I don’t know what a .webp file is but I don’t like it. They’re like a filthy prank version of the image/gif you’re looking for. They make you jump through all these hoops to find the original versions of the files that you can actually do anything with.

Edit: honestly I assumed it had something to do with Google protecting themselves from image piracy shit

  • Adlach
    9•2 years ago

    mp4? Imgur doesn’t even bother hosting gifs—it automatically converts any you upload to mp4 because gifs are incredibly storage-inefficient.

    • @ram
      3•2 years ago

      mp4 is a video format, the key differences with animated images being autoplay, looping and maybe transparency.

      • @equivocal
        7•2 years ago

        The point is the browser just plays the mp4 with autoplay and looping and then people call them GIFs when they aren’t. The only time you are looking at an actual GIF file is when the quality is atrocious and the colors are messed up because it needed to be dithered.

        • @ram
          1•2 years ago

          Yes, but if you tried to share that mp4 on other platforms it would be treated as a video, and that’s why gifs are still relevant.

          • @lapingvino
            2•2 years ago

            funny enough, not true. try saving a video as mp4 but not too long and without sound (!) and it will be treated exactly like gifs on those platforms.

            • @ram
              2•2 years ago

              I tried it on these platforms:

              • Twitter: it works
              • Mastodon: it works
              • tumblr: it works
              • Reddit: it doesn’t loop, video must be at least 2 seconds in length, not allowed in comments
              • Discord: not autoplay, no loop
              • Lemmy: no video hosting
              • @lapingvino
                1•2 years ago

                sometimes afaik you could still have success renaming the file to .gif or .gifv I think? Telegram and Whatsapp should also work afaik.