Sharp as a Marble - A note on hotlinking

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A note on hotlinking

Geekdom

I realize that some people aren't tech savvy and aren't aware of some of the technical etiquette the Interweb Tubes require. Here's a quick primer on images

If you like someone's image, copy it to YOUR blog's webserver or upload it to your online photo system like Photobucket or Flikr.
Always do your best to link back to the original post. Sometimes you find images that you don't know where they originated from and you can't help it, but if you read a blog and like something and want to put it on yours, make sure you give credit where credit is due.
Finally, don't hotlink images. If the SRC attribute of the <IMG> tag doesn't point to YOUR website or your photo hosting service, then you end up using someone else's bandwidth. Doing so may cause the owner of the image to swap out what you are linking to.

UPDATE - The original post has been updated several times and finally the guy saved it to someplace not on someone else's server. This was the original image they were looking at. Here's what I swapped it with (midly NSFW if you have an aversion to gay cooties)

posted @ 9/16/2009 12:41:43 PM

Incoming Links

Daily Pundit » Hot Links! Yum! on 9/16/2009 12:58:07 PM

Comments

Anonymous says:

on 9/16/2009 12:53:49 PM

Great to replace the image with something offensive. Why not a simple don't hot link image? Try and offend someone who innocently clicks, rather than the people spreading the links. Fantastic.

Robb Allen says:

on 9/16/2009 12:58:16 PM

Offending people is part of the charm here.

Anonymous says:

on 9/16/2009 12:59:11 PM

Would have been happy to link to the original post. Someone else sent me the link to just the pic. I did go to your blog to try to find the original post, but your blog software sucks donkey balls - it has no search capability that I could find - and I was unable to find his original post in the few minutes I had between meetings when I posted it.

Robb Allen says:

on 9/16/2009 1:11:54 PM

Ah, yes. My software sucks simply due to your inability to use Google and / or Right Click - Save As. Got it.

cybrus says:

on 9/16/2009 1:14:59 PM

Heh - "I only have a few minutes between meetings - I don't have time to upload it to my own site and the fate of the world depends on me posting this to arfcom IMMEDIATELY!"

David, Chandler, AZ says:

on 9/16/2009 1:15:25 PM

So rather than post later when you had the time Anonymous (if that's your real name) you just decided to be a dick and hotlink. Hell, you didn't need the original post since you had the site URL.

Steven says:

on 9/16/2009 1:23:40 PM

Could have been worse. Could have been Goatse...

cybrus says:

on 9/16/2009 1:30:48 PM

Heh - Goatse would just be wrong...

DirtCrashr says:

on 9/16/2009 1:49:54 PM

Hotlinking is so AOL.

N.U.G.U.N. says:

on 9/16/2009 3:52:27 PM

Etiquette is always an intriguing thing.

When I was in U.S. Coast Guard Academy we had numerous etiquette classes. Of course almost every thing they instructed us to do on etiquette and hygene went against regs.

Likewise, hotlinking is one of those issues. It's poor etiquette. But it's also legal. Downloading and reposting an image being illegal, and potentially can have your website brought down and your hosting cancelled.

But either way, one should at least link to the site regardless of whether you download and post or hotlink to an image.

Linoge says:

on 9/16/2009 4:58:56 PM

I did go to your blog to try to find the original post, but your blog software sucks donkey balls - it has no search capability that I could find...

Let me help you out a little - the post you were looking for is the first return. Hell, you could have linked to the root domain at the very least...

In the future, if you are going to try and insult someone's blogging engine, it would help not to be a complete idiot. Just sayin'.

What is funny is that the idiot in question was hotlinking the image from Mr. Silence's weblog when I saw it earlier. At least he finally got the message.

Thirdpower says:

on 9/16/2009 5:09:38 PM

I admit it. I uploaded it to FB w/o attributing it. I fixed it after Robb smacked me over the head for being rude.

Robb Allen says:

on 9/16/2009 5:18:07 PM

Hell, attribution isn't that big of a deal. In fact, I got that image from someone else who got it from someone else who got it from Fark, I think.

So, that tends to happen.

jed says:

on 9/16/2009 8:11:15 PM

Couple other hotlink things...

Substitute a very wide or very tall image, but make the other dimension pretty small. A GIF with only a few colors will compress well, you won't use much bandwidth, and you'll totally hose the sucker's layout, unless they've been very good with their formatting. Very wide works better for this.

Exempt aggregators from your hotlink redirect. I see a lot of RSS feeds where the IMG embed is in the feed. But since I'm using Bloglines, it's the referrer, not the blog hosting the image. (Of course this means that people who are using the hotlinker's RSS feed also won't see the replacement image. Tradeoffs are a bitch. Depends on how nice you want to be.)

Robb Allen says:

on 9/16/2009 8:17:51 PM

Jed, I don't automatically block images. I know I can check the referrer to the image and ensure it's coming locally, but that's a lot of effort.

Instead, I'll just have fun every here and there when I feel like it.

Charlie Foxtrot says:

on 9/16/2009 10:03:32 PM

Okay - I'm stoopid. I know that. Got it on full authority of the wifey.

But, I though hotlinking with attribution drove traffic to the site, and was therefore desired. Copying the photo to another server, even with attribution, was considered theft. I'm so contused.

Robb Allen says:

on 9/17/2009 7:10:00 AM

CF, it depends on the person you're copying from.

In ARFCOM's instance, it was a direct pull of the image with no attribution nor any link back to the site. I got 'traffic', but only that particular image. Nobody hit my blog. This sucks up my bandwidth which I pay for. SaaM runs out of my house. I pay out the nose for business class Internet service.

Now, for me, as long as you give attribution, a copy of the image and a link back is all I really would ask for. Technically, delivering any images via HTTP is just that - DELIVERING the image. You have it on your hard drive the instant you view it. Unlike physical media, I must deliver a copy to you that I cannot get back in order for you to see the picture.

Stan says:

on 9/17/2009 11:53:54 AM

But Goatse is such a Classic!

Xrlq says:

on 9/18/2009 7:06:23 AM

Here are my two favorite hotlink swappers:

http://xrlq.com/Images/whosyourfroggy.gif
http://xrlq.com/Images/hasselhoff.gif

Comments have been closed on this topic.