External Link Usage and Limitations

[JBNeal]

I posted a link to the hamb of a picture of a Tucker Torpedo at a used car lot back in the day that drew an unexpected warning response.  I have tried a search on this site for some clarification on the issue of posting external links, as I have seen warnings to not post external links on other websites (external links affect bandwidth or sumthin'ruther).  I had been posting links in an attempt to not max out my data limit on attachments.  As I would like to get with the program, I am looking into getting away from small attachments and posting the image urls from an image hosting site.  So I am wondering what the rules are on posting external links as I could not find that information in the FAQ or the help topics...did I miss something?

[Plymouthy Adams]

don't know the data limits etc....but posting as many links to the hamb and such was sort of redundant was  my personal thought.  If anyone here was interested they could just as easy search the site themselves.  The hamb is an open to the public and membership is easy.  Search engine there is as useful and friendly as the one here.  I would think the same would have been accomplished with a simple note that while searching the hamb you found so many interesting builds and let it go at that, if folks were interested to see, let them be a bit more proactive such as you were when you went looking.  Just my take on the multiple posts.

[TodFitch]

You can use the inline image tag on your posts to simply show an image located on another site. There are some other sites that block that, but in general it works and it doesn't use any of your image storage quota here.

[P15-D24]

I posted a link to the hamb of a picture of a Tucker Torpedo at a used car lot back in the day that drew an unexpected warning response.  I have tried a search on this site for some clarification on the issue of posting external links, as I have seen warnings to not post external links on other websites (external links affect bandwidth or sumthin'ruther).  I had been posting links in an attempt to not max out my data limit on attachments.  As I would like to get with the program, I am looking into getting away from small attachments and posting the image urls from an image hosting site.  So I am wondering what the rules are on posting external links as I could not find that information in the FAQ or the help topics...did I miss something?

No restrictions on posting URLs from here to other sites. As Tod noted if its for a car for sale "referral" probably should go into the Ebay, Craigslist ... Referral Forum and some sites block external linking. If you manage the sizes of the images you post (100kb - 400Kb) you should be able to store thousands of photos in your account. If you set up a gallery account you get more storage and you can use them in threads with the My Media button. 

[Ulu]

When you "hot link" someone else's picture you've lost control.

 

They can remove that photo, or change it, or replace it with pornography, or an ad for their website--just anything.

 

If you save a photo you can upload directly or host it yourself.

 

Then you have control over the situation.

 

 

When you "hot link", It will also cause someone else's website to serve up that pic, whenever someone opens the thread here. They provide a service but you don't see the ads on their site to "pay" them back.

 

You've essentially "stolen" their service of that photo to you, and to anyone else here who looks at the thread.

 

I have seen cases of this where the offended site owner swaps out that cute photo for some really offensive nightmare which you would NOT want your kids to see here.

Edited December 20, 2015 by Ulu

[Don Coatney]

When you "hot link" someone else's picture you've lost control.

 

They can remove that photo, or change it, or replace it with pornography, or an ad for their website--just anything.

 

If you save a photo you can upload directly or host it yourself.

 

Then you have control over the situation.

 

 

When you "hot link", It will also cause someone else's website to serve up that pic, whenever someone opens the thread here. They provide a service but you don't see the ads on their site to "pay" them back.

 

You've essentially "stolen" their service of that photo to you, and to anyone else here who looks at the thread.

 

I have seen cases of this where the offended site owner swaps out that cute photo for some really offensive nightmare which you would NOT want your kids to see here.

Good point. I once "hot linked" a photo from EBay. The seller once the sale ended changed that photo using abusive language and it was visible on this forum from the link I posted.

[TodFitch]

When you "hot link" someone else's picture you've lost control.

 

They can remove that photo, or change it, or replace it with pornography, or an ad for their website--just anything.

 

If you save a photo you can upload directly or host it yourself.

 

Then you have control over the situation.

 

 

When you "hot link", It will also cause someone else's website to serve up that pic, whenever someone opens the thread here. They provide a service but you don't see the ads on their site to "pay" them back.

 

You've essentially "stolen" their service of that photo to you, and to anyone else here who looks at the thread.

 

I have seen cases of this where the offended site owner swaps out that cute photo for some really offensive nightmare which you would NOT want your kids to see here.

You are correct. . . Just copy the photo and then repost it. Looks like the size limit GTK has in place should impose no hardships.

 

I do hot link, but only from my own site. So I retain control and I don't mind having my server provide the bandwidth for that.

 

Not related to this, but I do mind that some of my articles on my website have been copied verbatim with no credit for their source and now some search engines assume that all copies, including mine, shouldn't be listed as they are plagiarized. Please, if you find and interesting (non-forum) page on the web, give a link to it rather than copy the text verbatim.

[Ulu]

I used to hot-link to photobucket. I lost several photos that way, when it turned out I'd loaded them remotely and without local (or other) backups.

 

Photobucket tossed a bunch of my stuff in a re-boot or something.

 

Now I don't bother with services like photobucket.

 

Every place I go, including my own site, hosts files; and I keep multiple local backups.

 

As cheap bandwidth has flourished for many, Hot-linking is not so universally hated as it one was. But it's a poor practice and always was. 

Edited December 21, 2015 by Ulu