As of late, images are not appearing for me. Pictures of twitter posts (I’m inferring). Even a popcorn gif. I suspect this is some work setting or something. And I suspect that this is either (1) an easy fix or (2) something I can’t override. Hoping someone can offer some suggestions for 1 at least.
Since my quilt photos are the only value I contribute to this place, this concerns me greatly.
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See this thread:
He was just kidding.
We don’t really have a solution. Too many images to host locally, and the site we are hosting images on, some corps don’t like. YOu could ask IT to open up backblaze.
Oh yeah I get the dev. Was just pointing out what the issue was for this thread. IT will not open up backblaze, as it is susceptible to exploits. I don’t have specifics on that, it’s just what was relayed to me.
Got it. It’s unfortunate. It makes some conversations impossible to follow or participate in.
Is there a simple way to add alt text to images?
I probably wouldn’t bother for the humor threads, but in the discussion threads, I probably could retrain myself to insert some context when pasting in an image, at least on my PC, if it’s not too difficult.
I asked my dev guy if there were alternatives to backblaze. His response:
Sure, Linode, Amazon S3…
But what’s the guarantee that those won’t be blocked either?
So, does anyone have a buddy in IT who can offer an opinion if we switched to one of these if we would be blocked by common corporate firewalls for the images?
This is what ChatGPT told me:
Corporate firewalls can block images (or any content) from services like Backblaze, Linode, or Amazon S3, but whether they do depends on the organization’s specific security policies and configurations. Here’s a breakdown of each:
1. Backblaze
- Usage: Primarily a cloud storage and backup service.
- Typical Blocking: Less commonly blocked by default, but some corporate firewalls may restrict it if they categorize it under “file sharing,” “cloud storage,” or “personal backup” services.
- Image Hosting: If used to serve images directly, it may get flagged if the URL appears suspicious or the domain isn’t whitelisted.
2. Linode
- Usage: Cloud hosting provider offering VPS and other infrastructure.
- Typical Blocking: Rarely blocked by default since it’s often used for business purposes. However, content served from Linode can be blocked if it comes from:
- An IP/domain flagged for malware or inappropriate content.
- Custom applications/domains not recognized by the firewall.
3. Amazon S3 (AWS)
- Usage: Widely used for hosting everything from images and scripts to full websites.
- Typical Blocking: Unlikely to be globally blocked due to its prevalence. However:
- Specific S3 buckets or URLs may be blocked if the domain isn’t trusted (e.g.,
my-random-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com). - Some companies restrict all access to *.amazonaws.com unless whitelisted.
- Specific S3 buckets or URLs may be blocked if the domain isn’t trusted (e.g.,
Key Factors That Influence Blocking
- Category in the firewall’s filtering engine (e.g., Fortinet, Palo Alto, Zscaler).
- Reputation of the domain or IP address.
- Company’s policy on personal cloud storage or image delivery.
- Whether HTTPS inspection is enabled — this can trigger SSL errors or blanket blocking.
Recommendations
- Use custom domains mapped to CDN services like CloudFront (AWS) to bypass suspicion.
- Check firewall logs or test via corporate network to confirm what’s allowed.
- Reach out to IT for whitelisting, especially if the images are business-critical.
Let me know if you’re asking about this in a specific context (e.g., image delivery for a web app), and I can tailor the advice further.
So it appears that of the 3, backblaze may be the most likely to be blocked. I’m not tech savvy, but I wonder if I can “whitelist” any of the sites to get them through. Also, if there are other sites that we know use Linode or Amazon S3, then we can go there and test them before you switch.
We’re using linode right now I think. but not under the linode domain.
I think I’m seeing images again… Did anything change on this end?
Nope
Hmmm. 
Actually looking at the site from home for the first time in like 6 months, and I can see things! Silly corporate firewalls.
And, it’s not working again. Might be because my work VPN wasn’t working last week. Or something here as I’ve seen others mention things going back and forth.
Hooookay. Any new images uploaded starting now should work. Older images will work again eventually, when we get around to copying them over.
Basically we increased the storage amount locally and put images there instead of on back blaze.
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Can confirm this change on my end.
Just looking in the Captions thread, a place I don’t usually go to, I see today’s image and do not see yesterday’s.
I also still have an image error in the upper left corner for “GoActuary”.
In any case, thanks for trying to fix this.
Came here to confirm that I’m seeing images now.
Not so much some of the older ones (namely those posted earlier this week). But appreciate the work @SpaceLobster is doing!