1 yr. ago • 100%

Gfycat is shutting down September 1st

gfycat.com Gfycat | Watch and Create GIFs, Videos, Memes

Gfycat is the top destination for GIFs and videos. Create your own GIF or browse the best gaming GIFs, reactions GIFs, funny GIFs and more.

The Gfycat service is being discontinued. Please save or delete your Gfycat content by visiting https://www.gfycat.com and logging in to your account. After September 1, 2023, all Gfycat content and data will be deleted from gfycat.com

47 comments

That's gonna result in a massive amount of dead links. The internet really is dying...

5
- I don't think it's dying. I hope it's a paradigm shift like when it changed from wild west lawless chaos to three or four huge companies running all of it. Maybe we end up with everything replaced by different distributed services. It's going to incredibly annoying when half the search results are dead links or links to reddit but that annoyance can drive innovation.
  
  4
  
  The problem is, you won't get the sort of compatibility you enjoy now any more. So many different applications, phone keyboards etc support gfycat and that's where all the content is.
  
  They won't support dozens of disparate led popular services spread across the internet.
  
  Those services are also likely to be less reliable, less well moderated for offensive/illegal content and such, and more likely to randomly disappear.
  
  Like why Reddit was such a success, I want stability. I want one, reliable, centralised place I can go for everything.
  
  Another concern I have, considering Lemmy specifically, is hacking of their infrastructure. Is my Lemmy account data as secure as my Reddit account? No. The software isn't as secure, and the security teams are non existent, it's just a guy (a wonderful guy!) hosting this as a hobby.
  
  And even if one server does get a proper tech security team, that's just one server.
  
  There's also the question of WHO is hosting a Lemmy instance being used, are they trustworthy? Are they being independently audited? Have they been found in compliance with GDPR? Are they secretly selling our data? Could be, who knows.
  
  For all the awful things that come with a big company like Reddit, there's more scrutiny, accountability, etc.
  
  I don't mean to diss Lemmy, I'm really really hopeful for it. I just have a lot of early concerns, things they'll have to solve before I can really see it being the trustworthy, solid cornerstone of the internet I'd like it to be.
  
  2
  
  I’m 100% down to go back to Wild West.
  
  The feeling and freedom of playing runescape on the early 2000s unfiltered internet was something I’ve missed. Maybe it’s coming back.
  
  2
  
  Search engines will just have to get better at scrubbing their databases. Most of this stuff is ephemeral so it's usually a deep search that leads to these old threads...and future dead links. Distributed services isn't bad, it's just different. Pre-web it was archie, gopher, veronica, usenet, etc. Now all those things - or their equivalent data - run on top of the web. It's just an evolution.
  
  1
- I wonder if the internet, possibly the worlds best accomplishment in cooperation, can survive a post-globalist world?
  
  Perhaps it’s the purist expression of the wave in optimism for liberalised trade before it crested and rolled back out to sea.
  
  1
- I still remember the Photobucket apocalypse back in the day. One day to the next seemed like internet only had "broken link" images.
  
  1
  
  Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time.
  
  A long time.
  
  1
- Permanently Deleted
  
  1
  
  It's almost like a system that rewards short-term gains and maximizing profit for the few at the top at the expense of everything else is neither sustainable nor beneficial for the long-term health of the broader environment or community. 🤔
  
  1
  
  Ahh I'm sure that's not a big problem. Let's keep growing and growing everything! /s
  
  1
- We need to choose. Link rot or massive megacorps owning everything on the Internet.
  
  Before reddit, imgur, etc got big, the Internet was FULL of dead links. Image links in particular. Small image hosts cleared their storage after a while because, y'know, kinda expensive to host a bunch of content for free.
  
  But you know what? We ran everything. And discovery was hella different. Personal websites, bulletin boards... Clicking links from one place to end up at another, and then you find another link to another website... It was something different entirely. Of course, Digg, StumbleUpon and reddit all were originally just websites where you could share what you'd discovered and other people could comment on it, but reddit ended up becoming THE place to hang out, and then nobody bothered going to all these small websites anymore.
  
  I see the fediverse as being something in-between. The content doesn't all belong to a massive corporation, but it's also still MORE centralized than the Internet of old. We all hang out in a shared, federated space, rather than having a bunch of different spaces. Communities aren't as insular, which is both good and bad - and I guess everyone has different preferences anyway. But while on a big network like the fediverse or reddit, you tend to feel like part of a very big community (unless you subscribe exclusively to tiny communities/subs), on the forums of old, you'd have a small community and most people were fairly active participants, so it really felt like a close-knit community if you know what I mean.
  
  0
  
  But the net is also different from back then. For one way more people use it and what is expected of it has changed. People expect to stream 1080p/4K video for free and that is not cheap.
  
  1
  
  We need to choose. Link rot or massive megacorps owning everything on the Internet.
  
  I hope that IPFS (or something like it) may end up improving that dichotomy
  
  0
This past year in particular has really hammered it in for me that even if you can never truly delete something from the internet, it doesn't mean it'll still be there when you're looking for it. Saving a link to something is not saving it at all, and I'm starting to become a data hoarder.

2
Man, I really feel like the internet is under a major shake up at the moment. Feels weird.

edit: spelling

2
- Unfortunately, big tech has been expending millions (edit: more like billions, maybe trillions) in currency and talent to figure out how to make all-you-can-eat video and images turn a profit. Apparently, it just can't happen at a global scale even when it's lousy with ads and personal data collection.
  
  So, get ready to open your wallet. We'll probably see more and more such services moving to paid-for subscriptions. (IMO)
  
  1
- Feels like someone pressed the self-destruct button for The Internet, eh?
  
  0
  
  Feels weird.
  
  My man, I know there's gotta be other schadenfreudes, schadenfreudians? out there like me who are loving it tho.
  
  0
I'm not surprised. How can this be sustainable? Images are embedded in the websites with no way for Gfycat to make any revenue.

2
- It sure as hell lasted a long time though
  
  1
- As far as I know, companies like Gfycat make money by selling API access to different apps. Like say in a messaging app likeTelegram or Signal. The easiest way for them to integrate a gif search and send function inside of messages is through API access to Gfycat's servers. Gfycat then charges them for this streamlined integration and access.
  
  That plus selling user data or ads on their website means they will have some revenue. I dont know if its enough to keep them afloat. Since they are shutting down, I'm guessing it didnt pan out so well.
  
  0
  
  sounds like they should have asked u/spez for some advice on API pricing. /s
  
  1
Wow that sucks

1
I guess it's just impossible to make these types of large media storage sites profitable. The business model itself is inherently unprofitable despite there being a need for these sites. Like youtube will never bring a cent back to google, but they keep running it because it locks people into their ecosystem for data harvesting.

Could also be that snap bought gfycat just to kill it.

0
- Youtube is definitely bringing back a profit to Google. Probably not huge, but definitely far from 0% return.
  
  Now they did have to shove way more ads in there to make it happen.
  
  Having an acceptable ratio between ads and a big media storage seems pretty much impossible, unless subscription based which most people can't really afford.
  
  0
  
  which most people can't really afford
  
  That ain't it.
  
  -1

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