Crackdown on Hotlinking, Deep Linking

[KingGorilla]

We all know that it is considered in poor taste to, essentially steal bandwidth from another site by linking directly to their pictures or videos without their granting consent. In an ideal world, hosts would be sure to put the proper HTML tags on their links.

As purveyors of content, as well as a deep seated fucking fear of goatse and lemon parties, put it on front street to stop and cease hotlinking and deep linking.

[Adam Blue]

I thought you liked deep licking.

[pomeroy]

Eh. I hotlink images a lot to save me time. I don't really care.

[boratika]

I'm not sure what deep linking is, but it sure sounds like it should end in goatse...

Eh. I hotlink images a lot to save me time. I don't really care.

Yeah, but you'll just see the image you linked to, it's the rest of us that'll see a rectum stretch in an impractical manner.

[violent]

Goatse was my deterrent. These days, I take the extra steps.

[RandoM51]

very easy to put stuff on tinypic, or any number of other sites and avoid the hotlinking issue. Do it as part of being a good netizen or do it because you'll get bitchslapped the first time your hotlink inadvertently exhibits a lemon party.

[Telefrog]

very easy to put stuff on tinypic, or any number of other sites and avoid the hotlinking issue. Do it as part of being a good netizen or do it because you'll get bitchslapped the first time your hotlink inadvertently exhibits a lemon party.

The other incentive is that I've never had a tinypic link fail on me, while random hotlinks and Imageshack both have a tendancy to drop out if enough people are are hitting the sites.

[Codicier]

Wouldn't previewing your post tell you if a hotlink is...uh...bad before you submit it?

[Psykoboy2]

Wouldn't previewing your post tell you if a hotlink is...uh...bad before you submit it?

Not always. If you saw the image at the source, you'll see it in the preview since it's cached or whatever.

However, all of us seeing it for the first time usually see something DRASTICALLY different.

[Wraith]

We all know that it is considered in poor taste to, essentially steal bandwidth from another site by linking directly to their pictures or videos without their granting consent. In an ideal world, hosts would be sure to put the proper HTML tags on their links.

As purveyors of content, as well as a deep seated fucking fear of goatse and lemon parties, put it on front street to stop and cease hotlinking and deep linking.

I'm not sure what deep linking isDeep linking, on the World Wide Web, is making a hyperlink that points to a specific page or image on another website, instead of that website's main or home page. Such links are called deep links.KG: Is your suggestion that moderators advise against/make a rule against users hot/deep linking images, or just that they shouldn't do so in news posts/on the front page/elsewhere on the site?

I understand why many site administrators don't like hotlinking, and I understand they can throw up a replacement image that's vile, and the person hotlinking won't actually know they're posting it.

But I think users just have to be careful about where they hotlink from. I never really think twice about hotlinking an image from Joystiq, Kotaku, Siliconera, 1up, (or CNN, icanhascheezburger, etc.) as I know they're not going to replace it with something disgusting. (And I'll most likely link back to the site the image came from.) If I don't really know the site, or if it looks a little sketchy, I'll probably put it in my photobucket, as I don't know if they'll have hotlinking blocked or worse. Or if it's a relatively small website owned by an individual, I may do it so I don't eat into some poor guy's bandwidth. I don't really feel the need to do this with every single website though.

[DoctorFinger]

Hotlinking we're all against.

But what you seem to be calling 'deep linking' is in my mind proper attribution. When I click on a link, I don't want to go to the front page of a site, I want to go to the article.

[KingGorilla]

Just a friendly suggestion, Deep Linking is an ongoing debate. But there have been major lawsuits waged on it for "stealing" bandwidth.

A more practical application is in properly tagging the HTML so that you do not lose "link juice." Having way more links leaving your site than coming in hurts Google, Alexa ranks. But it would be fucking hard to do it on a forum. I am not sure if you guys care about that type of optimization. It really applies to traffic and ad money.

[Wraith]

Just a friendly suggestion, Deep Linking is an ongoing debate. But there have been major lawsuits waged on it for "stealing" bandwidth.I think opposing deep-linked pages is pretty silly, at least when you're talking about web pages (images, PDFs, etc. are a bit different). If you own a website, and you absolutely don't want anyone entering your site except through the front page, then you should code it as such. Make it so every user that follows a deep link to a page on your site gets blocked or redirected to the front page (and then pissed off because they aren't given the page they were trying to access in the first place). The only other place where this is a legitimate concern (in my mind) is with frames/iframes, where someone linked to the internal page can't see the navigational elements of the wrapping page (in which case you can code your page to redirect to the wrapping page, if necessary).

I guess there are ways that deep linking can be abused, but I don't think deep-linking to a web page from a forum post really qualifies.

[Doctor Setebos]

Just a friendly suggestion, Deep Linking is an ongoing debate. But there have been major lawsuits waged on it for "stealing" bandwidth.How can you be "stealing" bandwidth for linking to a specific page within a website?

Link to Game|Life (http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/11/massive-to-craf.html) <-- This does not in any way take bandwidth from Game|Life. I don't get the argument. Or maybe you're using the term "deep linking" when you actually mean something else?

[Iron Past]

Ah! Stupid curiosity! I just had to search for those images.

Still, no where close to when curiosity got the better of me and found the two girls one cup video. Had I eaten anything that day, I would have barfed all over the keyboard. I almost did anyway.

[Serapth]

I am actually developing a service that will allow content hosting shortly. I am actually considering doing a "sanctioned" hosting service aswell, in which you can host images whatever, for linking on a forum such as CoG. However, by using a "sanctioned" option, you allow the site administrator access to disable images you hosted.

Of course, you could always post unsanctioned links, but by going the sanctioned route, you can more safely assume that your aren't getting tubgirled or goatse'd.

Expect something from me in the next couple of months. Being a fulltime dad gives me alot more development time then I expected, but then, it took alot more time from me then I ever expected.

[BlackPete]

There's an easy answer to retaliate against deep linking.... don't fucking post on websites in the first place!

Hotlinking I can understand (but don't really care about), but I don't get the hatred over deep linking. Oh wait, yes I do... it's because the webmaster wants you to click through 10000 other pages before you get to the relevant article to maximize ad revenues.

[Variable Gear]

There's an easy answer to retaliate against deep linking.... don't fucking post on websites in the first place!

Hotlinking I can understand (but don't really care about), but I don't get the hatred over deep linking. Oh wait, yes I do... it's because the webmaster wants you to click through 10000 other pages before you get to the relevant article to maximize ad revenues.
Quoted because of outstanding levels of truthiness.

[CptTripps]

Not always. If you saw the image at the source, you'll see it in the preview since it's cached or whatever.

However, all of us seeing it for the first time usually see something DRASTICALLY different.

Haha, I remember that on EvAv where the original poster saw a cool image, and we all saw one that stated "I am the gay" or "I love sex with dogs" etc. etc.. Took him quite awhile to figure out why we were laughing.

[Doctor Setebos]

I am actually developing a service that will allow content hosting shortly. I am actually considering doing a "sanctioned" hosting service aswell, in which you can host images whatever, for linking on a forum such as CoG. However, by using a "sanctioned" option, you allow the site administrator access to disable images you hosted.

Of course, you could always post unsanctioned links, but by going the sanctioned route, you can more safely assume that your aren't getting tubgirled or goatse'd.

Expect something from me in the next couple of months. Being a fulltime dad gives me alot more development time then I expected, but then, it took alot more time from me then I ever expected.shill... ;)

[Goronmon]

There's an easy answer to retaliate against deep linking.... don't fucking post on websites in the first place!

Hotlinking I can understand (but don't really care about), but I don't get the hatred over deep linking. Oh wait, yes I do... it's because the webmaster wants you to click through 10000 other pages before you get to the relevant article to maximize ad revenues.This. Complaining about deep linking is grounds to get slapped in the face.

[Mr. Murphy]

I always considered hotlinking to be like stealing your neighbors newspaper. It's the kind of thing a lot of people who don't consider themselves thieves will still do, but it's in incredibly poor taste. Sure it's just a few cents, and newspapers are everywhere, but you're taking advantage of a service that someone else paid for.

Aren't we all just a little bit better than that? /snobbery :)

[Grifter]

Do to a few lazy and internet challenged CoG users I am all for an official rule against hotlinking images the deep linking complaints on the other hand are just retarded. If you feel that deeplinking is disrespectful to a site then link to the front page through the name of the site and then the actual article through the title or description.

Example;

Gamersyde (http://www.gamersyde.com/index_en.html) has some videos up of the Japanese Resident Evil 5 (http://www.gamersyde.com/news_7385_en.html) demo.

Or don't

Gamersyde has some videos up of the Japanese Resident Evil 5 (http://www.gamersyde.com/news_7385_en.html) demo.


Either way as long as people know the source of the info and there is at least one link to it said site gets the hits it deserves.

[Mr. Murphy]

Do to a few lazy and internet challenged CoG users I am all for an official rule against hotlinking images the deep linking complaints on the other hand are just retarded. If you feel that deeplinking is disrespectful to a site then link to the front page through the name of the site and then the actual article through the title or description.

Example;

Gamersyde (http://www.gamersyde.com/index_en.html) has some videos up of the Japanese Resident Evil 5 (http://www.gamersyde.com/news_7385_en.html) demo.

Either way said site gets the hits it deserves.

This seems to be the way most courteous and professional sites do it.

[digitalErich]

People that complain about "deep linking" like it's some horrible thing need to get a life. If you are putting content up on the web in a public space, you're delusional or stupid if you think that you can control or predict the URL path people take to get there.

Sure, be courteous and give credit. But the righteous indignation about deep linking is laughable.

[Mr. Murphy]

People that complain about "deep linking" like it's some horrible thing need to get a life. If you are putting content up on the web in a public space, you're delusional or stupid if you think that you can control or predict the URL path people take to get there.

Sure, be courteous and give credit. But the righteous indignation about deep linking is laughable.

Especially since if they care so much, they could rewrite the page to route the viewer to the homepage.

Which means the only people upset about deeplinking are the people who have created a website, yet don't understand how the internet works.

[Grifter]

Which means the only people upset about deeplinking are the people who have created a website, yet don't understand how the internet works.

Probably the same guys who hotlink everything. ;)

[OldeWolf]

Is hot linking the same as all the pictures flowing into the sanity is optional and panties are optional threads?

[Aggort]

With so many quick ways to save an image now, especially if you have firefox and proper extensions, I try to remember to save the image first then post it.

[rinichanraar]

Is hot linking the same as all the pictures flowing into the sanity is optional and panties are optional threads?

Not necessarily, though I'm sure some of it is. I don't really want to go in there and get all the properties on the images to check... but I'm pretty sure a lot of people save the pictures and upload them to their own Photobucket or Flickr accounts, then post them.