Please don't hotlink images

[Bondi]

Okay, I don't want to have to keep warning everybody on this forum over hot-linking, but I don't have a choice in the matter as it could potentially put our forum at risk, especially if the person you're stealing bandwidth from complains about it to us or to the host of this board. Hotlinking means posting a direct link to an image on someone else's server, usually using the <img> tag, or as would be the case on this forum, the BB code equivalent of the image tag. This could also be done through use of forum avatars, pictures in your signature, or by posting images in your post. Now, I don't have a problem with people who want to post images in their posts or in their signatures, but what I do have a problem with, and what I will warn you for if I catch you doing it, is directly linking that image from someone else's site, unless that site explicitly states somewhere that you are allowed to do that. For those guilty of hot-linking that I haven't caught and warned yet, you're lucky in that you have time to fix it before I catch up to you, which might be in a few days, or a few minutes, or any time, so you might want to fix the problem now if you wish to avoid getting a warning. For those I have warned, well, sorry, you weren't so lucky in that I found out about it already; however, I'll still be more than happy to help you out with posting images in such a way to avoid getting warnings in the future.

Don't know why hot-linking is a bad thing? This link explains why this is a bad thing and why it could potentially get this forum in trouble. Keep in mind also, that aside from the legal ramifications, if you link directly to an image on someone else's server, you have no control over what that guy might do with the image; he could easily delete the image resulting in a broken link, or might rename that image and then put another image with the same filename, so that your avatar would be something that you absolutely would not want as your avatar.

For avatars, there is absolutely NO reason why you need to hotlink someone else's avatars and if you do, it's out of pure laziness. The forum software allows users to upload the avatar onto our server, where it will be nice and safe and will remain there for as long as this forum stays up or until you decide to change it. After saving the image you want to use as an avatar, all you need to do is go to My Controls, edit avatar settings, and then from there you can hit the browse button to select the image you want to upload to the server, and after you've selected it, simply click on update avatar. That's it; nice and easy, and it will help you avoid getting a warning on that sort of thing.

For posting images in your signature, you can download the image to your harddrive, then start an account at Photobucket.com and put the image there. You can do that also when posting images in your posts

If you don't know how to save an image to your harddrive, all you have to do is right click on the image, then select an option which will probably say something along the lines of: "Save Picture" or "Save Image" or something similar, depending on what browser you use.

If you have any questions or need help with posting images in avatars, signatures, or posts in such a way that will not get you warned, feel free to PM me or any other member of the Staff.