[Important] Catbox Needs Your Help

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨not_IO@lemmy.blahaj.zone⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://blog.catbox.moe/post/785233399498555392/important-catbox-needs-your-help

tl;dr - Patreon deleted my page, refused to elaborate, and Catbox is now short $1,300~ in reoccurring income to pay the bill. Support Catbox Here

I use catbox to post videos and moving webp files to lemmy 😭

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Comments

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yetAnotherUser@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
OP, this was three months ago

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- flamingos@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  They even had a banner on the site for a little bit about how successful they were able to transfer support from Patreon:
  
  web.archive.org/web/20250610153337/…/catbox.moe/
  
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hisao@ani.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I hate catbox. I can’t see images posted via catbox because for some reason catbox is very actively and aggressively bans VPNs. Yeah, you heard that right: they ban VPNs, not only for posting, even for viewing! I managed to find one VPN server that worked well… for few weeks. Until it got banned as well. Someone once said catbox is a honeypot. Idk about that, but their VPN policy is definitely honeypot-tier.

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- SatyrSack@quokk.au ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Their FAQ lists multiple reasons that various countries, ISPs, etc. block CatBox, and using a VPN is often mentioned as the solution. Here is an archive of their FAQ that you should be able to read from any connection:
  
  https://web.archive.org/web/20250822215754/https://catbox.moe/faq.php
  
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  - hisao@ani.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Thanks, this is surprising! I assumed my VPN wouldn’t ever block anything, because I’ve never seen that before, and thus the block was Catbox’s fault, but from what they write in their FAQ I start to question this. Maybe there is some large scale intermediary/middleware/mitm that make this happen. Idk, this is the first time I see anything like this. The server I’m currently using is in Switzerland, but I’ve also had those blocks with multiple VPN servers in other EU countries.
    
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  - hisao@ani.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    This is phenomenal, I’ve been switching through countless EU countries and servers, and catbox just kept becoming inaccessible in every single one day by day, and even after abandoning Proton VPN altogether and moving to obscure VPS provider with my self-hosted VPN, it worked for like 2 days, and now it’s blocked again.
    
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- Chozo@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I'll be honest, I don't mind a free file host banning VPNs. Yes, VPNs have tons of legitimate uses, but they also have illegitimate uses that (what I understand to be) a one-man team is likely not prepared to deal with. They already have to deal with CSAM getting uploaded as it is.
  
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  - hisao@ani.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    
    but they also have illegitimate uses that (what I understand to be) a one-man team is likely not prepared to deal with
    
    This would be somewhat believable excuse if they only blocked uploading/posting under VPNs. But they block viewing under VPNs as well, which you only do if your sole purpose is logging IP addresses of viewers. In this scenario catbox images posted to Lemmy for example, they don’t only reveal your IP the moment they are loaded when you scroll your feed, they also associate it with the site from where the request was initiated (your Lemmy instance).
    
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- SolacefromSilence@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  No VPN here and can never see catbox files, it's like they're gone already
  
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  - TheOneAndOnly@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Do you use Verizon for Internet? It’s been my experience that the only way I can open catbox links is if I’m not connected solely to Verizon’s network.
    
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- Wildmimic@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I don't know what VPN you use, but i have zero issues running Proton VPN and accessing catbot. Maybe some VPN nodes are used to attack Catbox and they are temp banned?
  
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db2@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Now patreon is enshittifying. They sure don’t mind taking their cut from people whose model is shoving things inside themselves though.

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- dontbelievethis@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Any reliable alternatives you know of?
  
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  - WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    maybe liberapay, but they too depend of payment processors like stripe and paypal
    
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  - shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    lemmy.zip/comment/21190669
    
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  - humanoidchaos@lemmy.cif.su ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    We should normalize just sending them money directly through crypto.
    
    Why have more middlemen than we need? It it because we’re idiots getting taken for a ride?
    
    I know what I’ll put my money on, every time.
    
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tal@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Didn’t this happen a while back? I mean, I’m not saying that the financial issues are resolved, mind.

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shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
You could also set up a page on kuno.anne.media.

It’s a Monero donation platform, so even if they were to remove your page, the donation wallet you set up for it would still be able to receive donations even without them.

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- SatyrSack@quokk.au ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  What is the value add of this product? The donors and recipients still need to set up a Monero wallet and everything to use the service. A recipient may just as well instead use any other means (social media, etc.) to announce that they are accepting Monero donations at xyz address.
  
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  - shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Mainly goal setting and tracking. You could say, for example, that your goal is to raise 50 Monero, and each donation to that address will show up on the site as adding to it, and the donor can leave you a message if they wish.
    
    It allows everybody to see exactly how close you are to your 50 Monero goal, etc.
    
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A_norny_mousse@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I often use litter.catbox.moe (auto-deleting) because I can upload via command line. But it’s so slow sometimes that it’s unusable for e.g. including images in comments. Is that also the case for catbox.moe proper?

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- elvith@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  When I click on catbox.moe images on Lemmy, I don’t see a difference between being on a VPN, my WiFi at home, on mobile data oder a random Hotspot. It either loads like back in the days when we had dial up connections or in >90% of the cases I get a connection timeout. It’s a pita to the point that I check the link on Lemmy before clicking on it and have a very hard time to not justify instantly down voting the poster for using that service.
  
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  - A_norny_mousse@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    OK so it’s the same. That’s sad.
    
    Weirdly, the website loads fine, but clicking on the litterbox link just loads forever.
    
    Interestingly, the catbox FAQ mentions pomf.se which redirects to uguu.se which supports API uploading and is FLOSS/self-hostable.
    
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indomara@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
What is cat box?

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- underline960@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Image storage platform, like imgur.
  
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  - indomara@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Really?? Christ, people need to advertise it there, Imgur has been imploding and the community has no idea where to go. It’s been sad.
    
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dumbass@leminal.space ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Website says they’re 50$ short.

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Feathercrown@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I can never see catbox files anyways

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- Toes@ani.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  That’s likely caused by your DNS provider blocking it.
  
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humanoidchaos@lemmy.cif.su ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
How is catbox hosted?

If they’re renting VPS hardware, then they’re getting scammed.

They should set up self hosting with their own hardware and a VPN. It will cut down on the recurring costs significantly.

Don’t pay for others’ stupidity, if you can avoid it.

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