Topic: AGS Image Host?

[Gurok]

I'd like to improve the image hosting situation for myself and the AGS community. We have a variety of image hosts we use like Imgur and Photobucket, but anything free that's out there seems to come with a catch or annoying "features".

I currently use Imgur. I'm perhaps feeling a little more motivated because Imgur's drag and drop broke sometime last year for me and it doesn't look like they're planning to fix it. There's also the matter of Imgur's images being a bit too ephemeral for my liking. Imgur discards images that aren't accessed regularly and this breaks some older forum posts.

I've looked into the costs of running such a server and it doesn't seem all that prohibitive. I think I'd be willing to pay for this even if it were just for me.

I can purchase ags.pics for a nominal amount (22 EUR / year) via eurodns.com
There's a script called Chevereto that I could run on a dedicated host: https://chevereto.com/pricing
It doesn't seem all that expensive to purchase a licence either
Dedicated hosting ranges in price, starting at about ~$2/mo
I thought about running it from home, but I wouldn't have the bandwidth.

I don't want to donate time to this, just a little cash to set it up and hopefully have it run itself.

I was thinking of opening it up to AGS users on an invitation basis to begin with. At a later date, I might set up some sort of cookie-based authentication to allow signups for logged in members.
I would be fine with people using it for any purpose, not just AGS.

Would you use an image host like this if it existed?

[Slasher]

Would you use an image host like this if it existed?

Yes, I would. A yearly donation would be acceptable to assist costs.

[Cassiebsg]

I would use it, but can't contribute financially as I just got "free from a job".
Maybe when I get a new one, hopefully paying better than the one I had.

[ManicMatt]

I have been using imgur as well, because Photoshop has become an unusable spam attacking hell hole.

[tzachs]

Cool initiative!
I'll probably use it if it's as convenient as imgur.
One concern, though, that if you run it on your server and it blows up or something, you'll need to take care of running backups. Did you consider hosting it in the cloud so you won't need to worry about this?

Also, a free and open source alternative to Chevereto that you might want to check out: Pictshare.

[Tabata]

I have an imgur account, too. Nonetheless I more often use directupload for images because it's easy to use and organise for me and ... it's free, too They call themself the fastest host in the www and store pics without them being deleted after some time (if you have a free account).
btw.
My smiley-treasures are hidden there, too Here's to be found some more info for those interested.

For all other kind of files to store or share (like savegames, documents, zip-files,  ...  even backups of some of my games) I have an account (free up to a storage for 57 GB!) at mediafire.com. Just saw a savegame for an AGS game I placed there to share it in one of our help threats in 2011 (and it still seems to work)

[Snarky]

I own the adventuregamestudio.net domain, and am not using it for anything else, in case you want to save on DNS costs.

[Peder 🚀]

Following Snarky, if you like the ring of agser.me more and can think of a neat subdomain to use for a project like this, that could be sorted

Does imgur really remove images? (I did not know, and haven't noticed for the years I've used it)

[Stupot]

Nice idea. I’ve not had a many problems with Imgur but it does feel like somewhere you would just dump memes and jokes that you don’t expect to have any use for beyond the few days or so that anyone’s going to see it.

[Gurok]

Yes, I would. A yearly donation would be acceptable to assist costs.

No need to donate, but that was a lovely gesture.

Cool initiative!
I'll probably use it if it's as convenient as imgur.
One concern, though, that if you run it on your server and it blows up or something, you'll need to take care of running backups. Did you consider hosting it in the cloud so you won't need to worry about this?

Umm... I don't know what you mean by this. I'm already looking at dedicated hosting.

Also, a free and open source alternative to Chevereto that you might want to check out: Pictshare.

Chevereto is also free (as in beer) and open source. Their commercial offering includes support and more frequent updates.

--

Regarding alternative domains, I appreciate the offers. I'm going to go with ags.pics anyway. One of my goals is to have short URLs for images. Admittedly, we could go with something like "i.agser.me/abcdef.png", but "ags.pics/abcdef.png" is just so much clearer and two characters shorter.

The mains thing are, there's been no vehement opposition and I don't seem to be stepping on anyone's toes.

That 22 EUR price for ags.pics was either false or a pricing error. I've determined costs for the entire project and it looks like it'll come to about $250 AUD/year. I'm going to look into it further after work tonight.

[tzachs]

Umm... I don't know what you mean by this. I'm already looking at dedicated hosting.

Ah, sorry, I missed the "but I wouldn't have the bandwidth" part.

Chevereto is also free (as in beer) and open source. Their commercial offering includes support and more frequent updates.

Ah, ok, I saw that you linked to their pricing page, so I assumed you intend to use the paid version.

[Gurok]

Ah, ok, I saw that you linked to their pricing page, so I assumed you intend to use the paid version.

Well, I very well might. It's a trade-off between time and money. I'm looking at the hosting plans that include it and they don't seem that prohibitive.
I thought you were just concerned from a code-maintenance perspective if the author ever goes away.

[abstauber]

2dadventure.com
shutupload
agser.me

...and probably a few more member hosted platforms came and went. The only thing that would make sense in my eyes is to support direct image uploading in the forums. But that would cause even more traffic and generate costs for AGA and so on.

[Snarky]

I live by the mantra: if it's not on your hard drive, assume it'll disappear sooner or later.

Regardless of whether it's hosted on the AGS server, some AGSer's hosting platform, or some generic service like imageshack or imgur, if you want to have access to it in perpetuity you need to download it onto your own machine.

[selmiak]

It is a nice idea but what worries me is this...

...and probably a few more member hosted platforms came and went. The only thing that would make sense in my eyes is to support direct image uploading in the forums. But that would cause even more traffic and generate costs for AGA and so on.

[Cassiebsg]

Yup... always have it on my HD, but leaving "broken" posts everywhere is the annoying part.

[Peder 🚀]

It is a nice idea but what worries me is this...

...and probably a few more member hosted platforms came and went.

I don't think it should worry you, taking AGSer.me as an example, it was hardly used except for a few couple individuals.
Biggest reason for me to close it was due to not wanting to deal with security issues (wordpress installs not being updated etc), and also it wasn't automated enough (required too much work from me to get an account setup)

[AnasAbdin]

I'm in for anything to improve AGS and the forums as well.
I want to contribute in every possible way as well

[AGA]

The only thing that would make sense in my eyes is to support direct image uploading in the forums. But that would cause even more traffic and generate costs for AGA and so on.

I can do that.  Bandwidth isn't really an issue.

It would make a lot more sense for images to be hosted here, where basically they'd stay until AGS is no longer a thing...

That 22 EUR price for ags.pics was either false or a pricing error. I've determined costs for the entire project and it looks like it'll come to about $250 AUD/year. I'm going to look into it further after work tonight.

Hosting doesn't cost that much...  You can do it for under a hundred easily.

Regarding alternative domains, I appreciate the offers. I'm going to go with ags.pics anyway. One of my goals is to have short URLs for images. Admittedly, we could go with something like "i.agser.me/abcdef.png", but "ags.pics/abcdef.png" is just so much clearer and two characters shorter.

I'm curious why you think the length of the URL actually matters?  It's not like you need a short URL because it's going to be part of an advertising campaign or something.  If you're posting inline images on a forum no one really needs to ever see the image's URL...  Just because Imgur does it, doesn't mean it's necessary in this use case.

[Cassiebsg]

I asked Gurok that same question (the quote is from Gurok, not abstauber) and he mentioned the character limit for the signature...