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[FYI] Image Embedding on the forums

Posted: 21 Aug 2018 04:00
by michaelmurfy
In order to keep the site secure I've opted in to using a proxy for all images that are not served securely. This ensures that the green padlock stays in place on all pages and your browser doesn't warn you about mixed content (bad!). With later versions of Google Chrome and Firefox the browser will warn users with a "Not Secure" message if any element is not served over SSL (HTTPS).

Let's demonstrate this with cats. The below image is served by a HTTP only (not secure) image host:
Image

If you navigate to the image you'll see this is proxied - the browser is still showing a green padlock however the image itself links to an image hosted on http://iforce.co.nz/ (a NZ image host).

Now, using Imgur we see a different behavior:

Image

When possible, please ensure you're using a decent image host. Imgur is recommended as it is fast and doesn't have (many) upload limits. Other viable alternatives are Flickr or Puu.sh. If you use an image host without SSL support (eg - the URL's are http instead of https) expect these to be proxied on the forums and quality to drop.

Thanks!