This is topic How not to use the [IMG] tags! in forum Science Police Headquarters at Legion World.


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Posted by Nightcrawler on :
 
Ok. This has been a long time in coming. Some of us have been guilty of this faux pas for awhile now and because our little community hasn't had enough traffic to have too much of an adverse affect of the images that people have displayed, I've tried to keep a blind eye or in some cases even sanctioned the activity.

But, as in this case (the first post originally contained [IMG] tagged images from the site linked therein), we recieved a stern and justified talking down about bandwidth theft by the site's owner and I had to go and edit the images into links to stop the theft from continuing and getting us into further trouble.

Here's some sites I'd like everyone to read to get a better understanding of the issue:

What is Hotlinking and Bandwidth Theft?

Don't Even Think About It!

Bandwidth Theft

Wikipedia's listing

And lastly, our own White Raven's (Kat's) take on the subject.

So, now that you know about it, what should you do or do differently? First, try to set up the image you'd like to share on your own server/website/image host and link from there. Or, you can use our (admittedly limited) album to upload the image to here to share. [EDIT: Users can upload images using the "Upload File Form" link now!] Or, if your album is full or you can't access it, contact either me or Lightning Lad or our site e-mail: legionadmin@legionworld.net by e-mail with a copy of said image and we'll upload it here for you to share.

Or, if all of the above fails or is too complex for a quick little joke/post/whatever, you can always link to the image instead.

[ March 12, 2008, 04:06 PM: Message edited by: Nightcrawler ]
 

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Posted by Fat Cramer on :
 
Whoa! I'm a criminal!

Thanks for the info Gary - this technodope herenever thought about the ramifications for the original site.
 

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Posted by Star Boy on :
 
So setting up an album at a site like Photobucket and linking to the images there is cool? You're referring mainly to just linking to an image on another site rather than one you specially uploaded to another site?
(I suspect you are but it's late here and I'm tired. )
 

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Posted by Jorg-EM on :
 
I have no idea who Pariscub is. I've never talked to him before. This is what I told the FBI.

Star Boy setting up your own account on any of the websites that offer the service should be cool.
 

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Posted by Quislet, Esq. on :
 
Gary,

Might I suggest also placing this thread (and making it a sticky) in the other forums.

Just so more people will see it
 

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Posted by Lightning Lad on :
 
I have to admit I've gotten really bad at hotlinking lately because we've basically cut off every conceivable way of uploading from work (where I tend to live). PowWeb sites especially, for some reason, have been blocked from work for FTP purposes. Even their on-line web-based FTP only works when we are having some network issues at work.

So while I am more than glad to help out uploading or storing images here or at my sites if you ask me during the day chances are you'll have to wait until past 8:00 pm (Mountain Time) before I can upload it.
 

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Posted by Greybird on :
 
Photobucket, ImageShack.us, and other such sites encourage you to upload images, and provide hotlinks in various formats for use with message boards like this one. These services are usually free. They don't take bandwidth from private parties' Websites.

ImageShack, which I've long been using, has no limits on the number of such graphics you can place on line. (They do have maximum sizes, but it's a courtesy to others strongly down-size such Web-posted graphics anyway. And you can only upload one image at a time with the free service.)

More details are in the storage/hosting/linking thread that's stickied at the top of Bits. (Soon to be updated.)
 

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Posted by MLLASH on :
 
I'm still not super-clear on why it's such a big deal. Does it damage the other person's computer or files-- or increase their costs in any way?

Don't we link images from other comics websites ALL the time... (namely, various comic book covers)?
 

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Posted by Lightning Lad on :
 
It is a cost issue Lash. Most providers charge you for the bandwidth used and with us linking to their images it counts against their bandwidth. In some cases they may not have much and going over their limit can incur major charges.

As for us linking ALL the time, we shouldn't be unless we have the permission to do so. Regular linking, like this is fine. It is when we pull an image directly into our site that causes the issue.

Like Gary stated if you want to share a photo that is posted elsewhere on the web and do not have permission to hotlink to it, send it to us for hosting or just provide a regular URL link instead of a IMG or THUMB link.
 

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Posted by Nightcrawler on :
 
Right.

Let me give you an example. I own a free domain, http://nightcrawler.8bit.co.uk/ that's hosted by a company called http://www.portland.co.uk/ and costs me nothing. Usually. As long as the account does not exceed 100MB of transfer each month (FYI, LegionWorld.net averages about 400MB or more a day). Anything above that I have to pay hard-earned money for.

So one day, I decided to host some images about some DCD toys and link to them at the DC Direct message board at DC COMICS. Within a few hours I had exceeded my bandwidth and got a bill from Portland. I had to pay £15 at the time which equated to almost $30.

It doesn't sound like much. But for an otherwise free site and money that I could have used elsewhere, it was a lot. For a momentary act of kindness for toy collectors I don't know or at the end of the day even care that much about. The only good part was that this was my bonehead move to make and not the result of someone else finding the images and linking to them. That's how it can cost other people and why it could be a problem.

The above example was just from linking to something. But when we display an image here on the message board pages those images are loaded onto our computer's cache from the other person's webpage everytime someone looks/loads at that page here. Not there. Not just when they click the link. Everytime. It adds up and can ultimately cost the original website money.

Anyway, I wanted the members to be aware of the situation. I'm not going to police it unless I get a notice from the original website as I did in the above example or if I'm pretty certain that displaying the image(s) will cost or be detrimental to the original site. However, I would appreciate everyone becoming aware of the issue and trying their best not to contribute to it in the future.

Scott and I are around to help if need be and Grey has given wonderful examples on how people can host their own images to share.

[ November 17, 2005, 12:55 PM: Message edited by: Nightcrawler ]
 

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Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
 
I always knew you were all a bunch of criminals, corrupting my innocent young mind!
 

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Posted by Pov on :
 
Aw. I'd just HATE it if I ended up costing this !@#$er some money:





Edit: Images removed

[ November 17, 2005, 03:11 PM: Message edited by: Spellbinder ]
 

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Posted by Blockade Boy on :
 
^^^^
Bad boy

I suggest we all go to that sight and leave multiple messages of apology.

~snicker~
 

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Posted by Reboot on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Pov:
Aw. I'd just HATE it if I ended up costing this !@#$er some money

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Actually, since you only linked to one image, they all count as Just One Hit
 

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Posted by MLLASH on :
 
I had no idea this could cost people money. I'm totally against that; their money isn't mine to spend.

Just in the past week I bet I THUMBed about 20 different creator pictures found on various comic book websites to the "Sexy Creators" thread; do I need to delete these?

I just figured they were public domain or whatever.
 

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Posted by Lightning Lad on :
 
Lash, just send me the links to the images or the images themselves in a PM and I'll create a folder for you to store them in.
 

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Posted by Nightcrawler on :
 
I'll take care of it.

[EDIT: Every image displayed on this topic is not only 99% locally hosted (w/1% hosted by Scott), but most are now editable by Lash in his photo album. (Admins have the ability to put in images of any size and number into other albums, FYI).

And *whew!* similar dealie done here.]

[ November 17, 2005, 09:18 PM: Message edited by: Nightcrawler ]
 

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Posted by MLLASH on :
 
Sorry 'bout that.... but I found some cool pictures though, didn't I?
 

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Posted by Pov on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Spellbinder:

Edit: Images removed

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AAAAWWW! Boooo! Hissss!


 

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Posted by Candle on :
 
Wow, I probably dodged a bullit by not knowing how to link unless the site had a link available, like photobucket.
Otherwise I save to my computer and use tinypics..

I don't even know what most of the terms used really mean.


Please jump on me if I ever screw-up!
gosh
 

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