- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
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 😭
edit: to be clear I’m not affiliated with catbox, i just shared
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.
Added: What’s even more funny - imgur also used to ban VPNs, but my current server, at the moment I picked it I choose by criteria that both imgur and catbox and some third service should work, and few weeks later imgur still works while catbox don’t, which means catbox bans VPNs more aggressively than imgur! Really makes you hmmmm.
Added: After reading SatyrSack reply I’m not sure anymore. Maybe it was too rash to blame Catbox. It’s unclear who or what is responsible for the block, maybe neither the source nor the destination.
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
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.
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.
No VPN here and can never see catbox files, it’s like they’re gone already
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.
Hmm, I’ll have to try that… not Verizon directly but a MVNO that uses their network. Thank you for mentioning
Let me know what you find out, would you?
I tried a catbox link on mobile only data and then wifi only data, both don’t work for Spectrum.
Interesting… I’m using Voyager, too, btw… On Android.
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.
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).
I don’t know what VPN you use, but i have zero issues running Proton VPN and accessing catbox. Maybe some VPN nodes are used to attack Catbox and they are temp banned?