Hotlinking
 

Can someone explain hotlinking a picture to the forum to me? I've always posted pics by using the manage my attachments option, but a mod just told me that only certain forums use that. I don't want to take up too much of the mods time, so I figured I'd come to you all to share your wealth of knowledge.....

just use the {img}http://whereisyourpicture.com{/img} replace the {} with []

and that's it. :)

if you don't get it still.. just find any picture that's not an attachment and use the quote button, you'll then see just how to form the IMG tag.

If you're linking an image from another website, clear your cache and preview the post before you submit it. This will help to avoid a situation whereby you can see the picture but others can only see the world famous red 'x'.

The above isn't necessary if your picture is on a photobucket type picture hosting site.

Ok, I have my own website, so I can do pictures from there...but what is clearing my cache? *not too computer savvy obviously*

Depending on what you use to access the web, there will be an option to delete temporary internet files... Every image you look at, gets downloaded locally to your temp folders directory, so when you go back to look at that page, it loads faster.. The problem is, if you link an image, because it's in your cache... you might not see that there's a problem with it...

The TB has this issue frequently where sites have disabled hotlinking --so you don't reaqlize that only you can see the images.

IN Internet Explorer, you clear your cache, by going to Tools/Internet Options - and click the Delete Files Button....

If you're using Microsoft Internet Explorer, go to: Tools > Internet Options > Delete Temporary Internet Files.

The 'cache' is a store of all files you have looked at on the internet.

Try posting a picture and see what happens.

http://th-archive.com/roo.jpg

Lets see if this works...

Sweet! Now, can anyone see it?

Yup. It works.

Whoohoo!! Thanks for the help, everyone!

You actually only put the link, which means that you have to click on the link itself to see the picture.

If you use the HTML code for it, {img src=""}{/img} (with <> instead of {}) you'll actually show the picture itself IN the post, instead of the link to the image... like this:

<img src="http://th-archive.com/roo.jpg"></img>

So once again, the code for that is... (use <> instead of {})
{img src="http://th-archive.com/roo.jpg"}{/img}

I can see the picture. Do you (JinnKai) have a setting on your browser or in your TFProject user control panel set to show pictures as links?

UserCP > Options > Half way down the page: A tick box - Show Images (including attached images and images in [IMG] code)

Off by default, didn't know it was there.. so no, I didn't.

and always remember that linking images from another site (unless the site says you can) is illegal and the site they are posted on CAN be prosecuted for it. (trust me I've been thru it with people hotlinking porn pics on my old message board)

only hotlink from somewhere you have an account with :thumbsup:

Please note that what Shani said is definitely true; however.. linking a SITE (as long as it is not deeplinking) or using a thumbnail of the image (created by you) to link to THEIR image is still legal.


(Even though, technically.. anyone who links a news article rather than the news' webpage homepage is breaking the law...)

Well, I don't understand the technicalities of this....I linked this from my website, which I hoste through yahoo and pay for, and the pic is mine....is that ok?

Its about copyright.. if you own it, you can distribute it, link it, hotlink it, whatever the hell you want. If its hosted on another persons' site the presumption is that THEY own it, and it would therefore be unethical (and most times illegal) to hotlink it -- because the presumption is then that the image is YOURS. However, linking to a site' frontpage is like giving someone directions to a business.. as long as you're not claiming the business is yours.

Gotcha. Thanks for the explanation.

I should have made that more clear...Im sorry...you of course can put a url link up to anywhere like when we post a news article and we post the link from where it came from. It that same article had a picture with it and you used the img tags and THEIR url in the tag information...thats hotlinking...its also called bandwidth theft because anytime the thread is opened and that picture is loaded, its not using the bandwidth here its using the bandwith of the site url you posted, and they are having to pay for the bandwith all the people on this site are using to load their picture.

img linking from your own yahoo account, which you pay for and the bandwidth is yours is ok to do. Thats why any img you see me post here is pulled from my own website. (or added as an attachment if its a thread that allows that)