Image Hotlinking (Elliquiy)

[Twisted Crow]

Can someone describe to me what this is? I read a thread on this in News and Announcements and why its considered.... well, not good to do this for the site. It's generally better to upload images to the Wiki before linking them or....? Not sure if I understand clearly. Can someone spell this out for me, please? I'm just trying to be more aware of the Site Rules and good habits to practice and all that.

Thank you kindly.

[Oreo]

When you hot link you run the risk of a virus being passed through E, if the site you hotlink from gets a virus. If you download to your PC and upload to the Wiki there is zero chance of a virus being passed on.

Hotlinking is copying directly from one site to another.

[Twisted Crow]

So even putting an image link from another site in an IMG tag, this is hotlinking? Why does it feel like everyone does this?

I need to stop this then. I admit, that I've been doing this. I'll correct it.

[Nessy]

So even putting an image link from another site in an IMG tag, this is hotlinking? Why does it feel like everyone does this?

I need to stop this then. I admit, that I've been doing this. I'll correct it.

A lot of people do do this. I am not sure they understand hat hot-linking is either though. It's very easy to upload to the Wiki although I wish there was a better way not to duplicate. I feel there are a lot of the same pics uploaded because there isn't an easy way to find the other ones.

[Oreo]

So even putting an image link from another site in an IMG tag, this is hotlinking? Why does it feel like everyone does this?

I need to stop this then. I admit, that I've been doing this. I'll correct it.

I used to do it before I understood what hotlinking was. Now I load all my pictures either to the Wiki or to my Photobucket account. The nice thing about using the wiki is your pictures will always be linked to E, so they won't disappear if you can no longer access your photo saver account somewhere.

[Vekseid]

So even putting an image link from another site in an IMG tag, this is hotlinking? Why does it feel like everyone does this?

I need to stop this then. I admit, that I've been doing this. I'll correct it.

Hotlinking major sites that are designed for hotlinking (imgur, etc) that support ssl (https:// at the start of the url) is generally fine.

The issue comes from smaller sites that get hijacked. While virii don't get through, an attack I've seen occasionally is an attempt to harvest passwords by password-protecting the image via http auth.

So a member sees the page and gets a password prompt of a sort they probably haven't seen before, and thinks it's an issue with E.

[Twisted Crow]

Hmm. Well, it is better I know this now. Thank you all! Is it better generally to upload pics to the wiki over...say.... photobucket? I feel like it would be, but...

[Oreo]

Bonus of wiki is there isn't a limit. Photobucket now has a limit, then you have to pay for more space.

[Twisted Crow]

That is true. I was also concerned about not overloading it or causing Veks any headaches, but I imagine the alternative (hotlinking and getting virus or other dirt on E) would be much worse. The Wiki, it is. 

[Blythe]

That is true. I was also concerned about not overloading it or causing Veks any headaches, but I imagine the alternative (hotlinking and getting virus or other dirt on E) would be much worse. The Wiki, it is. 

Four sites that are pretty safe to use (if I'm remembering right), if you are not using the Wiki, are Imgur, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Photobucket. These four, to my knowledge, aren't headache-inducing and don't typically need worried about because they are pretty much made for hotlinking, as Veks mentioned about Imgur above, for example.

Wiki is pretty much a must-have if you want animated gif avis or sig images, though.

[Twisted Crow]

Ah, I see. Thank you for the information, everyone!

[Drake Valentine]

I generally use photobucket.

Though PB does have limit and it will shrink an image sometimes from its original size to a smaller size. ;\ It used to not be like that, but years ago things on it changed.

Also E wiki image thing is good for uploading more 'NSFW' images, since other image sites that would mostly be a violation / deleted.

[Geraint]

Four sites that are pretty safe to use (if I'm remembering right), if you are not using the Wiki, are Imgur, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Photobucket. These four, to my knowledge, aren't headache-inducing and don't typically need worried about because they are pretty much made for hotlinking, as Veks mentioned about Imgur above, for example.

Wiki is pretty much a must-have if you want animated gif avis or sig images, though.

From what I can tell Imgur has few problems, Photobucket occasionally goes down and the heavy advertising there can slow things to a crawl when uploading or sometimes prevent uploading at really busy times.  Tumblr and Pinterest are good for hosting for a few months, but Pinterest links come from a cache, and expire after a while (plus their terms of service disallow nudes).  And some people have had trouble with Tumblr links disappearing as well.  For anything posted here, the Wiki is the best bet, and images display faster (especially .gifs or images where there are many of them on the thread page).  It's just not as intuitive or as easy or fast to upload as some of the other sites. 

[Lilias]

Alternatively, Wordpress has a 3GB media allowance per blog (and no limit to how many blogs an account can register), and no problem with NSFW images. Something to consider, even if you don't use the blog part.

[Rogue]

From what I can tell Imgur has few problems, Photobucket occasionally goes down and the heavy advertising there can slow things to a crawl when uploading or sometimes prevent uploading at really busy times.  Tumblr and Pinterest are good for hosting for a few months, but Pinterest links come from a cache, and expire after a while (plus their terms of service disallow nudes).  And some people have had trouble with Tumblr links disappearing as well.  For anything posted here, the Wiki is the best bet, and images display faster (especially .gifs or images where there are many of them on the thread page).  It's just not as intuitive or as easy or fast to upload as some of the other sites.

Ideally, you would reblog the post and use the links from your blog~ *has had this problem before*

[Geraint]

Ideally, you would reblog the post and use the links from your blog~ *has had this problem before*

That would assume one wanted to blog, rather than simply host pictures to use here.

[Rogue]

That would assume one wanted to blog.

*shrugs* would be a free photo bucket.... no assumptions about blogging. You don't need to actually "blog" on tumble.

[Beguile's Mistress]

That would assume one wanted to blog, rather than simply host pictures to use here.

Of course, there are many who use a blog as a sort of online journal and scrapbook and don't care if anyone reads it.

[Geraint]

Of course, there are many who use a blog as a sort of online journal and scrapbook and don't care if anyone reads it.

Indeed milady, and very much to my point.   It is a question of where one keeps one's online journal and scrapbook and who they want to read it ... I keep mine here.