@Chris D posted this in another thread this morning, in fact.
Sounds like Klipy.com is the way to go. We’re looking into it.
Yes, and that's why I posted this question in questions and support. (
@Chris D can move these posts into that thread if he wishes.)
An expired 2.3.9 licensed customer (e.g. their license expires now) has to rely on Giphy (essentially no more GIFs on their forum), or because if you read Pages 1-4 of that where I forewarned of this exact predictable behavior and scenario based on past precedence of free image hosting (though with GIFs, there's an additional nuanced layer of licensing and who gets paid for how many GIFs shown with their intellectual property), will there be a Klipy, etc., patch available for free, if that's the route? Otherwise, for continuing GIF support, you'll need to renew your license.
Side note on past precedence: The predictable end game is a GIF that will insert on an embed* instead of an image. This is so that at any time they can change the 1000000s of GIFs already inserted and viewed across varying platforms (not only XF) to include a couple frames of an ad, taking care of it not having to be a paid service**. And then that company will, too, go into oblivion. This all has to do with licensing because Disney, et al., will keep pushing the fraction of a penny they want for each view of a Darth Vader (Star Wars) GIF. *unless they just continuously change ads in the GIF file, using more processor power **unless you want ad free GIFs
If you read through pages 1‐ of that thread you linked me, I tried to hammer this point home. Hard. Multiple times. Nobody understood it or chose to willfully ignore the economics behind this.
Now, we're here, chasing down Giphy replacements. The real question now is: Will XenForo do right by its customers as this was such a predictable move and issue a free patch, and for what license holders, or will customers need to renew their license each time there's a GIF hosted successor for continued GIF support?
Edit: I just noticed Klipy is an embed, so this is the terminal phase for GIFs already and whether they go bust is how intrusive they get and when. So, it might be the only and last replacement before the death of free hosted GIFs. After which, you'll have to scrub your forum's Klipy embeds to get rid of ads you never placed.