Imgur screenshots are now blocked in UK

[chip33]

As mentioned by @Darthagnon in #259, Imgur is now blocked in the UK.

In Windhawk this results in a placeholder where mod screenshots should be:

Imgur’s own notice suggests this block is permanent or at least indefinite: Imgur access in the United Kingdom.

Since many mods use Imgur for screenshots, I’m wondering whether this is something UK users will have to live with, or if Windhawk could implement a workaround.

Asking mod authors to manually redo all their Imgur links would be a lot to ask. One possible idea would be to scan mods at PR time, automatically mirror any Imgur screenshots to GitHub (or other host), and update the readme to reference the mirrored copies.

I just wanted to raise the issue and hear thoughts from others.

[bbmaster123]

@chip33
@m417z
hey! hope you're well :)

wow, just wow. I cannot believe I'm hearing this (although I also kind of can, sadly). Lots to say on this topic but keeping on windhawk, not only the images on mod's description page would be affected, but also several styler themes as well, where resources such as start button for example, are stored online.

I was thinking GitHub could be a good option as well although I'm not sure how to mirror all those images without manually reuploading each one and updating the link, one by one.

thanks for bringing this up, next time my lil brother calls from London asking why images aren't loading I'll have an answer!

[m417z]

Yeah, that Imgur situation is unfortunate. Images are already backed up here:
https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk-mods/tree/pages/images
And I plan on making all images loaded from GitHub. I'm not sure how difficult it's going to be, and for Windhawk, it'll obviously require a new version. The website might get an update sooner.

[chip33]

yes, thanks for the reply, it is unfortunate :)

[Darthagnon]

Couldn't we load the images locally from our own machines? I'm finding online usage a major pain point with using Windhawk

[bbmaster123]

@Darthagnon
yes, we can do that, just need to change the url to a local file path. Localhost also works if you wanted to host the images on your own local server for whatever reason

[m417z]

The website (https://windhawk.net/) was updated to use GitHub at all times. Windhawk will do the same in the next version.

[m417z]

Done in version 1.7.