What do you see - or not see?

Yes, that happens because we don't come here on a schedule, like a job, but everyone comes at different times and experiences the issue happening at different times depending when the host is down temporarily so the image doesn't show up and then it's back online.

I am not sure you understand what I am saying. It is not about anything being down at any particular time. It is about the image not being rendered in the post area - while the URL for it may be retrieved, requested through a different tab/window, and it is then seen - while at the very same exact time does not render in the post.

If the fb server was not allowing it to be seen from another website - no one would ever be able to see it. However, as I understand it, some CC members can see it and some cannot.

I believe I posted sufficient examples earlier in this thread that illustrate what I am talking about...?

I think i understand you and i explained it with hotlinking.
When an image is opened directly from the source server by retriving its url, it will show.
But, it will not show when it's embedded on another site.
That's called hotlinking.

Let me try this again...

There is some particular hotlink URL in some particular post of some particular thread (on this website) - and, some CC members can see it [rendered] in that post of that thread - and, some CC members cannot see it [rendered] in that post of that thread - same thread, same post, same hotlink URL - at the same exact time - some folks can see it - some folks cannot see it.

Yes Gary I understand what you’re saying and the answer is still hotlinking.
I’m glad you’re getting closer now because that’s how we understand things with more questions which get more correct after each reiteration.

The way this works is that all users on this site are in different geographic and IP address ranges in the world.
This also factors in anyone using a VPN.
So, depending on how the IP address is whitelisted or blacklisted, the image might show for some but not for others.
Because hotlinking is now done by algorithms or “ai” and because the internet landscape is not as static as it was in the 90s where you could hard code in all major domains or ip address ranges, it explains why some people see the image at an exact time, let’s say 10PM est, but others who are on a different ip range and location don’t.

This is a known phenomenon in the computer world.
Hope that makes sense for you.

I was thinking about how the CC site software was processing it - and, that it must be doing so "very poorly to say the least" or whatever:

I suppose the rendering of the 'IMG' BB-code tags by the CC site software simply "comes up empty" and presents that way instead of being smart enough to detect that and automatically replace it with a [local] "broken image" graphic to show that an image was supposed to render there - so that folks could then at least see something without having to manually "dig down into it" through the 'REPLY' feature just to see if there was [even] a URL there that could be retrieved...

I was trying to think about what kind of side-effect there might be from the CC site software side of things.

Yes - okay - I see - thanks - I let myself get away from what I was saying in post #31 - and what you were saying in post #32.

I let my mind get away from the 'why' of the fb server and "get stuck" in the 'how' of the CC site software processing in post #39.

I was thinking about how the CC site software was processing it - and, that it must be doing so "very poorly to say the least" or whatever:

I suppose the rendering of the 'IMG' BB-code tags by the CC site software simply "comes up empty" and presents that way instead of being smart enough to detect that and automatically replace it with a [local] "broken image" graphic to show that an image was supposed to render there - so that folks could then at least see something without having to manually "dig down into it" through the 'REPLY' feature just to see if there was [even] a URL there that could be retrieved...

I was trying to think about what kind of side-effect there might be from the CC site software side of things.

If anything, this shows just how "targeted" this stuff is on a "personal" level - based on IP address, 'agent' text string information (OS and browser), etc.

I realize that this is a bit silly considering how it actually works - but, I was searching for an answer that made any kind of sense at all...

There are a lot of gears at play to make this site display properly.
The site itself is on a host (CloudFlare) which also goes down from time to time and nobody can see the site but we see a CloudFlare error. This is the first part.
Then the software itself (XenForo) assuming it's the latest version, should not have any issues with the BB Code tag because the tag is simply displaying an image on another site. This is most obvious in this thread here: https://christianchat.com/christian-family-forum/can-you-guys-post-something-funny-please.179823/ where people are hotlinking images from other sites.
So, what you see in this case is that the page of the forum loads right away, but the image could load slower than the site.
And that's how it's supposed to work because the load time or PING time to the site CC Chat and the image that is BB Tagged are in two different geographic locations, the servers are, with different PING response time.

Another way to test this is if you have two devices, they could be two laptops or two phone or one phone and a laptop.
Install a VPN software on one of them.
Then go to that link i posted above and browse the pages. One with the VPN on and one without the VPN on.
You will see that some images don't load, but on the device without the VPN running, they will load.

The other caveat here is that some sites which store pictures for sharing, only block VPN ip addresses which are known. But Facebook does a better job with their algorithms to block hotlinking to a wider segment of the internet.
Google for example has criticized them for being "Walled Gardens". That's ironic coming from Google by the way but that's not the point. The point is algorithm.

So there are a lot of parts moving to make the page load and display properly which is why we experience these issues with display.
Then to add another wrench into the mix, it seems that the Chromium browsers have gotten an update on September 19 which is affecting javascript commands, specifically emoji reactions on this site.

Hey @GaryA , you got a proper link to that post?

Also, @Magenta panels don't load for me either from time to time, mainly because i use a VPN but also for the reasons i mentioned about PING and algorithm, but when i change the VPN location, then they load on the next refresh.