Remotely hosted Images peeve!

[PlainName]

That's not what I would have described as a throwaway image, although thinking about it that probably does describe it   

[Jeroen3]

FYI, I can install any mod that is compatible with our forum version

https://custom.simplemachines.org/index.php?action=mods

I found nothing that can support natively copy paste image in a reply.
SMF sucks, and it is a pain to use this forum in 2026, compared to others.

Long term we need to switch, I would start the planning and when the stars are aligned jump off the SMF Titanic.

What alternative would you suggest? I know a large tech platform in the Netherlands made their own. (tweakers.net)
The issue with a migration is that you need to migrate and you lose all links people made to here.

Maybe today with AI-help someone smart enough could write a wysiwig editor for SMF that does what you want?
(i know atlassian has editors like this, but is isn't perfect either)

[PlainName]

Whatever system is used, there will be complaints about something. Nothing is perfect. So the issue isn't that there is some feature lacking or not working as expected, but whether having that be better (possibly still not perfect) justifies breaking something else or making a larger annoyance.

Would drag'n'drop images, for instance, justify endless scrolling? I guess, if you can't stomach temporarily saving an image to disk (RAM disk here, but I realise that's too expensive for many now  ) and post an image in every comment then it probably would. Or once in a blue moon you want to paste some random image off t'web and that brings the lack of pasting to the fore of your consciousness. But the downside - endless scroll in this case - doesn't seem bad because you don't experience it.

SMF sucks, and it is a pain to use this forum in 2026, compared to others

The thing SMF lacks, which not many others implement either, is proper threading. Not having to quote every damn previous post, so the reader knows wtf you're commenting to, is bloody fantastic and natural[¹]. But that's old fashioned and the 2026 thing isn't pasting images but posting video clips. Doing stuff because that's the want du jour isn't always better.

---
[1] With proper threading the major beef isn't that posters don't quote previous comments, but that they do quote previous comments. Just as many whining about excessive quotes on those systems as those whining about lack of quotes on here.

[Ranayna]

[...]
Would drag'n'drop images, for instance, justify endless scrolling?[...]

Nothing justifies endless scrolling. *Nothing*
Its a blight on the internet.
Its shit on a technical level, its shit for usability, its shit on a psycologial level.

But you do not need to throw out the baby with the bathwater There are still forums out there with easy image upload and proper pagination.

I get that people here are resistant to change. I am as well. And i am totally aware that migration will not be an easy thing to do.
But maybe SMF 3.0 will bring something new for image uploads.

[EEVblog]

But maybe SMF 3.0 will bring something new for image uploads.

I thought SMF development was pretty much dead?

[Ranayna]

But maybe SMF 3.0 will bring something new for image uploads.

I thought SMF development was pretty much dead?

Apparently not. There is a thread on the SMF Forum from just a couple of weeks ago, that "development is on track":
https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=594037.0

I thought it was quite dead as well.

[Jeroen3]

What you should avoid is getting into a Verschlimmbesserung scenerio.

This forum now loads very snappy. Making it better modern will pull in hundreds of javascript libraries with frameworks. More feature is not always better.

_{*attempted improvement that makes things worse}

[EEVblog]

What you should avoid is getting into a Verschlimmbesserung scenerio.
This forum now loads very snappy. Making it better modern will pull in hundreds of javascript libraries with frameworks. More feature is not always better.
_{*attempted improvement that makes things worse}

gnif has spent years tweaking the servers for optimum performance, even writing some custom plugins. It's super slick.
If v3 if ever released, we can try it and see. 2.1.7 was apparently relased 30 days ago, but we have deliberately stuck with 2.0.19 for the "better the devil you know" reason. I think the 2.1 releases have issues and they changed a lot, which is why there are two official stable release 2.0.x and 2.1.x
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Machines_Forum

[EEVblog]

I asked Grok what the changes were from 2.0.x vs 2.1x:
It does have improved drag and drop file

SMF (Simple Machines Forum) 2.1.x represents a major update over 2.0.x, with extensive changes in features, security, performance, and underlying architecture. It was officially released in February 2022 and is now the recommended stable version (2.0.x only receives security patches). The upgrade is not trivial—many 2.0 themes and mods are incompatible (it's often described as a "hard fork" in terms of theming), so you'll likely need updated versions or new themes.
Here's a breakdown of the major changes:
New User-Facing Features

SCEditor — A modern WYSIWYG (rich text) editor replacing the older one.
HTML5 drag-and-drop attachments — Easier uploading, with support for embedding attachments directly in post text.
Drafts — Save posts or personal messages as drafts and resume them later.
Likes — Users can like posts.
Mentions — Use @username to mention others (triggers notifications).
Real-time alerts — In addition to email notifications, for likes, mentions, PMs, etc. (with options like "Not Following", alerts only, or alerts + email for topics).
Responsive default theme (Curve2) — Full mobile/tablet support and modern look (old themes like Babylon, Classic, and Core are removed on upgrade).
Improved calendar — Proper event times and time zones.
Time zone selection — Native support (no more manual hourly offsets).
Google reCAPTCHA v2 support.
Topic previews — Hover over a subject on the message index to see a preview.
Ignore/disregard topics — Hide them from unread lists.
Other niceties: Personal messages are now auto-saved to the sent folder, better XML feeds, and iCal calendar export.

[BradC]

I asked Grok what the changes were from 2.0.x vs 2.1x:
It does have improved drag and drop file

Yay, so people with no idea can snap quick photos and pollute the forum with more twaddle.

At 52 I know I'm a dinosaur, but having to actually put some thought into what you're uploading seems to keep most of the bookface crap off the forum. People have to think about what they're about to post rather than farting a thought-bubble.

The "internet" was more valuable pre-AOL. Don't degrade it by making it easier for twonks to post crap. The thought barrier of having to actually use a neuron or two to compose a post is probably keeping the algae out of the pool.

Sorry, not sorry.

[Zucca]

For those who having performance issue with loading images,
I suggest the Lynx browser
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_(web_browser)
or similar

[tooki]

For those who having performance issue with loading images,
I suggest the Lynx browser
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_(web_browser)
or similar

I don’t think anyone here said anything about performance with images. The original topic of this thread is image files disappearing due to being externally hosted.

[tooki]

Not sure how this would be possible without pissing off a lot of users.
Personally I post quite a lot of embedded image links all the time for convenience.
If I know it's needs to be properly archived then I'll attach it, but otherwise I use the most convenient option at the time.

The question is “piss off a few people now” vs “piss off everyone in the future when key images and files in a post go missing”. I think the first option is better for the long-term health of the forums.


Oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask: any chance the attachment filetypes could be amended to include webp? (More and more, I run into the situation where I download an image from a website, certain that the URL is that of a JPG or PNG, only to find the server has silently delivered the webp instead, since they use browser detection to serve the more efficient webp instead.) Like it or not, webp is becoming widespread, so it makes sense to support it now that browser support is effectively universal.

@EEVblog did you see the second paragraph there about webp image support? Would you consider adding that? Thanks!