The above image is all us folks in the UK see when you do, and if we try to use a VPN + incognito, we get this:
403 means forbidden, so the message is disingenuous.
They must have put some effort into block lists for VPN servers. Even if it works for some of us, it’s not worth it.
For more information on this, see this article: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzxv5gy3qo
Imgur has been shitty for years at this point. They kept fucking with the UI when all I wanted to do was upload images and share the link. They should have stayed in their lane, not try to reinvent their platform as social media. Then their wholesale blocking of VPN traffic? Tired of that nonsense. I use imgbb now.
And it’s not just known IPs from commercial providers. I rolled my own OpenVPN server on a Digital Ocean droplet. BLOCKED.
They kicked me to the new layout which I abhor, rather not use the site at all. Took me 10-minutes to find the non-obvious place they hid the option to roll it back.
I will say I don’t like the direction imgur went, but to play devil’s advocate, I don’t think there was any way around it.
The problem is that being an image host used by millions of users is incredibly expensive, and between needing to pay for the infrastructure, content moderators, and (in this case) regulatory compliance, it all adds up.
The only income model they have is ads, which is why they needed to re-tool the UI to hinder users’ ability to direct share images, and converting it to a more social media type of format keeps users on the site so they can cycle in more ads for more revenue.
An ideal internet would not need to rely on ad money to work, but I’m struggling to think of what else could be done at the scale imgur operates, as donation models can barely even keep Lemmy instances above water. If ad money wasn’t a thing, would sites like imgur be able to exist? Maybe they shouldn’t, I don’t know.
Always wondered how Imgur stayed afloat in the first place. As to people whining about ads, yeah I block everything I can, but I’m not about to bitch about Imgur providing me a free service and sending ads.
Like you, I don’t see a way around it. Sites like Imgur have to be provided by private enterprise, and that requires funding. Can’t see how a subscription model works, people simply wouldn’t pay.
God forbid the government fund any of it. Look how the Brit and American politicians are fucking up sites that aren’t even government! And don’t start me on what American government sites are deleting and displaying.