Images Blocked

[Christa]

Welcome Merlin, good luck finding what you want to see and how big are your display shelves?

[mozart]

1 hour ago, Merlin1000 said:

Firstly thank you for the great welcome, secondly, the response to my problem,  you all explained the issue so very eloquently, in essence I refuse to pay for the use of a VPN, however I will check out the free sites for hosting images of my model as I progress with it.

Cheers everyone.

I pay a small amount monthly for my Imageshack hosting but from memory there is also a free but limited “subscription”. 

[geedubelyer]

1 hour ago, Merlin1000 said:

I refuse to pay for the use of a VPN,

 

The web browser Opera provides a free VPN. 

I downloaded it and use it occasionally to view threads on here if members choose Imgur as their hosts. 

 

Might be worth considering if you desire to see anything from Imgur. 

 

If you are planning on sharing your builds here I hope you choose an image host unaffected by local legislation. 

 

Cheers,

Guy

[Hubert Boillot]

Since the Photobucket debacle, I spend annually the price of a 1/32 kit to host my photos on SmugMug. And they are not only modeling ones. I store there thousands of pics. Never again will I rely on a so-called « free » image-hosting service : forewarned is forearmed, as the saying goes …

Funnily enough, I still get monthly reminders by PB that my pics there are still accessible, should I want to subscribe to their service … Talk about insisting on not understanding customers 🥴 …

Hubert

[MikeC]

15 hours ago, Kagemusha said:

 

True, but banned is shorter!

And spreads misinformation!

[mattlow]

Merlin

 

I am, and have for many years, used Flickr's free option. This allows you to put up 1000 images free of charge. I don't think that has changed. Of course, any hosting service can change (i.e. introduce charges, increase existing charges). You can mitigate against such events by making sure you have copies of all your images stored elsewhere... (external HDD, pen drive etc - storage is cheap these days), don't become a hostage to fortune.

 

VPNs have become far more available and mainstream. I have one called Proton. It has a free plan. Free usually means less choice of and slower servers... an issue if you use VPN all the time, but I literally switch it on when the dreaded purple box comes up - Imgur image! Not sure if Proton is available to all OSs, I am a Linux user now... But there are many out there. Going for one with decent reviews is a good idea.

 

Matt

[RCPlym]

16 hours ago, quang said:

I didn’t say it was illegal to use a VPN. I said ‘transgress the laws’ (bypassing the rule) by using a VPN. Now back to the SF 🙂

 

There is no actual law preventing image hosts actually displaying images in the UK.

 

The legislation only requires image hosts to employ some kind of age verification system, that is all. There is no law imposed on the viewer.

 

As certain image hosting at forms do not want to incorporate age verification, as it requires them to hold sensitive information such as credit card numbers etc., they completely comply with the relevant legislation by denying the use of any UK geolocated web IP address from accessing their content.

 

Using a VPN is not in any way shape or form circumventing anything, as using one is outside of the scope of legislation.

Until such legislation imposes a ban on the use of VPN's, no rules/laws have been circumvented.

 

I really hope this clarifies use of VPN's with regard to UK viewers.

 

Time this got put to bed.

[MikeC]

3 hours ago, RCPlym said:

 

There is no actual law preventing image hosts actually displaying images in the UK.

 

The legislation only requires image hosts to employ some kind of age verification system, that is all. There is no law imposed on the viewer.

 

As certain image hosting at forms do not want to incorporate age verification, as it requires them to hold sensitive information such as credit card numbers etc., they completely comply with the relevant legislation by denying the use of any UK geolocated web IP address from accessing their content.

 

Using a VPN is not in any way shape or form circumventing anything, as using one is outside of the scope of legislation.

Until such legislation imposes a ban on the use of VPN's, no rules/laws have been circumvented.

 

I really hope this clarifies use of VPN's with regard to UK viewers.

 

Time this got put to bed.

Very well put, that's my understanding also.

As there seems to be so many misperceptions on this, would it be worth having the above post pinned somewhere?

[Shoggz]

7 hours ago, geedubelyer said:

 

The web browser Opera provides a free VPN. 

I downloaded it and use it occasionally to view threads on here if members choose Imgur as their hosts. 

 

Might be worth considering if you desire to see anything from Imgur. 

 

If you are planning on sharing your builds here I hope you choose an image host unaffected by local legislation. 

 

Cheers,

Guy

 

Exactly what I do.. 🙂 

[RCPlym]

58 minutes ago, MikeC said:

Very well put, that's my understanding also.

As there seems to be so many misperceptions on this, would it be worth having the above post pinned somewhere?

 

It is right old can of worms to be honest - and let's face it, any explicit bans will always find those that can very quickly find ways to get around them. 

I do get the reasoning behind age verification requirements, but there are just too many ways round it for it ever to be effective. Nature of the interweb!

Edited July 5 by RCPlym

[LSP_K2]

11 hours ago, Hubert Boillot said:

Since the Photobucket debacle, I spend annually the price of a 1/32 kit to host my photos on SmugMug. And they are not only modeling ones. I store there thousands of pics. Never again will I rely on a so-called « free » image-hosting service : forewarned is forearmed, as the saying goes …

Funnily enough, I still get monthly reminders by PB that my pics there are still accessible, should I want to subscribe to their service … Talk about insisting on not understanding customers 🥴 …

Hubert

 

Yea, I got the same silly emails too, like I wanted to download all my images with their stupid watermarks splattered across all of them.