Notice Disappearing Forum Images

[Armada]

I just noticed that some of the forum icons and images - such as the main logo and some of the notice banner images - briefly disappeared. They seem to be back now, but I'm not sure how long they'll last.

I have a feeling these are various images that are stored in my OneDrive folders, and links to images on there no longer appear to be permanent, though I can't find any official source to confirm when and why this changed.

I'm very sorry for the inconvenience and am now transferring any relevant images to the FTP instead. I'll replace the links when I get to them.

 

[Thagarr]

Ah, that explains it, I thought it was my crappy my ISP.

Microsoft no longer provides change logs for Windows updates, I assume it is probably the same for OneDrive. Why would we possibly need to know what changes they implement for their software??

 

[Armada]

I've now put all the related images, icons and emoticons on the FTP under a new "PA_Forum" directory.
The image and icon links have been updated (such as the PA! logo, header background and forum icons), but I haven't done the emoticons yet. I'll see if I can get round to that today.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I've now put all the related images, icons and emoticons on the FTP under a new "PA_Forum" directory.

Did you put it on the Bowengames FTP? Would it not make more sense to stick them on the main PiratesAhoy! one?
It is smaller, but is linked to the main site so even if the Bowengames one fails, it should still work.
And if the PiratesAhoy! one fails, the forum also wouldn't work so the images would be the least of our worries...

 

[Armada]

Yes, I used the Bowengames FTP. I haven't used the old one for a long time.
For now, the images are at least better off being stored anywhere other than OneDrive.

 

[Armada]

I finally managed to find some information about these OneDrive links expiring. Apparently, this has been going on since May this year, and it took a post on the User Voice site for Microsoft to decide to do something about it.

Still no explanation as to why the image URLs keep changing, but at least there are plans to revert them back to static at some point.

 

[Thagarr]

I think this response in that thread pretty much says it all :

Kevin commented · September 10, 2015 11:14


Thank god it's not just me. Trying to sell car parts on a forum and need the "original image" link to remain static so people can view the thread. This has been driving me crazy the past week and I've probably (and hastily) recreated the links to these 27 images like 5 times. This definitely used to work. Sadly, I can see two advantages for MS on this new method: 1) It allows better load management on the backend (or something along those lines) and 2) people who have linked OneDrive images all over internet technically cause more bandwidth demands on OneDrive, and by breaking the links twice a day, this is no longer a concern. The downside is, OneDrive is going to lose customers over this. MS, your play.

Microsoft should have known this was coming a long while ago when they first came up with the idea of everyone posting files to their "cloud." Surely selling all the information they are collecting from Windows 10 users to advertisers should more than make up for those server costs. I am curious to see what solution they come up with!

 

[Armada]

I just checked that User Voice page again (see above post), and it seems Microsoft finally restored static URLs for OneDrive images back in February. Took them long enough.

Let's see if this works with one of my Bellona images that previously wouldn't show up:

Spoiler

If you can see it, and it doesn't disappear after 24 hours or so, then hopefully this issue is gone for good.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I see it.

 

[Armada]

It looks like OneDrive is currently down , so the remaining emoticons that were on my public folder stopped showing up here .

I've now changed the links to use the FTP instead , so all the emoticons should work now .