What does "hotlink" mean?

[Cannonfury]

Before I post an image anywhere when needed I was reading some rules and one was "no hotlinking". I don't even know what that is. I googled, nothing.

 

The way I usually add images to a forum post is I search for an image, open it full size in a new tab, right click, drag into the post and post.

[PaperThinWalls]

Basically, it's when you directly link to a website's files. So what you described is hotlinking. The reason we (and many other sites) don't allow hotlinking is because it's stealing bandwidth from another website, which can potentially cost that site money. What you want to do is upload your images on a image sharing website like imgur and then post the BBCode in your post.

[Cannonfury]

Basically, it's when you directly link to a website's files. So what you described is hotlinking. The reason we (and many other sites) don't allow hotlinking is because it's stealing bandwidth from another website, which can potentially cost that site money. What you want to do is upload your images on a image sharing website like imgur and then post the BBCode in your post.

Ok Thanks, I am not sure how bandwidth and such works but again ty.

[PaperThinWalls]

Bandwidth is the amount of data transferred from a website to a user's computer. When you hotlink you're using that site's data which, like I said, could cost them extra money if they go over the monthly bandwidth.

 

If you have any more questions feel free to post a new topic or contact a staff member directly.