I know what you mean about the ugly offsite image markers... but mostly, those were a response the hundreds who fell prey to the scams of people asking for passwords, etc and then ended up being cleared up.
I suspect the witnesses and Steemit inc got tired of the complaints.
Hi, @bluefinstudios,
I completely understand the motivation...
What I strongly object to is the UGLY solution.
It would be much more cosmetic, and just as effective (if not more so) to bring up a dialog box warning that a user is about to "leave" Steemit. There is absolutely no need to visually burden every link with that stupid box...
And, riddle me this: WHY do links to Steemit hosted images also "feature" that ugly box?
Thanks for dropping in to comment! :D
Oh, not debating the ugliness.
I am an artist...
I simply understand the motivation.
But definitely not the implementation!