Problem with some images from https://postimages.org/ posting.cc likely due to ratr limits or something else related to your image proxy.

[NumberSix]

Please note the two screenshots linked below(nsfw):

Spoiler

https://i.postimg.cc/8PYc76Kf/Screenshot-2025-03-27-23-41-12-239-org-mozilla-firefox-edit.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/WbztpnnP/Screenshot-2025-03-27-23-41-31-224-org-mozilla-firefox-edit.jpg

Based on the fact that the WYSIWYG edit mode displays them just fine, but they are blank after saving I would assume this is a qq serverside problem.
Relevant affected post:

https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/code-geass-ideas-snips-and-recs-thread.4599/post-10133682

Can you please have a look.

 

[riotous living]

Please note the two screenshots linked below:

https://i.postimg.cc/8PYc76Kf/Screenshot-2025-03-27-23-41-12-239-org-mozilla-firefox-edit.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/WbztpnnP/Screenshot-2025-03-27-23-41-31-224-org-mozilla-firefox-edit.jpg

Based on the fact that the WYSIWYG edit mode displays them just fine, but they are blank after saving I would assume this is a qq serverside problem.
Relevant affected post:

https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/code-geass-ideas-snips-and-recs-thread.4599/post-10133682

Can you please have a look.

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You can just use imgchest, it works much more consistently than anything else.

 

[NumberSix]

You can just use imgchest, it works much more consistently than anything else.

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I checked it out, no thanks, it does not provide a proper list of direct links or generated thumbnail links/img tagged urls.

 

[riotous living]

I checked it out, no thanks, it does not provide a proper list of direct links or generated thumbnail links/img tagged urls.

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Tap the triple dots in the top right corner

 

[NumberSix]

Tap the triple dots in the top right corner

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Doing it for 10+ images, no thanks...

Postimages was working fine until recently, whatever is breaking it is on QQ's end.

 

[AztecCroc]

Please note the two screenshots linked below(nsfw):

Spoiler

https://i.postimg.cc/8PYc76Kf/Screenshot-2025-03-27-23-41-12-239-org-mozilla-firefox-edit.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/WbztpnnP/Screenshot-2025-03-27-23-41-31-224-org-mozilla-firefox-edit.jpg

Based on the fact that the WYSIWYG edit mode displays them just fine, but they are blank after saving I would assume this is a qq serverside problem. Relevant affected post:

https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/code-geass-ideas-snips-and-recs-thread.4599/post-10133682

Can you please have a look.

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The editor loads images locally until posted, you see it before posting because it's in your browser's cache. Use the preview function to see if the image is actually working.

Spoiler

Your example images embed fine for me, you need to wait a few minutes after posting an image to that site since it takes it a bit to actually make the images accessible and thus QQ's cache accidentally grabs the not yet existent image if you attempt to embed it too soon.

 

[NumberSix]

The editor loads images locally until posted, you see it before posting because it's in your browser's cache. Use the preview function to see if the image is actually working.

Spoiler

Your example images embed fine for me, you need to wait a few minutes after posting an image to that site since it takes it a bit to actually make the images accessible and thus QQ's cache accidentally grabs the not yet existent image if you attempt to embed it too soon.

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I am aware how the preview function and browser csching work, the thing is after the stuff is posted there is this image proxy that rewrites the links so they go through xenforo

Spoiler

AS you can see here the url for the image is modified to proxy through QQ.

This wasn't just lag in the proxy loading, I retired a few times in a decent time renge.

 

[AztecCroc]

Spoiler

Yeah, I can upload and embed from there fine. This seems to be a you issue, or at least an issue with the specific pictures you're trying to embed, cause they won't embed for me either.

Spoiler: Your first image from the linked thread

 

[NumberSix]

Spoiler

Yeah, I can upload and embed from there fine. This seems to be a you issue, or at least an issue with the specific pictures you're trying to embed, cause they won't embed for me either.

Spoiler: Your first image from the linked thread

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Notice the thread I linked, @gale and I think also @Wild Transient also had the same problem.

 

[AztecCroc]

I think you may have tripped a potential bot flag on Postimages and got them shadowbanned, a pile of AI art with nonsense filenames made of nothing but random letters, numbers, and hyphens probably looks quite suspicious to a site whose ToS prohibits automated uploads.

Have you tried reuploading the images but renamed like "milly1" and such?

 

[NumberSix]

I think you may have tripped a potential bot flag on Postimages and got them shadowbanned, a pile of AI art with nonsense filenames made of nothing but numbers and hyphens probably looks quite suspicious to a site whose ToS prohibits automated uploads.

Have you tried reuploading the images but renamed like "milly1" and such?

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Postimages still lets me open the images.

If you quote one of the posts, grab the URL and open it you can see the image fine.
Notice this post:
Post in thread 'Code Geass Ideas, Snips, and Recs thread'

https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/code-geass-ideas-snips-and-recs-thread.4599/post-10133787

I opened this because I want to see I'd somebody with admin access can check for proxy errors.

 

[AztecCroc]

Postimages still lets me open the images.

If you quote one of the posts, grab the URL and open it you can see the image fine.
Notice this post:
Post in thread 'Code Geass Ideas, Snips, and Recs thread'

https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/code-geass-ideas-snips-and-recs-thread.4599/post-10133787

I opened this because I want to see I'd somebody with admin access can check for proxy errors.

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Just because the image will open on Postimages doesn't mean Postimages will let other sites that ask for the image see it. I have attempted to reupload the first image as a test.

Spoiler

Edit: It doesn't work, this is something on the Postimages side, not QQ.

 

[NumberSix]

Just because the image will open on Postimages doesn't mean Postimages will let other sites that ask for the image see it. I have attempted to reupload the first image as

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Embedding images like this does not require a proxy on the server that runs the forum, the IMG bbcode gets translated into <img src=""> or whatever the html tag was and your browser fetches it much the same way it would if you click on a link.
Here, notice this example.

Spoiler

 

[AztecCroc]

Embedding images like this does not require a proxy on the server that runs the forum, the IMG bbcode gets translated into <img src=""> or whatever the html tag was and your browser fetches it much the same way it would if you click on a link.
Here, notice this example.

[SPOILER="client side" ]

[/SPOILER]

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I am aware of how html works. That's not Xenforo works.

Spoiler

Under a direct embed as that tutorial shows every single person who loads the page sends a request to obtain the image and if said image stops existing, it breaks for everyone. Utilizing the image proxy means that only one request is sent, to retrieve the image in the first place when it is first embedded, and that it doesn't matter what happens to the source (a necessity following the Imgur purge).

The image proxy has no effect on whether or not an image breaks unless the image itself is too large (bigger than 4 mb, which none of your images were). And as there are no issues embedding new images from postimages that aren't the ones that broke that implies some sort of issue on their end where they are refusing to serve the image.

 

[NumberSix]

I am aware of how html works. That's not Xenforo works.

Spoiler

Under a direct embed as that tutorial shows every single person who loads the page sends a request to obtain the image and if said image stops existing, it breaks for everyone. Utilizing the image proxy means that only one request is sent, to retrieve the image in the first place when it is first embedded, and that it doesn't matter what happens to the source (a necessity following the Imgur purge).

The image proxy has no effect on whether or not an image breaks unless the image itself is too large (bigger than 4 mb, which none of your images were). And as there are no issues embedding new images from postimages that aren't the ones that broke that implies some sort of issue on their end where they are refusing to serve the image.

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Yes, something in xenforo's image proxy is fucking up.
That is the whole idea behind my OP.

 

[AztecCroc]

Yes, something in xenforo's image proxy is fucking up.
That is the whole idea behind my OP.

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Please actually read what I'm saying.

If it was an issue with the image proxy or any part of QQ it would be impossible to embed ANY images from Postimages. Which is not the case, same as if postimages just decided they didn't like us.

But again that is not the case, images other than those specific ones are embedding fine. However, those images from the thread you linked, even when reuploaded to postimages by a different person (me) with different filename do not work.

This is indicative of postimages refusing to serve those specific images for some reason, not an issue with the image proxy.

 

[riotous living]

Please actually read what I'm saying.

If it was an issue with the image proxy or any part of QQ it would be impossible to embed ANY images from Postimages. Which is not the case, same as if postimages just decided they didn't like us.

But again that is not the case, images other than those specific ones are embedding fine. However, those images from the thread you linked, even when reuploaded to postimages by a different person (me) with different filename do not work.

This is indicative of postimages refusing to serve those specific images for some reason, not an issue with the image proxy.

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Anecdotally, I've noticed it works better when you name your pictures one or two english words, like excaliburExample.png instead of Screenshot_6657_6894.png or random sequences of letters and numbers.

 

[NumberSix]

Anecdotally, I've noticed it works better when you name your pictures one or two english words, like excaliburExample.png instead of Screenshot_6657_6894.png or random sequences of letters and numbers.

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Funny enough it appears my old posts are mostly showing the images now, so I am 90% sure it must be some per IP request rate limit that the proxy here hits because it tries to download too much stuff too fast.

I have managed to embed images with the same long naming scheme just fine here before, so that is not it.

Would be nice to know for certain, though.

 

[alethiophile]

As you surmised, it's a problem with the image proxy. Specifically, the hosting site is not letting QQ's server download the image for proxying purposes, which may happen for any reason or no reason.

Unfortunately, I have little ability to debug this. (And just turning off the proxy is not a solution; in addition to making past QQ posts subject to bitrot, image hosts that don't let QQ download their images for proxying will also almost surely not let us just hotlink to them.)

 

[NumberSix]

As you surmised, it's a problem with the image proxy. Specifically, the hosting site is not letting QQ's server download the image for proxying purposes, which may happen for any reason or no reason.

Unfortunately, I have little ability to debug this. (And just turning off the proxy is not a solution; in addition to making past QQ posts subject to bitrot, image hosts that don't let QQ download their images for proxying will also almost surely not let us just hotlink to them.)

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Since some of the posted images started becoming available after a while I think it just might be your run of the mill per IP rate limiting, I don't think postimages has anything against QQ.

One simple possible workaround here would be to set some interval between each image being fetched, or between batches of images being fetched. However, I have no idea I'd that is within the capabilities of this proxy you are using.

Another would be to load balance between a bunch of web proxies, although relying on the few free ones around might be a problem and I have no idea if this proxy you are using can do that, either.

This might also be fixable on the client side if it is just an IP block, if a referrer is also blocked I think just setting a different referrer policy in the IMG html tag could also work, although then the image host would get the IP of the client rether than of the proxy and I think that is something you wanted to prevent.


In any case, I will just try and make smaller batches of images, 5 or so might be low enough that whatever temporary block there is might be worked around.