Note: the request window to save your images has now closed.
For those whose photos and images on this site were lost in the late, great, Daily Kos Image Apocalypse of 2019, by now you probably know who you are. Many or all of your uploaded pre-December, 2015 posted images were consigned at that time to a kind of invisible purgatory in response to a looming legal threat. The rationale for their removal was explained by Kos here.
However, as you may already be aware, there is now a pathway back for those images, but the clock is ticking. We here at the Community Advisors Panel need to compile a list of all those wishing their “lost” images restored by 11:59 P.M. PST this evening (Friday, August 8), in order to migrate them to the new site.
Earlier this week Belinda Ridgewood provided a thorough explanation and notice of this deadline in her Cranky Users series. The purpose of this post is to solicit those of you who have not yet responded, but still want their previously removed images restored. If you have already provided your name in order to have your images restored, no response is necessary here.
There is no need to list the specific image or images. We just need a list of usernames, to migrate their lost images to the WordPress for restoration. We are advised that stories including such images will be repopulated with those images (assuming there no other problems or issues with the image).
For those who may not have seen Belinda’s post, here are the particulars:
So, here’s what I need to tell you today: in that “meet the panel” diary’s thread, siab asked about the images that were removed from the DK Image Library back in 2019 in the “Great Image Apocalypse”. This was an event in which all images added prior to December 2015 were removed from the library because of a legal threat. They didn’t cease to exist, but they could be restored only if their owner went to the Help Desk, identified the images, and asserted that they were owned and/or properly licensed by them. A lot of people didn’t act on that at the time but still mourn the loss of those images (or, as pointed out in the thread, did act but never actually got their requested images back because Reasons).
So RIGHT NOW THIS WEEK is the end of the window to recover these images and put them back in the Image Library. It was unclear that we still had any access to the old images, but kos checked and learned that we do, for the moment. And just for you, the process is SIMPLER now. IF YOU HAVE IMAGES you want to recover, TELL US IN A COMMENT IN THIS THREAD, or notify your favorite Community Advisory panelist or the Help Desk — I won’t be hurt!
Her post continues:
If you used an external host for images, such as Flickr or Photobucket, those images will have stayed in those places. Nothing was ever automatically imported into the Daily Kos image library. If you did not upload images there yourself, they are not there. This is ONLY about images that you uploaded to the Daily Kos image library before the end of 2015, which were removed in 2019 for legal reasons but not destroyed. Those are the images that can be recovered by joining the list.
And at the risk of violating Fair Use, the following:
If you are not sure if you have any such images, you can check:
Click the image library button in the toolbar (rightmost button, little mountain with sun/moon), and then click on the “My Images” button. Scroll down in your images, and when you reach the earliest ones, any removed images you have will show a gray box with “image removed” and a little crossed-out camera. If you click on one of them, you can still see whatever meta-data you entered, such as the file name and description, which you can use to decide if it’s anything worth getting back. And if you don’t see any of those, you don’t have any images that were hosted here but impounded in the 2019 action.
Again, many Daily Kos community members have already responded to this notice and provided their names in order to have their pre-December 2015 (“lost”) images restored. If so, you don’t need to provide your names again here. This is simply an attempt to reach those who may not have been aware of it and have not yet responded. So this is a last call, so to speak, if you want your lost, pre-2015 pictures saved and migrated while we move operations to the new site. If so, please let me know in the comments (or, respond to Belinda’s Cranky Users post, linked here). All we need is your username.
Thanks! And if you would be so kind, please Rec this post. Not because it’s any good, but because if it stays up on the Rec list more people can see it and choose to save their images.
Note: the request window for saving inages has now closed.
