Warning on posting pics

[I, Brian]

If you want to post an image to chronicles from elsewhere on the internet, try to avoid posting a direct image link, and instead try to upload the image to chronicles.

Why this is an important issue

If you simply post a direct image link to an image on another person's server, they can swap the original image for something else.

A common tactic is to swap a harmless image for very gross pornographic images - the sort you really wished you hadn't seen. This happened in one of the threads last night.

This happens because people viewing the image on this site are using up the server resources on the other site, and some people hate that. It's a process called "hotlinking".

Recommended procedure:

1. Right click on the image and "save as", saving it to your own computer harddrive
2. If posting in reply, use the "Go advanced" posting option instead of the quick reply
3. Beneath the posting area there's a button - manage attachments - click on that
4. Now select the image from your PC to upload, and click on upload

You should now have posted the image directly to the chronicles server.


Hope that helps - any questions, feel free to ask.

[knivesout]

As an alternative, if you don't want to clog up the Chronicles server by uploading images directly (bless you), please copy the image onto a free image hosting service, and then link it from there. Photobucket, Imageshack, Flickr, or any similar site will allow you to create a personal gallery with html links for each image.

[Dave]

But be aware of copyright issues when doing so. Copyright applies to most photography. It gives a photographer the exclusive right to make and sell copies of the photo; to create derivative works (other art based on the photo, such as a painting of the photo); to display the photo in public; and to license usage for money to other people. However, many images have been used so much, especially those in viral emails, the images could now be argued to be in the “public domain” anyway.

[manephelien]

The last point applies to both photo services and uploads to the server. Quite frankly not something I'm overly concerned about.

Uploading photos to the site server is a hassle, and unless you're posting very large pictures, I don't like the additional bother of having to click minuscule thumbnails on other people's posts.

So I use photobucket (and will use thumbnails on images wider than about 500 pixels). Unless you've shared your password with someone else, it's extremely unlikely the picture will be substituted.