Motivation / Background

Fixes #3055

The via.placeholder.com service no longer resolves (ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED), so every URL generated by Faker::Placeholdit is broken. In the issue discussion, @stefannibrasil asked for this generator to be deprecated — consistent with the project's decision to move away from generators that rely on external services (#2852) — rather than repointing it at another third-party host.

This PR deprecates Faker::Placeholdit#image using Gem::Deprecate, following the process documented in CONTRIBUTING.md and the precedent from #2733 (free_email/safe_email). The generator keeps working and returns the same values, so this is fully backward compatible — it just warns and recommends Faker::LoremFlickr.image, the maintained replacement.

Additional information

Console output after the change:

$ bundle exec rake console
irb(main):001> Faker::Placeholdit.image(size: '50x50', format: 'jpg')
NOTE: Faker::Placeholdit.image is deprecated; use Faker::LoremFlickr.image instead. It will be removed on or after 2026-12.
Faker::Placeholdit.image called from (irb):1.
=> "https://via.placeholder.com/50x50.jpg"

Changes:

• lib/faker/default/placeholdit.rb: extend Gem::Deprecate + deprecate :image, 'Faker::LoremFlickr.image', 2026, 12 (date mirrors the ~6-month horizon used in Generate safe email and domain_name by default (RFC 2606) #2733; happy to adjust it to match your release plans)
• test/faker/default/test_placeholdit.rb: regression test asserting the deprecation warning is emitted (verified it fails without the deprecate call); existing tests silence the warning via Gem::Deprecate.skip in setup/teardown to keep test output clean
• doc/default/placeholdit.md: deprecation notice pointing to Faker::LoremFlickr

Test results: bundle exec rake → 2180 tests, 297308 assertions, 0 failures, 0 errors; RuboCop: 576 files inspected, no offenses detected.

Checklist

Before submitting the PR make sure the following are checked:

• This Pull Request is related to one change. Changes that are unrelated should be opened in separate PRs.
• Commit message has a detailed description of what changed and why. If this PR fixes a related issue include it in the commit message. Ex: [Fix #issue-number]
• Tests are added or updated if you fix a bug, refactor something, or add a feature.
• Tests and Rubocop are passing before submitting your proposed changes.

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