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Lemmy's Image Problem (wedistribute.org)
submitted 7 months ago by hedge@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
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[-] GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 54 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Another issue is that image storage is a huge resource burden, to the point where instance admins will simply purge images periodically to keep their database at a reasonable size. It seems like every time I look at Lemmy posts older than a couple months, the images are broken.

I'm not convinced image support should be built into Lemmy in the first place. Back on Reddit, people relied on external image hosts like imgur for many years, and those worked a lot better than the image system Reddit eventually built in (which is covered in wall-to-wall anti-features like the inability to load a goddamn image directly).

[-] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 7 months ago

We saw what happend with that when imgur and a gif hoster (forgot the name) decided that the free loaders are occupying too much space.

Suddenly the archival troops backed several TBs from imgur.

[-] GammaGames@beehaw.org 12 points 7 months ago

gfycat

[-] GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 7 months ago

Yeah, that was certainly not ideal. This is a problem with centralization more than it is with integration. I'd rather see a separate decentralized image hosting service. I feel like an image host and a link aggregation/discussion forum require different skills to develop and run, and it would probably be best to have something more specialized.

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 7 months ago

I agree with this. Also Lemmy likes to reformat images when you upload them. Its stupid. I have to hotlink from elsewhere anyway so yeah removing it makes more sense.

It would also help reduce the proliferation of things like CSAM thus reducing admin overhead.

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

My instance went down for almost 24 hours yesterday and it's really small, and I post so much I was actually worried I broke it by just using it too much. I don't wanna suck up all of Wander's storage space. 😖

[-] lnxtx@feddit.nl 2 points 7 months ago

Images should be stored in a distributed storage like the IPFS.

[-] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 35 points 7 months ago

The lemmy devs should really focus on proper content deletion tools. It's not just the images, it's very strange and inconsistent overall. When I delete a comment, it's seemingly still visible to many people and collecting up/downvotes even many hours after I deleted it. On the other hand, when a post gets deleted, it's completely gone, to the point that I can't even look up the discussion that I had within that post, just my own comments on my profile.

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It's always only had a handful of real devs dedicating time to it. A whole site like this is kind of a huge undertaking, especially when you're deciding to build it from the ground up in a modern language like Rust, and on top of a relatively new API set, ActivityPub.

Even from early on, I remember lots of discussion from people with database management credentials who were basically pounding their heads going "why are you guys doing it this backwards way?" I don't follow the development super closely so I don't know if those issues were resolved or not. I just remember a lot of discussion on it when I was first on Lemmy on a different instance.

Anyway, the short point of what I'm saying is they probably have a plan that makes sense to them, but without more external poking on certain things, they will work on what they think is important first, which may not always line up with what the community thinks is important.

Once again, it's a handful of folks doing front-end-dev, back-end-dev, database management and admining a very large instance.

[-] alyaza@beehaw.org 14 points 7 months ago

I don’t follow the development super closely so I don’t know if those issues were resolved or not. I just remember a lot of discussion on it when I was first on Lemmy on a different instance.

not that i'm aware of, and fixing a database schema once it's already in place tends to be a clusterfuck so i'm very skeptical it will get better any time soon

[-] skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 3 points 7 months ago

Deletions shouldn't be difficult because of the schema. For instance, this query: select display_name, ('https://your.lemmy.host/pictrs/image/' || pictrs_alias) as image_url, pictrs_delete_token from image_upload iu inner join local_user u on u.id = iu.local_user_id inner join person p on p.id = u.person_id; will list all media, with the display name of the user who uploaded them, and the token that can be used to delete the image. Obviously, this needs a where u.id = ? parameter to only expose the list to the right user, but adding a "delete old media" page really shouldn't be that hard. It'll require time, though, and with one of the two devs taking parental leave soon, I don't think there's that much dev time for a while.

The pieces are almost in place, they just need an API endpoint and some UI work.

[-] Penguincoder@beehaw.org 8 points 7 months ago

That query by itself in a vacuum is fine. Combined with many other triggers on the DB, and then federating that out before actually deleting from the local DB... well that is what creates all sorts of headaches.

[-] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 3 points 7 months ago

And even if you delete a comment the API will still provide the message content as due to federation shenanigans it's actually just hidden. If you need to remove something, edit and redact the message first.

[-] DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz 33 points 7 months ago

"Tools for moderating IMAGES now?! When will you beehawists stop with the entitlement?!?!" -lemmy devs, probably

[-] skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 9 points 7 months ago

Beehaw isn't updating their Lemmy install anyway, so it's not like adding new features for Beehaw users would solve anything.

[-] Penguincoder@beehaw.org 14 points 7 months ago

Beehaw isn't the only instance of Lemmy, nor the only instance in the Fediverse. Sure, the feature being added to Lemmy now, won't benefit Beehaw. But it would still benefit others. Refusing to work on the features that Beehaw wants out of spite, will definitely hurt other instances too.

Not my circus, not my monkeys

[-] geophysicist@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 7 months ago

Unless I'm reading it incorrectly, the devs changed tact and this was already fixed 2 weeks ago

https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy-ui/issues/2384#issuecomment-1978857727

[-] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 16 points 7 months ago

I would personally love it if apps would allow images on posts that have been flagged to appear blurred prior to admin review, or just to have a blur applied to all images unless you hover over it/hold your finger on the image.

I know I saw one vulgar troll post that I could've lived life without ever seeing.

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Admins can't delete images

They're the only ones who actually can delete them! Unless somehow they don't have access to the systems they host their instance on, which would be bizarre.

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 12 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Yeah, it does read like a hit piece.

E: I read the GitHub thread, my god.. the entitlement.. yeah that's not how open source software works. Heavy Karen vibes from the feature requester.

[-] relevants@feddit.de 7 points 7 months ago

TIL it's entitled to ask that software you use is either compliant with the law or clearly lets you know that it isn't, especially when the developers have no idea what the law is

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It's not entitled to ask, politely.

Open source software is collaborative, community effort. Everyone contributes what they can and are willing to. Contributing a bug report is one example. Submitting a patch is another. Donating a sum of money to someone to submit a patch is yet another. There are others.

It's entitled to demand that the developers of an open source software do anything they're not willing to.

Let alone trying to shame them into doing it on social media if they refuse.

Let me give you an example. I could publish some work I've done which is 100% legal in the US. Other US citizens might find it useful. Say this software conrravenes some law in Europe that I am completely oblivious of. Someone comes to GitHub and demands that I commit some amount of time to make it compliant. I have no such time to spare. I'll suggest you or someone else submit a patch and I'll merge it. The end.

[-] alexdeathway@programming.dev 4 points 7 months ago

this issue is similar to images drag and drop in GitHub readme.

this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2024
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