Remotely linking to images

Science Fiction TV Show Guides Forums Discussion Forum Help Remotely linking to images

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  • #39408
    nursewhen
    Participant

    Well here’s a bit of netiquette which I (ignorant user that I am) was completely unaware of and am one of the worst culprits of on this board

    I’ve been merrily linking remotely to images not realising that it wasn’t polite until I was brought up short by this one

    hamsterrepublic.com/img/vlad-if-you-like-this-pic-so-much-then-host-a-copy-of-it-yourself-and-stop-remotely-linking-to-it-you-silly-goth-hamsters.png

    OK, so I’m a silly goth hamster ๐Ÿ˜ณ

    I’ve since been told that it’s not nice because it uses somebody elses bandwidth and you should really use your own. Am I the only person who didn’t know this?

    So, when I have time I’m going to host all those pictures of sexy stars which I posted in the sexiest stars thread (why did I post so many ๐Ÿ™„ )

    Out of interest, can anybody tell me just how damaging it is to have people remotely link to your images?

    Also as an aside, on Lexx.com, we’re not allowed to post an inline picture over 30K and they’re pretty strict on that on the whole. Do we need a similar rule here because I’ve noticed some pretty large ones.

    #67789
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Arrrr matey, bandwidth piracy…

    An excellent and absolutely neccesary topic for this forum. Here are some of my long-winded thoughts…

    If I got this right, every time someone opens up a thread with an inline image it steals bandwidth commensurate to the k-size of the pic, if your post with the pic is then quoted by someone else, then twice the bandwidth is stolen. So the bigger the pic, and the more times people “steal” those pics, the more “damage” can be done. The worst that would usually happen is the site’s daily bandwidth quota will be exceeded, and so the site will temporarily shut down (can be extremely annoying). Usually you have X amount of megs allowable for your site and pay for it with a set amount accordingly, but I’ve heard of cases where people don’t have a set-in-stone limit (the more bandwidth used, the more they pay), and cases when people are penalised (have to pay extra) when their site goes over their quota (but the site does not shut down).

    Now I have a fairly small ftp based site (free with my cable service, so not really free), and I have direct linked to images many times and never had a problem, but then I haven’t had lots of other people direct linking to my images. Many ISP providers provide webspace accounts that cost nothing extra (part of the package).

    BTW, at lexx.com many people use photoisland to host their pics because it’s free.

    The general rule-of-thumb here is not to direct link images from other people’s sites, and as for size… A smaller pixel size is helpful to many (especially those with 56k modems) in that the thread will load faster. As for dimensions, a pic should not exceed the margins of the post box — otherwise it will screw up the thread.

    And for anyone reading this, when using other people’s images with img code, you’ll sometimes find that they don’t work properly (set not to allow direct linking) — you might find a little red X, or worse, a huge pic chastising you for stealing bandwidth; it might even call you a silly goth hamster, a punk chipmunk, or a disco duck, so be really careful! ๐Ÿ˜€

    Anyway, at lexx.com they have very strict policies due to the intense traffic in the fora — the more people, the stricter you must be (lots of people using images there). If their site posters doubled in size, they might have to be stricter still, say 20K max. Also bear in mind that their 30K limit means a total of 30k allowable per post, as in, if you are you multiple pics in a post, they cannot exceed 30K (each post BTW has an independent URL but is linked to others to make up a thread, which is a reason why they’re stricter on K limits per post than K limits on each page of a thread).

    This has gotten overly long, sorry, to keep it simple, it is best, I believe, as a general rule not to encourage direct linking of other people’s stuff, ‘though I would argue that it is not so bad to direct link stuff from, for example, a huge corporate identity such as McDonalds (as long as you’re not advertising their stuff) as it is from a fan site (I wouldn’t feel so guilty about stealing from a profit site as a non-profit site; and culture jamming me wouldn’t mind putting some jam into the works when it comes to the corporate fat cats). But you’re getting into an ethical grey area there by allowing one and not the other, and can also lead to confusion.

    Whoops, this got long, sorry. Seems that culture jammin’ me has just jammed up your thread. ๐Ÿ˜›

    #67790
    Jhevz
    Participant

    nursewhen,
    That’s a grand idea; on here we all should limit our pictures to a certain size or better yet, use web pages for others to click on. On lexx.com, Mandrid has actually asked me to do this & I have; I think this is also a great idea for here, that way, anyone who has a dial-up or slower upload, doesn’t have to wait too long to get the picture. I also think it’ll be a good idea for everyone who’s on this board to do that; that way, those with slower connections don’t have to wait or end up with their screensavers to come on in order to see the picture.
    Thanks for the idea; it also gave me another thread to post. ๐Ÿ˜€

    Sci-Fi Fan to Sci-Fi Fan,
    Jhevz ๐Ÿ˜‰

    #67792
    nursewhen
    Participant

    Well shiver me timbers! I’m glad to have brought a worthwhile subject to the group. ๐Ÿ˜€ Thanks for explaining that Logan. A lot of the technicalities of the internet are a bit of a mystery to me and you’ve explained it admirably.
    I didn’t realise I could be helping to bring people’s sites down. No wonder I got called a silly goth hamster ๐Ÿ˜ฏ

    I’ve now hosted all of those pictures and put a link back to where they all came from. hopefully that will have advanced me beyond my current rodent status. ๐Ÿ˜ณ

    Jhevz wrote:

    better yet, use web pages for others to click on. On lexx.com, Mandrid has actually asked me to do this & I have; I think this is also a great idea for here, that way, anyone who has a dial-up or slower upload, doesn’t have to wait too long to get the picture

    Well here’s another thing to throw into the discussion.
    To URL or to IMG, that is the question.

    I remember the good old days when I had a desperately slow dial up connection. If somebody posted a URL, I never clicked on it because I would be stuck for 5 minutes waiting for the picture or the webpage to open up. If an image was posted in line, I could just carry on down the thread, reading peoples’ posts and then nip back up afterwards and look at the pictures.

    So I actually found inline posting of images more friendly to me as a dial up user. Now that I’m broadband, I’m perfectly happy with URLs, though I still tend to post images inline rather than creating URLs.

    Old habits die hard.

    Anybody else got views as to which is best?

    #67794
    Anonymous
    Guest

    This site has been brought down twice because of people stealing my bandwidth. I have to pay for the site to be hosted on a server in the States and although it’s not very expensive, they do have a limit of 20Gb per month. If I go over the limit then they close the site, no warning! The only way I can get it back up again is to pay some more money.

    It’s a very distressing thing and bloody annoying for other users of the site. Visiting Search Engine robots suddenly see the site gone and they they wipe the entries from their directories!! This happened a year ago and I lost all my entries in Yahoo (took me a while to get them back).

    Having said that, not many people have their own place to put images and files and it can be pretty bad for them not to place images and take part in the discussion.

    But, after reading the thread, I wonder if there is a cool way round this for users of this site that don’t have a place to store their images. How about if you use the ’Sci Fi Downloads’ area of this site!?

    There is an area called ‘News Items’. Each user has the ability to upload images from their hard disk to this gallery.

    Nurewhen, when you have an image that you want to use in a discussion on this site (but not for other sites), you can upload it to the Sci Fi Downloads Section in the News Items area and then use the url of that image in any of your posts on this site.

    It’s not a particularly elagant solution, but it may be of use for you and others on SadGeezer.Com. Be aware though, that the moderation system means that the image must be ok’d by a moderator before it is validated to go in the gallery. That only takes a couple of hours though.

    I’ve just uploaded an image from Cowboy Bebop and then used it’s url (it’s quite a long url but don’t let that put you off (you can just cut and paste it by right clicking the image and cutting and pasting the url properties)) like this:

    [code:1]<center>[img]http://www.sadgeezer.com/html/modules/
    My_eGallery/gallery/news/cowboy.jpg[/img]</center>[/code:1]

    Note: I also decided to centre the image.

    Have a go, see if it helps.

    #67793
    nursewhen
    Participant
    SadGeezer wrote:

    This site has been brought down twice because of people stealing my bandwidth.

    Wow, that’s some serious piracy! ๐Ÿ˜ฏ

    But, after reading the thread, I wonder if there is a cool way round this for users of this site that don’t have a place to store their images. How about if you use the ’Sci Fi Downloads’ area of this site!?

    There is an area called ‘News Items’. Each user has the ability to upload images from their hard disk to this gallery.

    That sounds like an excellent solution since I’m told that photoisland can get a bit flaky at times.
    I’ve also now discovered that I’ve never explored this site properly. To think I trawled the internet searching for pictures of Kirk when there’s a gallery here ๐Ÿ™„

    Nurewhen, when you have an image that you want to use in a discussion on this site (but not for other sites), you can upload it to the Sci Fi Downloads Section in the News Items area

    Thank you, I have got my own web space which I’m now uploading my images from. (I was remote linking before out of sheer ignorance). But I know a lot of people who don’t have webspace and this would be a huge help to them.

    So going back to a general piracy question. Are there ways of stealing bandwidth other than remote linking to images?
    I just wondered because I have a feeling that if I’m given a list, I may turn out to be the ” Calico Jack ” Rackham of the internet without even knowing it.

    #67795
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Hrmm, now I know where my Dobby image went!! ๐Ÿ™‚

    I’m terrible at nettiqute, simply because I was “online” longer before there was a WWW than after.

    Once the World Wide Web blew up in the early 90s I went from being a Telnet/BBS guru to an internet weenie. I spent my early childhood to high school on cradles and protocols most people think I’m talking about the Muppets. (Anyone even remember Kermit?)

    I’ve probably broken the rules half a billion times ๐Ÿ˜• If anyone catches me doing something like remotely linking just smack me over the head, because it’s out of ignorance or brain lapses not out of any rudeness. So consider this a pre-emptive appy-polly-loggy ๐Ÿ˜‰

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