I suppose a few of you reading this may have taken the hint. But for the ones that this is not obvious to, I'll explain. This won't be a novel, and for the most part, this probably won't change a thing; I hope it doesn't.
LulzImg came about as a learning project, initially. I personally had no intentions whatsoever to make this site go mainstream when I first coded it from scratch. The theme was crap, designed in paint in about 10 minutes. It was an idea that just randomly struck me and I figured I would go ahead. It was only after it got a re-design, made in paint again, and after I saw genuine interest in the site, that I decided I would let it stay. I honestly didn't think it would pick up so fast.
Things changed, the site grew. I was pretty happy. I always wanted it to stay ad-free and I believe, if nothing else, I've at least managed to achieve that. For the 2 years LulzImg has been online for with millions of uploaded images, we've never had intrusive advertisements. We had ad blocks running in the footer for a short period that were later pulled.
As of today, 2nd August, 2012, LulzImg will permanently cease operations. The site will no longer accept any image uploads - directly or via the API. Images already uploaded will be kept online for the foreseeable future. I would, however, advise that if you can you move your images to an alternative image host and/or back them up. Your images will be kept online, but precaution is always good.
This isn't a decision I've made on a whim; it was a very difficult decision to make, to say the least. I had plans for the site, but given the recent situations that have developed over the past few months, I believe the wiser decision here is to gradually shut the site down. I will be unable to get into detail about why I'm taking this decision, but rest assured there are no financial reasons to this. The decision is final and will not be reconsidered.
Regardless of what went down these 2 years, running LulzImg was not only fun, but also a great learning experience. Being able to provide an ad-free, quality service was more than half my intention, and I'm glad I kept that going from start right until the end.
Good luck, everyone. It's been a fun ride!
