worth mentioning in the same breath as some pretty heinous stuff if you look at the ToS.

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  3. Since this has happened, I guess I and other will follow the statement you have on your Tumblr account "The best way to find out how these levels play is to load them up yourself". Although this will suck seeing as I come to your blog as my main source of exlent Doom lvls.

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    Replies
    1. my hopes for 2017 were far too high to let this completely gut my reviewing. just don't expect the same breakneck pace I had until every shot is updated.

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  4. Dayumn! That sucks! Good luck migrating all your screenshots. Your reviews are very useful :)

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  5. Good luck, my friend. On the positive side, it appears you still *have* all the screenshots, yes? Just a matter of getting them back up and linked properly.

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    Replies
    1. I have every screenshot, it's just a matter of swapping the URLs from Imgur to Dropbox. I think I'll still be rolling out at least one review every week.

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