Imgur's community was in revolt

>years-long degradation of the website

This is a very true statement, but to me the degradation started many years ago.

The degradation started when they began looking at the Accept HTTP header to see if you were clicking a direct link to an image so they could show you a page full of ads instead of just the image. And that happened well before that bloke sold the site.

How can something be years-long without having started years ago?

I remember a long time ago you’d click on a direct link and it would redirect you to the image’s page. Then, it would superimpose a cat paw beckoning the user to swipe and see other images. I recall people really hating that.

Now the site can’t help but show you some tacked-on TikTok style video or animated gif underneath the image you actually wanted to view.

>In 2021, a media holding company called MediaLab AI acquired Imgur and Schaaf left

To me, the article is saying it started in 2021, but I think it started well before 2021.