stupid question

[layne67]

What does 'No Hotlinking' actually means?

Comments

[b-briarwood.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotlinking

They explain it better than I can...

[layne67.livejournal.com]

Ookaay...

*re-reads slowly and carefully*

I'm afraid I still dont understand. Does it mean the same as linking a page/image to your own lj, such as when you rec stuff and such? Err, any simpler words than bandwidth theft?

[b-briarwood.livejournal.com]

hm, trying to think of a non technical example to use... um, electronic plagiarism? *shrug*

Say you post a pic, and I want to show it to my friends, so I post it on my site but rather than saving it and posting to my own server I just link it directly from your site. That way my site is showing this pic, but your site is getting the traffic and expense, if that makes any better sense.

[b-briarwood.livejournal.com]

oh, and that's not the same as posting a link to the site in question, like when you rec something.

[layne67.livejournal.com]

So there's a difference in posting a link to a site or in other words rec-cing something which we do with the

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<a [...] <i>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

So there's a difference in posting a link <I>to</I> a site or in other words rec-cing something which we do with the <a href tag and to link something directly <I>from</I> a site which is hotlinking?

[annwyn55.livejournal.com]

This is how I understand it: When you come across a picture on anyone's lj or webpage and you right-click on it and hit properties, you will see the URL of the pic on that person's server. If, instead of hitting 'copy' and transferring the picture to your own hard drive/photobucket account you use that URL to post the pic on your own lj, you are hot-linking.

Every time someone accesses your journal entry, a request is made to that original server, for which, of course you are not authorised. If enough people access your entry, it drains that other person's allowable bandwith without any benefit to her/him.

It's happened to me before. :(

[(Anonymous)]

Right.

[b-briarwood.livejournal.com]

erm, that was me. Don't know why it said I wasn't logged in though.

[layne67.livejournal.com]

You mean there are people who do that instead of doing that 'copy' thing? Hmm, and there I was half-thinking that maybe all this time I had been 'hotlinking' when I right-clicked and hit copy. Phew, what a relief. Thanks Annwyn.

Hee, very apt icon.

[suzy-74.livejournal.com]

I've been confused about that myself before. But I would not have been able to explain it to you in a good way.

[layne67.livejournal.com]

Yes, I wanted to know the difference between linking - which I do all the time - and hotlinking which only now I know what it is exactly.

[shirebound]

I didn't know exactly what it meant, either!

:D

[layne67.livejournal.com]

Hee, good to know I'm not the only one!