NationStates

Starting now, images can only be embedded in posts if they live on a common image hosting platform.

This is a brutal kludge required to address an active security issue in the old forum software. It does, unfortunately, make it an incredible pain to edit old posts with images hosted elsewhere.

Approved image whitelists:

• imgur
• imgbb
• postimage
• cubeupload
• flickr
• imageshack
• photobucket
• deviantart
• wikipedia
• facebook
• twitter
• pinterest
• tumblr
• vk
• github
• dropbox
• nationstates.net
• bbc news
• reddit

Please report any problems with the above, or requests for extra image hosts.

When requesting an image host, please include an example of the image you want to include. So not just the name of the website that hosts the image, but an actual image. The same goes for if your image is not working.

Example:

Code: Select all

https://ichef.bbc.co.uk/wwhp/624/cpsprodpb/45A1/production/_119552871_mediaitem119552870.jpg

Update (April 2022): At this point, the whitelist is pretty comprehensive, and we won't be adding more sites unless there are major image hosts we've overlooked.

please add discord, imgflip, twitter, and wikipedia as approved images hosts
I've seen them used at least a couple times each

Thank you for including postimage, my image host of choice, on the whitelist. I petition for this thread to be made a permanent global announcement.

Does this explain the hours-long forum crash that happened on Thursday evening (BST)?

Dodgers Game Updates wrote:please add discord,

Discord has been blacklisted for a while.

Dodgers Game Updates wrote:wikipedia

There is a recent thread about problems from them, possibly based on new rules about image sizes on that site.

Dodgers Game Updates wrote:twitter

Really? Do we need to open that can of worms?

please add discord, imgflip, twitter, and wikipedia as approved images hosts

Use /url

Tinhampton wrote:Does this explain the hours-long forum crash that happened on Thursday evening (BST)?

Yes, it's related. Normally we hide server IP addresses so that people can't pay $45 for a botnet to come DDoS us, but there's a couple of vulnerabilities in the old forum server that can expose it.

Would tumblr be okay? I host all of my pictures on my tumblr.

I'd like to request allowing images hosted via cubeupload, as that website is my image hosting site of choice.

@violet I would thus, politely request, and greatly appreciate it - if the image-hosting site Pinterest is also added to the approved list. Not only for me but for many others who use the aforementioned site to source a majority of their images, be it for factbooks or post-related material like news articles and application forms.

Does this only apply to forum posts or factbooks too? It seems a few images from my factbooks aren’t showing up now

Edit: Nevermind, seems to have been a temporary thing on my end

Would it be possible to add Deviant Art? I like posting my drawings there for both NS use and general sharing.

What about some users/regions who self-host their images? For instances, we in TNP have all our image repository in the regional domain, and these images can no longer be embedded following these change. Would it be possible for such users/regions to apply for a whitelist too?

Added:

• cubeupload
• deviantart
• pinterest
• tumblr

If you have problems despite using one of the whitelisted hosts, first make sure the post doesn't contain ANY images from a non-whitelisted host. Then report the exact URL you are trying to link, i.e. what you're putting between the [ img ] tags.

PotatoFarmers wrote:What about some users/regions who self-host their images? For instances, we in TNP have all our image repository in the regional domain, and these images can no longer be embedded following these change. Would it be possible for such users/regions to apply for a whitelist too?

Unfortunately no, as we need to enforce a separation between the people uploading the images and the people hosting the images.

[violet] wrote:Added:

• cubeupload
• deviantart
• pinterest
• tumblr

If you have problems despite using one of the whitelisted hosts, first make sure the post doesn't contain ANY images from a non-whitelisted host. Then report the exact URL you are trying to link, i.e. what you're putting between the [ img ] tags.

Thanks.

[violet] wrote:Starting now, images can only be embedded in posts if they live on a common image hosting platform.

This is a brutal kludge required to address an active security issue in the old forum software. It does, unfortunately, make it an incredible pain to edit old posts with images hosted elsewhere.

Approved image whitelists:

• imgur
• imgbb
• postimage
• cubeupload
• flickr
• imageshack
• photobucket
• deviantart
• tumblr

Please report any problems with the above, or requests for extra image hosts.

Okay, I have some questions that I want answered. My first question is, will this stop any future pornspammers from shutting down the forums? This is because, as many have unwillingly witnessed, many pornspammers use images or gifs repeatedly on multiple accounts (sometimes bots), which manage to shut down the forums for a while. My second question is, as I was trying to view the forums during the maintenance period from my phone, I noticed that my IP kept on changing, putting me in Florida or Brazil most of the time on the site's error screen. Is this explainable?

Would it be possible to allow images on IIwiki to be linked here?

Southeast Marajarbia wrote:Okay, I have some questions that I want answered. My first question is, will this stop any future pornspammers from shutting down the forums? This is because, as many have unwillingly witnessed, many pornspammers use images or gifs repeatedly on multiple accounts (sometimes bots), which manage to shut down the forums for a while. My second question is, as I was trying to view the forums during the maintenance period from my phone, I noticed that my IP kept on changing, putting me in Florida or Brazil most of the time on the site's error screen. Is this explainable?

These questions are unrelated to the issue at hand, but the answers are no and global CDNs.

[violet] wrote:

Southeast Marajarbia wrote:Okay, I have some questions that I want answered. My first question is, will this stop any future pornspammers from shutting down the forums? This is because, as many have unwillingly witnessed, many pornspammers use images or gifs repeatedly on multiple accounts (sometimes bots), which manage to shut down the forums for a while. My second question is, as I was trying to view the forums during the maintenance period from my phone, I noticed that my IP kept on changing, putting me in Florida or Brazil most of the time on the site's error screen. Is this explainable?

These questions are unrelated to the issue at hand, but the answers are no and global CDNs.

Thanks, violet.

Luziyca wrote:Would it be possible to allow images on IIwiki to be linked here?

No, sorry, as that is a player-controlled server. But I have added Wikipedia.

[violet] wrote:

Luziyca wrote:Would it be possible to allow images on IIwiki to be linked here?

No, sorry, as that is a player-controlled server. But I have added Wikipedia.

Thanks anyway.

Should we also add Twitter here? I am having also issued editing my posts with Twitter images.

Added Facebook & Twitter.

[violet] wrote:Added:

• cubeupload
• deviantart
• pinterest
• tumblr

If you have problems despite using one of the whitelisted hosts, first make sure the post doesn't contain ANY images from a non-whitelisted host. Then report the exact URL you are trying to link, i.e. what you're putting between the [ img ] tags.

Gracias for adding cubeupload.

[violet] wrote:Added Facebook & Twitter.

Thanks, but in addition to my suggestion, should more be at look out of NSFW Images that was originated from twitter? Twitter Sometimes allowed porn and it might be used by Pornspammers, but we need to whitelist it, and that concern might be Solved by Mods Monitoring any Images from Twitter if they're Possibly NSFW or not.