OP folks in here are trying to give you legit advice and you're handwaving a lot of it. Listen to them. You're not the first nor the last person to have this idea. You can ignore all of the advice if you choose but I urge you to not ignore this one.
Hire a red team expert or service to scan your site and provide you with a report. Letting others upload content to your server is a minefield. Take the advice seriously.
It's a cool project. And I urge you to keep learning and making cool things.
so? google knows everything. it is needed for indexing and whatnot. I dont track you. that's my claim, not that I wont let google track you, because it will regardless.
You should _really_ check the legal implications because actors _will_ abuse your tool. And you likely dont want to have that responsibility on your person.
That being said, I miss the good old times of omploader and all the other hosting services like abload.de (which was very popular in german forums).
Looks like shelldweller learned how to code but doesn't know much about running websites and especially ones that allows randoms from the internet upload stuff ... it is bad to do so even if it is for 15 mins and he doesn't know it yet.
Its small and I have this vps for 2 years for basically free.
On the matter of dmca: the server doesn't accept large uploads, and only accepts pictures. So what will be stolen which is soooo tiny yet so important that grants legal action on a small service?
Also I don't know what people are uploading (and have no way of knowing), so my consciousness is clear. AND people don't use a random site on the internet for such filth, they have their own networks and chat apps. I wouldn't worry about them using my site.
> AND people don't use a random site on the internet for such filth
Actually, they do. Small, independent image hosts are great because they don't do any sort of VPN busting or user tracking, so hitting them with a few quick images to share is just as reliable, maybe even more reliable, than dedicated image hosting options.
You should double check your local legislation, and the legislation of the country you're hosting in. There's a chance you're liable for illegal imagery, regardless of whether you put it there or not. Plus, the moment someone puts something malicious on there and the indexers find out, your domain will be reported as dangerous/phishing and become inaccessible to 99% of the internet.
I used to be on a forum with only half a dozen people, someone in the group hosted it. We wanted to share images so someone wrote and hosted a pubic file sharing site...
We never shared the link to the uploader publicly, yet within a couple of weeks the URL was out there somehow and he was getting all manners of horrific stuff uploaded to it, he had to close it down just to protect himself.
well it was really fun coding it (no ia btw) so I do wanna keep it up. How do you suggest I protect the service from abuse? File size limit? usage count limit? some kind of OCR that filters bad content and bans users... I dont mind extending the service...
Ask yourself the question "which of those things prevents me from going to jail for hosting CSAM" and the answer becomes pretty obvious.
I fear you are mentally modeling law enforcement as rational people who will just accept any explanation you make, and that model does not correspond to reality.
The other thing you may not realize is that the bad guys aren't just isolated guys in their basement who occasionally poke their heads out and maybe compromise a site every so often. There is a pipeline that operates with commercial efficiency, in all senses of the term, including that they are getting paid. I've seen it more directly with link forwarders; there are people actively and constantly seeking out new link forwarders and exploiting them to send spam. I've seen people put them up as a "hobby learning" project and within single-digit hours they're being used in spamming campaigns. You couldn't have escaped this pipeline's notice no matter what you did but with it being on HN you're certainly going to end up on their radar. By this time tomorrow, best case, maybe in a week, if you look at what is actually being stored on your site you better bring the eyebleach.
How do we know it is Golang? Is there a repository with the code available? Without it I find "in Golang" rather superfluous; it should have better been "I made a private self-destructing image hosting site".
> We are running this service on a small server. We literally cannot afford to store any images. If that is what you need, there are more suitable services out there.
This does not answer the question - it doesn't say "No." or that images are permanently deleted from server on burn expiry, only that there are (currently) limits. So slightly worrying that there might be selective retention.
OP folks in here are trying to give you legit advice and you're handwaving a lot of it. Listen to them. You're not the first nor the last person to have this idea. You can ignore all of the advice if you choose but I urge you to not ignore this one.
Hire a red team expert or service to scan your site and provide you with a report. Letting others upload content to your server is a minefield. Take the advice seriously.
It's a cool project. And I urge you to keep learning and making cool things.
>No tracking
> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-89FXF83MYS"></script>
so? google knows everything. it is needed for indexing and whatnot. I dont track you. that's my claim, not that I wont let google track you, because it will regardless.
You help google track
You should _really_ check the legal implications because actors _will_ abuse your tool. And you likely dont want to have that responsibility on your person.
That being said, I miss the good old times of omploader and all the other hosting services like abload.de (which was very popular in german forums).
>There are similar services to this one, but they are either convoluted with ads, or require sign-up, or expect you to fill out a survey or something.
So you just want to offer it free?
What about ongoing responsibilities if you get DMCA and take down for copyright/child porn/fake nudes and so on
Looks like shelldweller learned how to code but doesn't know much about running websites and especially ones that allows randoms from the internet upload stuff ... it is bad to do so even if it is for 15 mins and he doesn't know it yet.
Its small and I have this vps for 2 years for basically free.
On the matter of dmca: the server doesn't accept large uploads, and only accepts pictures. So what will be stolen which is soooo tiny yet so important that grants legal action on a small service?
Also I don't know what people are uploading (and have no way of knowing), so my consciousness is clear. AND people don't use a random site on the internet for such filth, they have their own networks and chat apps. I wouldn't worry about them using my site.
> AND people don't use a random site on the internet for such filth
Actually, they do. Small, independent image hosts are great because they don't do any sort of VPN busting or user tracking, so hitting them with a few quick images to share is just as reliable, maybe even more reliable, than dedicated image hosting options.
You should double check your local legislation, and the legislation of the country you're hosting in. There's a chance you're liable for illegal imagery, regardless of whether you put it there or not. Plus, the moment someone puts something malicious on there and the indexers find out, your domain will be reported as dangerous/phishing and become inaccessible to 99% of the internet.
I used to be on a forum with only half a dozen people, someone in the group hosted it. We wanted to share images so someone wrote and hosted a pubic file sharing site...
We never shared the link to the uploader publicly, yet within a couple of weeks the URL was out there somehow and he was getting all manners of horrific stuff uploaded to it, he had to close it down just to protect himself.
You've posted this to HN.
I wouldn't take this risk.
If someone uploads child porn, you could be liable for hosting child porn. Ignorance and clear consciousness would not equate to innocence.
> don't know what people are uploading (and have no way of knowing)
Hosting CSAM is a strict liability offense in many jurisdictions.
You are being very naive, I'm afraid. You should fear the wronguns on the internet
I mean that in the nicest way possible, but you do not have the knowledge to operate such a website if that's the questions you are asking.
well it was really fun coding it (no ia btw) so I do wanna keep it up. How do you suggest I protect the service from abuse? File size limit? usage count limit? some kind of OCR that filters bad content and bans users... I dont mind extending the service...
Ask yourself the question "which of those things prevents me from going to jail for hosting CSAM" and the answer becomes pretty obvious.
I fear you are mentally modeling law enforcement as rational people who will just accept any explanation you make, and that model does not correspond to reality.
The other thing you may not realize is that the bad guys aren't just isolated guys in their basement who occasionally poke their heads out and maybe compromise a site every so often. There is a pipeline that operates with commercial efficiency, in all senses of the term, including that they are getting paid. I've seen it more directly with link forwarders; there are people actively and constantly seeking out new link forwarders and exploiting them to send spam. I've seen people put them up as a "hobby learning" project and within single-digit hours they're being used in spamming campaigns. You couldn't have escaped this pipeline's notice no matter what you did but with it being on HN you're certainly going to end up on their radar. By this time tomorrow, best case, maybe in a week, if you look at what is actually being stored on your site you better bring the eyebleach.
How do we know it is Golang? Is there a repository with the code available? Without it I find "in Golang" rather superfluous; it should have better been "I made a private self-destructing image hosting site".
> FAQ
> Will you store my images?
> We are running this service on a small server. We literally cannot afford to store any images. If that is what you need, there are more suitable services out there.
This does not answer the question - it doesn't say "No." or that images are permanently deleted from server on burn expiry, only that there are (currently) limits. So slightly worrying that there might be selective retention.
No. Everything HARD DELETES.
Also you have no knowledge about legal and other responsibilities for running such a website.
I hope you will not get into too much trouble and it will be a learning experience for you.
But if I would have to make a call, I would take it down immediately.
I agree with the other people in the comments that playing a role in transmitting illegal files (like CSAM) could land you in hot water.
Especially since you're storing it (temporarily) on your server.
off by 1
i set to view just one time
opend url - image was shown
opened url in anonymous browser - image was shown
reloaded - image gone
well yea, uploader doesnt count as a viewer. Unless you mean you opened the link twice in different browsers.