Quick question regarding the guidelines

[Femilloween77]

Hi all! 

Not sure if I'm posting in the right place, sorry in advance if I'm not.

Regarding the guidelines, I read that "hotlinking" is prohibited, but I am struggling to understand exactly what that is...

For example, if I copy and paste an image that I found on a Wikipedia article, would that be hotlinking? 

I hope this isn't a dumb question, but I wouldn't want to unknowingly break a rule in the future.

[sneezefan222]

3 minutes ago, Femiline77 said:

Hi all! 

Not sure if I'm posting in the right place, sorry in advance if I'm not.

Regarding the guidelines, I read that "hotlinking" is prohibited, but I am struggling to understand exactly what that is...

For example, if I copy and paste an image that I found on a Wikipedia article, would that be hotlinking? 

I hope this isn't a dumb question, but I wouldn't want to unknowingly break a rule in the future.

Sounds like a question for the staff. 

[SleepingPhlox]

12 hours ago, Femiline77 said:

Hi all! 

Not sure if I'm posting in the right place, sorry in advance if I'm not.

Regarding the guidelines, I read that "hotlinking" is prohibited, but I am struggling to understand exactly what that is...

For example, if I copy and paste an image that I found on a Wikipedia article, would that be hotlinking? 

I hope this isn't a dumb question, but I wouldn't want to unknowingly break a rule in the future.

If you saved the image to your own computer, and then uploaded it either to an image hosting service or to the forum, it would not be hotlinking.

If you embedded the image in your post by linking to it's location on Wikipedia, that would be hotlinking.

The first option is absolutely fine, the second is not because though the image displays on our site, it uses the original sites bandwidth, which is an internet no-no  Though, you may link to images by using links on sites that expressly allow it (image hosting sites such as Postimages for example.)

I hope I explained that in a way that made sense. In short:

Saving an image to your own PC and reuploading it here ✔️

Uploading an image to an image hosting site and linking it here ✔️

Linking to an image that is hosted on another site (which is not an image hosting site) ❌

Let me know if you have any more questions. There are no dumb questions, asking is always good, and hey, someone could be reading this right now who wanted to know the same thing but was too afraid to ask!

Edited July 9, 2023 by SleepingPhlox

[kiku]

@SleepingPhlox Thanks for saying there are no dumb questions, because I always feel so embarrassed about not knowing even basic things about computer stuff... ☺️
Did I get it right that if I want to share, for example, pictures of an artist I found on the internet, it would be wrong to put a link (not the image itself, just the link leading to the site) into my post? Or would that be OK, and it would only be wrong to copy-paste the image directly from the site without saving it on my computer first?

 

[SleepingPhlox]

2 hours ago, kiku said:

@SleepingPhlox Thanks for saying there are no dumb questions, because I always feel so embarrassed about not knowing even basic things about computer stuff... ☺️
Did I get it right that if I want to share, for example, pictures of an artist I found on the internet, it would be wrong to put a link (not the image itself, just the link leading to the site) into my post? Or would that be OK, and it would only be wrong to copy-paste the image directly from the site without saving it on my computer first?

 

An outgoing link is actually fine (and especially in the case of art, it's good internet etiquette to direct people to the artist rather than save and repost).

So this is okay:

https://postimg.cc/0KqTpN4R

But if you embedded the image like so (I'm using a postimages link as an example, even though postimages is okay to link to), that is hotlinking.

Now, there are sites where it IS okay to link to the images like that - image hosting sites like postimages, and gif hosting sites like giphy, tenor or gifycat allow people to link to the images hosted on their site. But most websites do not.

I hope I said that in a way that makes sense, but if not, let me know!

[kiku]

@SleepingPhlox Thanks, it makes perfect sense! 😊 I must admit I've never posted gifs before - I've checked out giphy, but I wasn't sure whether I could just link to the gifs or need to download them first, but from your explanation I see now that it's OK to link to them. BTW, I take it the gifs on giphy, tenor or gifycat are all fair use...?

[SleepingPhlox]

13 hours ago, kiku said:

@SleepingPhlox Thanks, it makes perfect sense! 😊 I must admit I've never posted gifs before - I've checked out giphy, but I wasn't sure whether I could just link to the gifs or need to download them first, but from your explanation I see now that it's OK to link to them. BTW, I take it the gifs on giphy, tenor or gifycat are all fair use...?

Yep, the gifs on those sort of sites are there to be used freely anywhere you want!

[kiku]

@SleepingPhlox That's cool, thanks! 🌸

[Femilloween77]

Thanks for the answer ! ❤️