Mamasue - is this true? Graphics question...

[lindrusso]

I was noticing that many BB users are directly linking to graphics on some of the sites that you have so graciously listed.

Isn't it true that we should not be doing this? Shouldn't we be downloading these to our computers and uploading them to our own FTP space?

I've read on many sites that we should not link directly - it costs them money (too technical for me to understand or explain). Just wondering....

[sneezles]

Interesting question as I just tried to view some at harrythecat and couldn't access any gifs!

Sorry, but I'm probably one of the guilty ignorant ones!

[lindrusso]

sneezles - I should explain that I was doing it as well until I looked at several sites and read that they don't want you to link directly.

I just wondered if this was general graphics protocol or what....

But yes, the harry site is very slow, and maybe directly linking is partly responsible! Hmmm...

[This message has been edited by lindrusso (edited 05-21-2001).]

[RobinC]

It is a matter of courtesy to not link to other pages graphics. The image is hosted on their server. So, if someone posts an image on a CL post, that server has to send the image everytime the CL thread with the post is open. What this means is that posting an image from another site causes that site to use the bandwidth it pays for to display graphics on a CL bulletin board. For small graphics (a few kb) this can be no big deal. For larger images, this is inconvenient and possibly costly.

My DB and I run a web server and a small business out of our home. We pay several hundred dollars a month for the connection to the internet for our web server. We want to keep our outgoing bandwidth (the amount of information we are able to send out to the internet) available to our customers.

I am not saying that you should never link an image from another site, but respect the sites that specifically ask you not to do it to their site.

[aggie94]

Oops. I'm guilty of doing this. Sorry!

[Mamasue]

Okay, not let me try to understand this. If a site says that you can use their graphics as long as you give them credit.....I thought that the credit due is when the url address is recognized and posting it with the graphic. Have I been doing it wrong? Now my next question is that if you have to download to your computer and link your address, does that mean I have to have a website to do it? Help....I said I was no guru. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

If I have led everyone down the wrong path, then I am truly sorry. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/frown.gif

[lindrusso]

No, no Mamasue, you have nothing to be sorry for! I just thought that in all your graphics travels, you might know more about this issue than I do!

You bring up an interesting point - using their URL is the easiest way to give them credit.

If you don't want to link directly, you don't have to have a website. Several servers have places set up where you can store your graphics. I download them to my computer and then upload them to my "FTP" space (this is what AOL calls it, I'm not sure if this is universal or not) - which stands for File Transfer Protocol, I believe. It's like an online file where you can store all your graphics. When inserting a graphic, you just have to use the URL where the graphics are located - for instance, I access my graphics under http://members.aol.com:/lindrusso/(insert graphic name here).

I didn't want to cause any confusion, just wondering if it was a "crime" http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif to link directly. Some of the websites make it sound serious which made me a bit skittish about direct linking.



[This message has been edited by lindrusso (edited 05-21-2001).]

[KValley]

oh gosh- I am so guilty of doing this. In fact, when the whole harrythecat craze began a few weeks ago, my directions for posting indicated linking directly to the website. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/redface.gif Horrors!

Never again!

[sneezles]

OK, so I'm still rather ignorant of this whole thing and really have only followed the directions given at another site (so I don't really feel like I'm stealing-they are after all FREE graphics). But do I really want to use my hard drive (I'm not an AOL customer...not cost effective in Podunk, USA) to store all these wonderful .gifs? Someone enlighten me please!

Why is it that when something is so much fun it then becomes something bad!