Looks like there is a problem posting pictures in JPG. Can you see the plants?
3 Likes
I have the exact same problem. I’m trying to debug that since the upgrade.
It seems the new site is tidier on the picture format. It messes up like that in my case with pictures taken straight from a camera (EXIF format). I have to remove the metadata and convert them to JFIF format in a certain way for the website to accept them. It’s really finicky to find the appropriate format now, and pictures that were accepted before are not anymore. 
I’m holding my update because of that, older pictures not processed initially that way don’t work.
I suspect the metadata removal process to be buggy and crash with some metadata/format. Did not found what yet, not easy without logs and code.
@LemonadeJoe sorry to hear you’re sick. Went through it two weeks ago, ain’t no fun. Get better! Once that’s the case, would be cool if you can have a look at that buggy image upload. I can provide pictures to debug that.
There’s lot of cool new things otherwise, apart from this customizable menu, now one can read only the best of the longest threads by clicking the “Top replies” button under the last post. Very useful for threads like the SD one 
3 Likes
It works without problems in another discourse installation with almost the same version. So it’s likely some addon, plugin, custom thing.
If that is selfmade that could be it. But I think others posted pics without problems.
I’m using Tor Browser to access the site FWIW.
2 Likes
Yep that’s what led me to the metadata removal thing hypothesis. Likely a custom thing, unless the other instance does that too?
Using Torbrowser too, running on Debian.
Might be the issue, but I’m not so sure about that, given I can still upload some pictures and not others. So that points to the server side. Picture conversion can be tricky, sometimes it resolves to a faulty backend library on the server.
This (very artistic) two pictures are the same straight from a camera, but the second one has been run through a metadata remover (mat2) before posting:
Other kinds of manipulations (e.g conversion through gimp) do not correct the picture enough to be post processed correctly by the server.
6 Likes
The software (discourse) was not updated for 3.5 years before this. Maybe now it’s still running on an ancient operating system 
2 Likes
Might be “dockerized” in this modern world though. Part of the html mentions a docker plugin.
Also it’s been updated to a “-beta2-dev” version
That’s normal for discourse. “stable” is more like “stale”. I just hope we will see regular updates from now on.
2 Likes
I always exif remove ahead of time but jpg/jpeg and PNG should work fine as that’s what I upload. Haven’t tried non-exif removed upload recently… the issue is most definitely with the site’s exif removal plugin and/or the image resizing plugin 
1 Like
Yeah I do that too. I also post-process the photos a bit 
But I noticed that I have to remove the metadata first, before anything. If I remove the metadata after having post-processed them, then they don’t pass. Always a mess to play with jpeg formats conversion and metadatas.
1 Like
No need to remove anything, it’s automatically done while uploading…
4. What about photo metadata?
Photos is JPG format are accompanied with EXIF data that include e.g. camera type and camera settings. We strip all metadata from photos before publishing them so they can’t be used for identification
I won’t quote LJ, hoping for a prompt recovery…
5 Likes
I’ve got your test pictures, @funkyfunk and tried to upload them. No issue on the server. Please see my PM.
FYI Uploads are resized before actual upload takes place. In the browser.
There is not any relevancy to the EXIF or anything else. We run up to date supported OS with automatic security updates and finally also latest Discourse core. You are shooting from the hip.
EXIF is stripped from the photos automatically. Everyone can easily verify the fact. I did the test with @funkyfunk’s photos just a moment ago. Works fine.
I’ll invite @allotment to the PM to so we can get to the bottom of it and report a bug to the devs. But we need to focus on the browser. If anybody has the same problem, please PM me and I’ll include you in the private conversation.
The issue seems isolated but we can definitely attempt to solve it.
11 Likes
Neat! So as you say it strips the server side hypothesis from the equation.
I wasn’t implying the metadata were not removed, had no doubt about that.
See ya in PM!
2 Likes
Yes, but it doesn’t make things much easier. It’s still our code both on the server and on the client.
Let’s determine the extent of the problem within the audience.
- Uploads are working fine for me
- I have issues with uploading (please describe the details)
0
voters
Update: After further discussions, it appears that using Tor Browser on a PC is the likely cause of the issue. Uploads are working intermittently when utilizing its bundled Firefox browser.
5 Likes
The error occurs when the discourse option client side media optimization is turned on as it uses HTML5 canvas which Tor Browser blocks to avoid browser fingerprinting.
I found that turning off the Tor Browser option privacy.resistFingerprinting.randomDataOnCanvasExtract (in about:config) makes the uploads work for me on desktop.
This will not work on Tor Browser for android.
If you only use Tor Browser to access certain sites with accounts (like OG) it probably does not matter. If you do all your browsing with Tor Browser you might not want to do this.
Would be interesting to know if it is required to deal with CPU load. Personally I could live with the workaround, but not everyone has a PC anymore to access the internet. People on mobile that are required to use Tor won’t be able to use OG like this.
BTW thank you for not blocking Tor in general like many other sites. I appreciate it ever since I came here after been blocked on another forum just for that.
6 Likes
That explains a lot. I’m afraid that client side optimization has many benefits for us (quicker uploads for users with low bandwidth, relieving the server CPU). I’ve wanted this feature for a long time and unless there are technical challenges, it’s something we should be using.
It’s a pity that you can’t set this per domain. Maybe there could be a feature proposal to the devs of Tor Browser.
I definitely understand why it’s seen as a burden. A substantial portion of traffic coming from Tor is often associated with DoS attacks or other harmful activities targeting websites.
7 Likes
Totally understandable. I can imagine it will make quite a difference for a platform with that many users.
Maybe you can set the threshold where it kicks in a bit higher (default is 512kb) to give people that have no other option a chance to post pics?
There is a per domain setting for fingerprinting but it did not help in this case to just put OG in there. That would have been quite nice.
privacy.resistFingerprinting.exemptedDomains
3 Likes
I agree it’s been really precious. Even seedbanks are hard to browse with Tor nowadays.
Yes, that feature is precious, unless we want to multiply by a lot the seed auctions to support the need for more CPU. It’s expensive It is a way to decentralize the image conversion process.
They won’t accept it I think. Their stance is to upstream most of their change to firefox. That feature is already in firefox actually. It just doesn’t work well in TBB for some reasons.
You can not really DOS a website using the Tor network, it doesn’t have the output for that. Tons (if not most) of harmful activities come from infected windows/browsers. They are not banned for that, microsoft is still there
I think it’s better to advice to convert the pictures to PNG before uploading when using torbrowser, they do work, rather than change a setting that has quite some impact on users privacy. That’s easier for all users, tech savy or not. It does not really address the issue for android users though, I don’t know how easy it is to convert images. But they won’t shoot themselves in the foot that way.
I also want to say that the new grid/gallery is a breath to use compare dto the previous
1 Like
hello, i am having the same problem uploading pics using Tor on a mac. It just appears as a block of colour. i’m doing it in the exact same way as i always did…
can i get an idiot-proof instruction on how to solve it? i couldn’t work out how to do what @allotment was describing above.
Contra D:
Thanks
VG
1 Like
Have any of you tried to screenshot the picture and then paste it into the post?
2 Likes