Imgur TOS change on May 15th 2023 could cause the loss of thousands of Stack Exchange images!
Note first that images with https://i.stack.imgur.com
or https://stack.imgur.com
URLs (those automatically uploaded through the GUI interface) are not at risk. Images with https://i.imgur.com
or https://imgur.com
URLs are perhaps at risk—we don't know which are owned by an Imgur account, & criteria around age & no. of views haven't yet been determined ("We plan to use a combination of total views and recent views, among other criteria, to define content as inactive"—Imgur Terms of Service Update [April 19, 2023]).
Glorfindel has already written & run a script to copy images from https://i.imgur.com
to https://stack.imgur.com
. There were 872 successfully copied, so these can be replaced if the current link breaks, or preëmptively—S.E. may be willing to help by automatically replacing them. There were 28 that could not be copied—for many of these it seems the link is already broken for some reason. (If anyone wants to find them, the post IDs are not given but you can use the site search with the URL e.g. url:"https://i.imgur.com/48kXw9k.gif"
.)
A site search shows 180 posts with https://imgur.com
URLs. I hope Glorfindel will find the time to run his script for these too. [He did, just now, & there are a few that could not be copied—I'll post these when I get the chance.]
In fine I don't think we have a huge problem, given that 80% or so are now banked, that of the remainder only some will be removed (if they haven't already been), & that only some will be all that important to the post. On the other hand we only have eleven days before some may start to disappear.
stack.imgur
. $\endgroup$stack.imgur
. I shouldn't like to have to do that manually for many, though. $\endgroup$imgur.com
URLs. (He's not an S.E. employee, just extraordinarily helpful.) $\endgroup$