Until this week the image hosting site Imgur has been most widely known as the most submitted URL to the social networking site Reddit. Imgur allows folks to quickly upload and host photos and has widely been adopted as the favorite hosting choice of Redditors. Earlier this week Imgur announced they will now be doing more than just hosting images, they will be running their own socially driven enhanced “gallery” with user moderation, reputation and advanced content sorting.
Having an image be included in the new “gallery” is an option that users must choose when uploading.If this option is not selected, the image will not be included in Imgur’s social gallery. If an image is to be included in the gallery an image title is required for context.
The most noticeable change is a new beta homepage that allows users to view types of images sorted by a variety of topics. Users can choose the following types of images:
Hottest
Newest
Top
These images can be then sorted by:
Virality
Score
Time
The new layout displays image thumbnails in a 135px x 135px grid. Users can hover over any given image to instantly see the accompanying caption and voting options.
Once an image is clicked on, the specific post with comments, social sharing and voting. On this page users can see how many positive and negative votes were received, report the image or sort comments by type.
One controversial aspect of Imgur is that many adult & NSFW images are hosted on the site. In order to keep the new gallery “clean” Imgur will rely on user moderation. If an image in the gallery is spotted, Imgur is relying on the community to flag them with a report button. Imgur is not changing their policy on pornographic image hosting, rather simply not allowing in the new social gallery.
Of course, what’s a social network without a reputation system? Imgur is dipping back into their April Fools past to resurrect an Imguraffe character. Users will be able to achieve different levels of a “glorious” to “prestigious” reputation based on reputation points. Each time that a user adds 10,000 reputation points they receive a new medallion. Trophies will also be rolling out soon for users that have done “something amazing.” The details are vague, but should help to increase user interaction.
The new gallery will be released to all on Monday the 29th and more can be seen on the official Imgur blog post.
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