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August 10, 2005

Never, ever Hotlink!

If you want to feature a photo that is on someone else's blog or website, you should copy that photo to your own server or get an account at one of those photo-hosting servers.

Last night, this website: http://thisismycomputerblog.blogspot.com/ by something named Eggagog got an Instalanche from Ann Althouse (who does not appreciate the fact that Glenn links to Carnivals, by the way)

Anyway, back to the above-mentioned blog. It's goofy and cute, and there are a ton of pictures there. Because I like to have pictures on my blog, I checked the properties on several of them to see where Eggagog is hosting his/her pictures. He/she is not hosting them. They are all hot-linked. That means that people viewing the pictures on the Eggagog blog are using the bandwidth of people who are not Eggagog and probably don't know where all their bandwidth is going to - especially after an Instalanche. The bandwidth they pay for is essentially being stolen by the blog. And that can get very expensive. John has had this problem to the point where he is thinking about not publishing as many pictures.

If you want a picture on your blog, please remember that you should host that picture yourself. Fototime and Exposure Manager are two good examples of hosting companies that charge reasonable prices.

Posted by Beth at August 10, 2005 5:43 AM

Comments

Enable hotlink protection in Cpanel. ;)

Posted by: pam at August 10, 2005 7:51 AM

I am bad and I often hotlink...not usually from blogs (though blogspot blogs aren't paying for their space), but from news sites, etc. That's why I always take down the pics the next day. I also link the news story that I am using the picture from so they are getting a plug. I hotlink from Hot or Not all the time, but I figure they owe me for all the 'Sandbox' free advertising that I throw their way ;)

*hangs head in shame*

Posted by: ALa at August 10, 2005 8:29 AM

You expect so much from people. Unless you lower your standards, no one will want to stay over or come to your birthday parties. Oh, and you probably won't be nominated for prom queen either...

Posted by: Cranky Chick at August 10, 2005 11:50 AM

anyone on blogsplat has free photo hosting via hello!/picasa. Jeez what a lazy ass.

Posted by: caltechgirl at August 10, 2005 12:39 PM

Imageshack is another free picture hosting website.

I use it all the time.

Posted by: Machelle at August 10, 2005 12:53 PM

If you catch someone hotlinking your photos (even if you are on Blogsplat, it's still a breach of manners!), you can simply replace the image on your server with something snarky, like "This blogger steals bandwidth" or something to that effect. Or maybe a not-work-safe photo, if you feel vicious.

Posted by: Elisson at August 10, 2005 3:36 PM

I had an asshat hotlink a 2 meg video, then post it on the usenet... to the tune of 32 thousand hits in 3 days...

Posted by: John of Argghhh! at August 10, 2005 8:02 PM