How do you stop members from hotlinking images?

What do you do to prevent users from hot linking images to your site.
I can't stand it as an admin. I want all images posted on my site to be hosted on my servers.
Otherwise you run the risk of the site vanishing or even being blocked from firewalls or permissions in sites like facebook for example.
I see this all the time but just noticed it on a support thread I was checking over at xf, one of the images in a post wasn't showing and it turns out it's on a site that's blocked by my firewall.

 

I know what you mean, I've never liked it when forum software allows members to link to avatars "off site" using a URL path, with no option to disable it. I'd sooner members upload their own to my forum for obvious reasons, they won't break.



phpBB3 allows you to disable remote avatars, which I'm glad about. I do have it disabled and offer a large Gallery choice of avatars to pick from, or they can upload their own. You have the same problem though with IMG tags displaying images in posts from another site.

You can disable that, force members to upload images in posts. But I don't have it disabled for them. I do have IMG tag disabled for guest though, seeing as they can post on my forum. But that's to avoid them posting those crafty 1px transparent images, you know what I mean!

 

I had an addon coded that blocks users from posting a variety of unwanted items including offsite images, instruct users what to do (depending on the event) and return them to their post.

 

I need one of these magic scripts for xenforo.

 

I'm not going to stop them if a member finds it easier. I might say something if there's a lot of images being posted or I may remove deleted images, but it's the least of my worries.

Some sites like or don't mind people hotlinking their images.

 

Yes, anything hotlinked will die eventually. Its best to have everything within the system.
I really liked the addon AWS created, but that had the issue that images where not attributed to the author of the post.

 

I ban them, shoot them, rape their pets, kick their spouses, and force my children upon them.
OK, I don't. Although it has crossed my mind. I use a script similar to the one AWS mentioned.

 

whoa

 

Ban their email address domain name and their IP address. Then file a report with their ISP.

 

Hold up, why would you want to stop members from hotlinking images? Some facts:

- If you hotlink an image your page might rank for that image in Google image search
- If someone files a DMCA for an image hotlink Google will deny the request, Google hotlinks ALL images too and so they have no problem with it.

Given those two things I'd say hotlink away! As a webmaster I block hotlinking, I think it's important to do on the webmaster end.

 

• If the site disappears, the image is lost
• If the site is slow, my pages will be slow
• If the site is blocked by users firewalls, the image won't show

that's pretty much my reason behind it

 

Oh my. That really sucks.

As for what I do, I actually don't usually care about hotlinking. If I think it's something I want to keep around permanently (like tutorials), then I'll upload and host the images myself, and then edit the post. I don't mind if really old posts end up with some broken images occasionally.

 

Actually it won't, the items on your domain will load just as quickly. The items on the other domain will be loaded asynchronously, it's called multi-threading and is a big reason why CDNs (content delivery networks) are recommended for images.

There are good reasons to block image hotlink, including worry that the other site changes the image to something nasty, but I just wanted to point out that there are also benefits, including allowing people to talk about the image.

I usually find that a site won't mind an image hotlink if they get proper attribution next to it. You can run Xenu linksmith to find broken links or as Jessi pointed out you can quietly save a copy of important images and edit the post to reflect the new location. You'll still need to leave the attribution in place and may need to ask permission but that's normal.