Embedded images in journal posts broken only for some users

Bug Reports
1

Platform (Android, iOS, Website): Website

Browser, if a website issue (Firefox, Chrome, etc): Apparently broken in Chrome, Brave, Firefox and Edge (but also working in Chrome for some)

URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages: https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/82424-guide-to-non-yellow-flowering-oxalis-in-australia

Description of problem (please provide a set of steps we can use to replicate the issue, and make as many as you need.):

Step 1: Today, I had someone comment on one of my journal posts, https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/82424-guide-to-non-yellow-flowering-oxalis-in-australia, that all of the images are now broken for them.

Step 2: This has been an issue I’ve encountered in the past, and so too have a number of other users (eg https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/photo-links-changed/25705). But in those previous cases, the images were always also broken for me. In this instance, the images are still there and look totally fine to me.

Step 3: In total, 8 people have weighed in now on this journal post: 2 (myself and another) still see the images. The two of us have tested Brave, Edge, Chrome and Opera, and both logged in and logged out, no issues for either of us. The 6 others have variously tried Brave, Edge, Chrome and Firefox and the images are broken. So clearly not browser-related

The way that I embed these images is that I send them in personal messages to myself on the forum here, then I right click and select ‘copy image address’. So an example link to one of the images that I can see but others can’t right now is:
https://global.discourse-cdn.com/business6/uploads/inaturalist/optimized/3X/5/9/59c392b6803c0bccac696f7832daedf592497b88_2_1035x732.jpeg

Returning to that image in my personal messages, if I right click it right now and copy image address again, the link has slightly changed:
https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/optimized/3X/5/9/59c392b6803c0bccac696f7832daedf592497b88_2_1035x732.jpeg

The two links are identical, except for one small segment: it’s changed from .com/business6 to .com/flex016.

I checked all of my other journal posts, and the images in every single one were also fine for me except for a single image, the second one, at https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/thebeachcomber/94709-diopatra-along-the-eastern-australian-coast; that one showed as the broken ? mark icon. So I went back to my personal messages and copied the image address again (and once again, the only difference between the two was that small text segment), and edited the journal post.

When I asked the others if my other journal post images were also broken for them, they said that Diopatra example had images 1 and 3 broken (ie the ones I didn’t update), but image 2 worked for them (the only one I updated)

  1. Why has the URL for each of these images changed since I last copied them?
  2. Why can I still see the images ok? And in fact why can someone else in a totally different part of Australia with different IP address, device etc also see them ok? I’d have though it would either be a) broken for everyone, or b) broken for everyone except me.
  3. Why was only that single image in one post broken for myself when the URL change was identical to all the others?
  4. Do I have to assume that I cannot use this method of hosting images anymore, because the addresses could just change at any time without warning?
2

Using Chrome from South Africa, I see no images on your Oxalis post.

3

I can see all of the images, but maybe something has changed between when you posted this and now?

4

I haven’t changed anything

5

I see no images. I would guess that discourse may change their link formatting/site architecture at times. This, for instance, is one of the issues with all the NatureServe links on statuses going bad from time to time.

Discourse may also have changed the way that they process these so that other users cannot access them. It’s kind of a security vulnerability if you think about it (someone who has an image address being able to access a pic in someone else’s message). They also probably don’t want to be running an unofficial image hosting service. So I’d probably find a different solution for adding images.

6

i think folks using iNatForum as a generic image host has never really been an intended use. to the extent that folks use it this way, they would be subject to the whims of the iNatForum setup, which could change at any time for any reason without notice.

iNatForum probably uses CDN caching for static assets. so probably your images in the old location are still cached in your particular node of the content delivery network. but the cache gets cleared at some point. so even for folks in your same node, the images from the old location probably won’t work for long.

i would guess there’s not a bug here. i suspect it’s just the potential consequences of unsanctioned usage catching up with you.

7

I normally use inaturalist.ala.org.au and the images don’t work but just tried www.inaturalist.org and it DOES work, so it’s a domain origin issue on the server.

1 Like
8

latest batch of comments:

image
image954×545 95.5 KB

doesn’t seem totally straightforward to me?

9

I can’t see any of the images in the first article, and only the second one in the last link. Using inaturalist.org in the US, if that matters for connection to wherever these are hosted.

10

I think i understand the broad brushstrokes of pisum’s explanation. But “consequences of unsanctioned usage catching up with you” is a little harsh! This isn’t hotlink abuse / hosting porn on the inat servers. It’s basically the best possible use of these images you could imagine. And if direct linking the images causes problems there needs to be a way (shortcodes maybe) to allow this use case.

11

It’s up to Discourse, this forum is hosted on their servers and I suspect they don’t want to host images for use outside the fora they support.

3 Likes
12

I could be wrong but I imagine the journal posts are a separate system, not hosted by Discourse

13

for @heehaw

14

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