Image embedding seems broken

[steelsmiter]

I'm having an error where all the images I embed regardless of site seem to break after a few days, but if I link them with a text link it goes to the text link fine. 

[Aethyrium]

I'm having an error where all the images I embed regardless of site seem to break after a few days, but if I link them with a text link it goes to the text link fine.

If you're linking from Discord, that's almost certainly why. Discord is updating their links to be temporary. You'll need to host elsewhere, if you want them to remain.

[steelsmiter]

If you're linking from Discord, that's almost certainly why. Discord is updating their links to be temporary. You'll need to host elsewhere, if you want them to remain.

well, that explains the discord ones, but not the fact that it's happening with everything but elliwiki... But I'm looking at other options, so we'll see. I'll bump this if those don't work.

[Dragoondawg25]

well, that explains the discord ones, but not the fact that it's happening with everything but elliwiki... But I'm looking at other options, so we'll see. I'll bump this if those don't work.

Hi, 
I am only having this issue with one story of mine. My other stories don't seems to have this issue. Are your pics by any chance categorized and sorted by character? The pics that are working for me are on the top level of discord. But the ones that I have categorized down by character work off and on. Try putting a folder at your top level and see if that clears it. I am thinking simplemachines can't read links that are categorized down too many levels. 

Thanks,
DD

[Callie Del Noire]

Hi,
I am only having this issue with one story of mine. My other stories don't seems to have this issue. Are your pics by any chance categorized and sorted by character? The pics that are working for me are on the top level of discord. But the ones that I have categorized down by character work off and on. Try putting a folder at your top level and see if that clears it. I am thinking simplemachines can't read links that are categorized down too many levels.

Thanks,
DD

Yeah Discord set it so that images only last a short time. The images have to be restarted to show

[Dragoondawg25]

Yeah Discord set it so that images only last a short time. The images have to be restarted to show

Well the images will need to be linked from the top level folder. The issue doesn't repeat itself on other stories where I have a picture linked from discord. Those pictures reside on the top level. The issue seems to happen when you categorize down a few levels and the link string becomes too long. Had this issue back in the day with Geocities forum. I am wondering if putting the pictures in a folder on the top level of discord would fix it.

DD

[MightyMaiden]

Discord is actively and deliberately stopping external links from lasting beyond a certain time as they explicitly do not wish to be used by people as a file hosting platform.
It won't matter where on your discord you put them, they are working towards a blanket system.
 

"There is no impact for Discord users that share content within the Discord client. Any links within the client will be auto refreshed. If users are using Discord to host files, we'd recommend they find a more suitable service."

[steelsmiter]

I went to a site called postimages, and have stopped having trouble since. My only issues are when I accidentally don't use the Direct Link when I'm trying to embed.

[Bruja Amethyst]

Discord is actively and deliberately stopping external links from lasting beyond a certain time as they explicitly do not wish to be used by people as a file hosting platform.
It won't matter where on your discord you put them, they are working towards a blanket system.
 

So what service would you recommend? 

[Dragoondawg25]

Discord is actively and deliberately stopping external links from lasting beyond a certain time as they explicitly do not wish to be used by people as a file hosting platform.
It won't matter where on your discord you put them, they are working towards a blanket system.
 

Can you provide a link to your source please?

[MightyMaiden]

So what service would you recommend?

Honestly, they all suck right now.
If it's really SFW, then imgur is still the best one out there.

I have different services and they all suck in different ways.
imgbb.co is top on my list, but they occasionally just go down for no obvious reason.

imgbox.com is nice unless you turn off your ad blocker and your eyes burn from the sheer volume of sketchy ads coating everything.

imgchest.com added this language to their terms recently:

• Image Chest is not to be used to host image libaries you link to from elsewhere, content for your own site, advertising, avatars, or any other situation in which you utilize Image Chest as your own content delivery network.

catbox.moe specifically states no hotlinking and that you can get banned for doing so, but YMMV so.. I know a lot of people use it.

Finally, there's Lensdump.com which everyone went to until they locked it down and started asking for money. I didn't sneak in for free since their terms left me with questions.

for better or worse, if you want to post images on ell, you should probably be using the wiki to host them or expect them to vanish now and then.

Can you provide a link to your source please?

yes: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/discord-will-switch-to-temporary-file-links-to-block-malware-delivery/

[Dragoondawg25]

Honestly, they all suck right now.
If it's really SFW, then imgur is still the best one out there.

I have different services and they all suck in different ways.
imgbb.co is top on my list, but they occasionally just go down for no obvious reason.

imgbox.com is nice unless you turn off your ad blocker and your eyes burn from the sheer volume of sketchy ads coating everything.

imgchest.com added this language to their terms recently:

• Image Chest is not to be used to host image libaries you link to from elsewhere, content for your own site, advertising, avatars, or any other situation in which you utilize Image Chest as your own content delivery network.

catbox.moe specifically states no hotlinking and that you can get banned for doing so, but YMMV so.. I know a lot of people use it.

Finally, there's Lensdump.com which everyone went to until they locked it down and started asking for money. I didn't sneak in for free since their terms left me with questions.

for better or worse, if you want to post images on ell, you should probably be using the wiki to host them or expect them to vanish now and then.
yes: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/discord-will-switch-to-temporary-file-links-to-block-malware-delivery/

I read the article, but I am not seeing a link or direct statement from Discord on the site. I went to Discord support and couldnt find anything related to this article in the works. I am guessing that this is a future plan but has yet to be implemented? I would think that something like this would be on Discords website but I am not finding it for some reason. Any help would be appreciated. 
DD

[Aethyrium]

The article on Bleeping Computer was their public statement.

However you can find their full announcement on the discord developer discord server. But I'll put it up here for you. It was originally announced on 9.29.23

🔐 New Authenticated Attachment URL Parameters
To improve security of Discord's CDN, attachment CDN URLs have 3 new URL parameters: ex, is, and hm. Once authentication enforcement begins later this year, links with a given signature (hm) will remain valid until the expiration timestamp (ex).

 ⚠️ Attachment CDN URLs have already started following the new pattern, so your app will begin to encounter the new parameters in attachment CDN links, but authentication is not being enforced until later this year. More details about when authentication will start to be enforced will be shared in the upcoming weeks.

Details about authentication parameters
ex: timestamp indicating when the attachment URL will expire, after which point you'd need to retrieve another URL (by doing something like retrieving a message via HTTP). More details to come about the length of time this will be by default.
is: timestamp indicating when the URL was issued
hm: unique signature that remains valid until ex.

Handling authentication parameters
When links expire
To access the attachment CDN link after the link expires, your app will need to fetch a new CDN URL. The API will automatically return valid, non-expired URLs when you access resources that contain an attachment CDN URL, like when retrieving a message.

The client behavior is not changing and will refresh posted URLs to be automatically valid, so your app doesn't need to worry about refreshing URLs itself if the link was valid at the time of posting.

In messages your app sends
The behavior in the client will remain the same. Links posted in the client will be automatically updated if the link was valid at the time of posting, so you don't need to update your message's content when it includes an attachment CDN link (in cases like apps reposting images using CDN links).

If your app needs access to the content
If your app requires access the content from an attachment CDN link, you should fetch the contents from the valid CDN link and upload them to a secure, independent host that your app maintains access to.

And had this follow-up made on 11.1.23.

Hey all—I wanted to follow-up about the authenticated attachment URL parameters change to clarify some areas of confusion. If you haven't seen 🔗 the original announcement, you should read that first.

As an overarching note, the goal of this change is for there to be little-to-no impact to users and apps that are sharing non-expired links within the Discord client. Most impact will be with expired attachment CDN links and links shared outside of the client. There may be edge cases that we will monitor during and after the rollout of the change.

When will the change go out?
The URL parameter change will be a gradual rollout that may adjust based on identified user impact. The earliest the rollout will begin no earlier than December 15. As the change is rolling out, we will be monitoring developer and end-user impact to ensure that the client experience is not breaking in unintended ways.

How will link refreshing work?
Link refreshing happens behind-the-scenes. Events (like MESSAGE_UPDATE) will not be sent out when a link is updated within the client, so apps will not need to adjust for an increase or decrease in receiving any events based on this change.

Can I use attachment CDN links in API fields?
Some fields, like avatar_url for webhooks and url for embed images, have CDN links passed as values. We intend to maintain current support of passing non-expired CDN links in these and similar fields. After a non-expired CDN link is passed, it will be automatically refreshed since the images appear in the Discord client.

This is not a future plan, enforcement and implementation of this change has long been in motion at this point. Hope this helps!

[Dragoondawg25]

The article on Bleeping Computer was their public statement.

However you can find their full announcement on the discord developer discord server. But I'll put it up here for you. It was originally announced on 9.29.23

And had this follow-up made on 11.1.23.

This is not a future plan, enforcement and implementation of this change has long been in motion at this point. Hope this helps!

This helps a lot actually. I appreciate the information. Thank you for sharing. 
DD