posting pics question

[NHundielover]

is there any way for us to post a pic within a post without having to upload it to the server?

when i click the "img" button while creating a new post, only the link appears in the message and not the picture.

[deusex]

I had the option to link to pictures turned off on the boards, only to prevent guys from posting pics hosted on other sites. It really isn't fair to the site hosting the photos. The other site ends up eating the bandwidth costs and our site gets the benefit of the photo. It's not so bad if a link is at least included over to the hosting site.

It's exactly what I'm going through on Un-der-wear.com right now. I have a file called an .htaccess file in all the photo directories that prevents other sites from linking to the pictures in such a way that they show up as their content. I was getting hit with over a thousands uniques (not hits but unique people) viewing the picture on another site) and they had no idea that Un-der-wear.com was the owner of the pic. It's basically theft.

There are a number of Japanese sites that are linking to the complete photosets on Un-der-wear.com - it makes it look like the japanese site owns the photos and there is no reference to un-der-wear.com except for the tag embedded on the photo (which they probably can't understand anyway!)

Unfortunately, I've just discovered that the .htaccess file also prevents a few (1 in 4000) from viewing the photos even when they're on the un-der-wear.com site so I removed the file last night and am currently looking for a work around to the problem.

Anway, sorry for that long winded answer - basically, I've turned the feature back on so you can link to photos elsewhere, but I'll have to ask everyone to make sure that the photos they use with the vB Code IMG feature are ones coming from your own sites or at least give credit to the sites the pictures are taken from with a link to the site.

[NHundielover]

i can totally understand you not wanting people linking to your photos.

what happened was i got so fed up with imagestation not letting users directly link to their pictures that i set up my own personal file server. it'll also make it a lot easier for me to post pics because i can post all of them at once instead of having to make a separate reply for each individual picture. thanks so much!

[deusex]

The new version of the buletin board software should be out soon and it allows multiple uploads per post (among other great new features - just wish they'd hurry up with it!)

Just took a look at the stats for the site, and already a japanese bulletin board was linking to Jeff's photos since I took the protection file off - So I just did a little file replacing so now the following will show up on the japanese site:

[SweatyAussie]

John, I just came across this posting. Did you ever solve this problem?

I admit I have a few times posted a link in another chat room to one of my photos on un-der-wear.com... putting a link to a publicly accessible site was the only way I could show the pic, as and actual image cannot be embedded. It did not really occur to me that this was incurring a cost to the un-der-wear.com site. The cost would have been small, since the link would only have lasted until that piece of conversation disappeared from the chat room window.

It sounds as though your software is capable of detecting the location from which this site is being accessed, so a compromise might be to allow a certain number of links per month from that location. This would not affect users of the chat room described above, as there would probably be only 20 or 30 people viewing the photo in total, but it would discourage a rival site from installing a permanent link.


It's exactly what I'm going through on Un-der-wear.com right now. I have a file called an .htaccess file in all the photo directories that prevents other sites from linking to the pictures in such a way that they show up as their content. I was getting hit with over a thousands uniques (not hits but unique people) viewing the picture on another site) and they had no idea that Un-der-wear.com was the owner of the pic. It's basically theft.

There are a number of Japanese sites that are linking to the complete photosets on Un-der-wear.com - it makes it look like the japanese site owns the photos and there is no reference to un-der-wear.com except for the tag embedded on the photo (which they probably can't understand anyway!)

Unfortunately, I've just discovered that the .htaccess file also prevents a few (1 in 4000) from viewing the photos even when they're on the un-der-wear.com site so I removed the file last night and am currently looking for a work around to the problem.

[deusex]

SweatyAussie,

I ended up going back to the .htaccess file, and in general it's working. I found out the reason people can't view the photos and that is simply Norton Internet Security and a few other Firewall/virus programs come out of the box preventing referring urls. There's a help file for users to modify NIS to allow referring urls from my site.

I'm not completely sure how a referring url can be used maliciously, but I can't imagine it's much of a threat and I think it's NIS just trying to make themselves look extra important because they do that service for their customers.

It's a hard decision, but I've done loads of searching on the net and can't find a better solution. The .htaccess file just doesn't seem to give much more control and as soon as the .htaccess file is gone, those Asian message boards link to the photos and before you know it, bandwidth is doubled, and even trippled.

I admit my server skills are not great. The solution you suggest may be possible (to put a limit on the views) I'll have to ask around to some of my more geeky tech friends ;) they may be able to help. I'm afraid I'm just a part -time geeky tech guy.

[Concerned guest]

You want to delete the previous post it's from some jerk selling drugs............. keep the site undies only!!!!

[deusex]

concerned guest...

Thanks for pointing it out. It used to be possible for guests to post to the boards, but I had to shut it off because of spam getting posted. I've been trying to keep the suggestions and support section still available to guest posting in case a guest is having problem, or a registered member can't login and needs to contact me. Unfortunately, the spam bots end up posting in this forum. oh well!

[dayne]

John Please Remove The Post Before This. It Is Total Spam.

[SweatyAussie]

As one of the moderators, I took the liberty of deleting the offending message. John/Deusex I hope that is OK with you.

John Please Remove The Post Before This. It Is Total Spam.

[deusex]

SweatyAussie,

Of course it's ok! And thanks!

It's the only place a guest can post on the boards right now. I've been trying to avoid shutting guest posting off from here in case a member is having a problem with logging in and needs to contact me, but this is three spam in two days now so I may just have to do it.