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Many people on the internet don't actually know about the term "hotlinking", a recent poll suggests. So the moderators think it's time we educate everyone here, and why hotlinking is looked down upon. We're going to be a bit more strict on hotlinking from now on, so I'm making this post to make sure everyone knows what it is. :)

Hotlinker Test!
Let's say you want to suggest the Spinosaurus as a species of Exhibited. Do you:

a. Save the image to your computer (or download it), then reupload it to your own server or a free hosting site? Or use the directly upload from URL that many host pages such as tinypic have?

b. Click "copy image location", copy/paste the spino image on to your topic?

If you chose a, congrats! You're following the international law! If you chose b however, you're a hotlinker. Read on to see why it's theft.

So what is it?
Hotlinking, remote linking, inline linking (they're all the same) is the act of embedding an image from one website directly in to a new website. This is terribly bad, because it uses up the original website owner's bandwidth, and thus they have to pay extra money for something they didn't even know about or do. :(

...What's bandwidth?
A good analogy I've seen is like a car. Bandwidth is like gas in your car's tank. Whenever you drive (an image is loaded, visible for users to see) a bit of fuel is burned up (bandwidth). Now let's say that while you're sleeping, someone steals your car and drives across the street. But once they're done, someone else takes the car and drives down a driveway. And after that, another person takes your car and drives it a couple feet more. And it continues going on like that. Each person thought there wouldn't be any harm, since they were only going a couple feet. Yet it all adds up, and by the time you find your car all the gas is burned up and your tank is empty.

When you don't download an image and upload it to a free-hosting site or your own server, you're like one of those people stealing a car without the owners permission and using up a little bit of their gas. And each time that happens they have to pay for the bandwidth... and bandwidth isn't cheap! Website owners either have to cough up a little extra money or risk closing their site down. So it's just respectful not to hotlink... we don't want the site owners to have to close down their website just because we were too lazy to download the picture and upload it on to a free-hosting site! :(

Free-hosting sites?
I keep talking about free-hosting sites! They're sites that are designed specifically for users to upload their images to (so you don't have to create a server of your own)! Aww, how nice. Here's a list:
ImageShack
Photobucket
Mediafire
4Shared

Uncopyrighted Images
While it's great that you aren't hotlinking, please double check to make sure you have permission to use those images in the first place (some websites don't want you using their images. his is called "copyrighting")! Read more about it here so you can be safe on the internet and won't get in to trouble with laws. Below are some images you have permission to use as long as you don't hotlink them! Feel free to use them for role play images, images you think are cute, whatever the case (as long as you don't sell them for EXD/USD).

Morguefile
Flickr's CC


Reminder!
Also, just a reminder! EX images shouldn't be hotlinked as well! You'll need to download them and upload them, or, if you don't want to do that, please just put a link to their page! I've seen this a lot on the dino sales, breeding board, and exhibited board so if you see it please send in a mod box report and we'll remove it, thanks! (There's no need to post on the hotlinker's post, we'll be sure to inform them/direct them to this post. Also they won't get a warning/fine for doing this, but we're highly discouraging it!)

You guys are awesome, thanks for reading!! 8D

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O.o; it makes sense... but it still sounds backward to me. i mean, uploading it to your own server seems more like stealing than taking the picture from the original site.

However, there is a quicker way than saving it to your computer; you can take the image url and upload it to your own server, most private servers have a "URL" setting where it'll upload from another area on the web.

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It's not stealing if you have permission to use it! :) Tinypic is an acceptable server to use, Star. But I ask that you make an account there, as when you upload images from Tinypic without an account it doesn't keep the upload for more than a week and changes it to something random. xD

I understand this is quite frustrating, but it is the law and it's a much greater hassle on the user on the other end of you. For you it might take 45 minutes, for him it might take $200. D: It is rather annoying, I totally understand. So in that case I would say if it takes that long to upload, could you just link to your dino's page? It's great you guys are responding so well, as I understand it's a huge adjustment to Exhibited's lifestyle. If you have any questions on this feel free to ask!

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Huh.. I did not know that. I agree with Daski, it seems backwards that using it from your own serve is the correct way-- but I'm not complaining since thats the way I do it, lol. Thanks for the education Dyr! -goes to make a TinyPic account-

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As long as you have permission to use the image, then you can upload it on one of those sites. Normal copyright laws still apply - credit where needed, don't use where not allowed.

But it's unfair to someone who provides a stock image, if you then make them pay $200 more for bandwidth due to not uploading the image yourself. =)

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Oh I agree about that. I had no clue it took them more bandwidth though. It all make sense that I know about it ^^ You good ol' mods teaching us how to be better internet surfers.

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how do you upload?

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So umm what about pictures from my facebook wall?
Is that okay?

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