I like the booru style websites, so I self-hosted my own "lenient SFW" alternative - Gsbooru
Hello all,
Using a throwaway account here because I've been a bit nervous about sharing a project I've been working on.
I admire the anime image board (booru) style, particularly Safebooru. It’s an incredible website that I have used for years.
However, I've noticed over time that their scope has shifted after the ratings adjustment over at Danbooru about 4 years ago, with the introduction of "rating:general". Safebooru has been pivoting toward this much stricter "general" rating, which means a lot of legacy, non-explicit art is being purged. (For example, safebooru posts like #2647960, #2760121, and #2632981, are slated for removal soon, and the tag "cleavage" has been blacklisted by the import bot for a few years now. If the posts were purged let me know in the comments, I archived them on my site beforehand and can link if interested).
Danbooru is also a fantastic, and you can technically use their is:sfw filter for both general and sensitive images, but unless you have a premium account (which at the time of writing this cannot be purchased), you are hard-capped at searching only 2 tags at a time.
Also, safebooru is likely difficult to update due to the outdated gelbooru engine, leading to lingering technical issues. Some of these off the top of my head are broken forum pagination (any button for pagination redirects to the homepage, although I'm aware there's a workaround via editing the URL) and missing category tag colors (which it used to have, but was lost at some point).
Because I like self-hosting, where I have full control, I decided to take a crack at hosting my own booru, Gsbooru (General-Sensitive Booru), to fill what I see as a missing middle ground.
I’ve waited a bit instead of launching an empty board. I wanted to take time to import the qualifying images from Danbooru first. This way, early visitors have at least some archive to explore, and it establishes a baseline for what future user uploads should look like. Just like the originals I admire, the site is completely ad-free. It doesn't cost me much to self-host it and I like it enough to keep it going, sorta like a passion project.
The goals I have for the site:
The "Lenient SFW" Guideline: It filters out outright pornographic or explicit content (Danbooru's "rating:questionable" and "rating:explicit"), but allows for a more lenient definition of "SFW." General anime art, and suggestive art (swimsuits, lingerie, cleavage, etc) is welcome here.
No Tag Search Limits: Unlike the free tier of Danbooru, you aren't restricted to just 2 tags per search.
Active/Responsive Development: Because I have full control, since I'm not relying on any old engines, updating and patching should be doable, and recommendations for updates are more than welcome.
Link: Gsbooru.org
TL;DR: I love the booru ecosystem but wanted a space with no tag-search limits (like Danbooru) and a slightly more lenient "SFW" rule (allowing sfw and suggestive, but strictly banning explicit/porn). I self-hosted Gsbooru (General-Sensitive Booru) to fill that specific niche. I spent the last few months on this project and would appreciate any feedback/thoughts.
Disclaimer: I never shared any project like this so if there's something I'm doing wrong, let me know. I'm open to all criticisms.