So, a while back, we moderators came across an issue that any growing board has to answer to: hotlinking images.

For those who don't know, hotlinking images is, for the purposes of our dicussion, "using an [img] tag to display a JPEG image you found on someone else's web page so it will appear on your forum posting." In other words it's what many of us do in every "welcome" thread, and it's bad. Hotlinking is a very bad thing because the sites you link to have limited bandwidth and have to pay for every bit of it. One website compares it to plugging an appliance into your neighbour's wall socket and taking their electricity.

How can you avoid being a bandwidth thief? It's pretty simple, really. If you find an image you want to use on the boards, only its on a website where you don't pay the rent, find a place to host it. There's www.flickr.com or www.imageark.net or www.photbucket.com . . . quite a few. They're free, and simple enough to use that I can figure them out. Really, that's pretty simple, trust me. Save your pictures there and then link to the picture at that hosting site.

If we find a hotlinked image, we will delete the image and we will take 100 points off your Karma. If you don't have 100 points of Karma yet, we'll send you a message letting you know that your picture's been removed and what you can do about it. Repeat offenses from "newbies" or regulars will lead to greater consequences.

This starts as of February 8th, 2006,

For more information, check out www.altlab.com/hotlinking.html or similar sites. Feel free to ask questions here, by PM or via e-mail.

Please remember that some images may be copyrighted, and you may be in violation of applicable copyright laws by reposting images that do not belong to you. Should a copyright holder ask us to delete a reposted image, we will immediately comply. That said, we will not be doing spot-checks specifically for copyrighted images -- you and you alone are responsible for your actions and you will find no support from us if you break the law.