There are two ways to put a picture up here at bf.c. They differ by where the picture is actually hosted.
You see, hosting a picture on the internet costs money. Yes it does. I know, the internet was envisioned as this great socialist experiment. But disk space costs money and bandwidth costs money. And somebody has to pay.
All members may include pictures in posts that are hosted at other websites. You do this using the img code. Click
HERE for more information. To use this method, you must first host the picture on some other website. You, for example, have a website on geocities. In this case, the disk space used and the bandwidth used is not bladeforums.com disk space or bandwidth. But, there are three potential problems here:
First, when you use the img code, you're generating a "redirected request." Many of these "free" website places and "free" photo album places don't service redirected requests. Why? Because, as the old saying goes, "there's no such thing as a free lunch." These "free" sites make their money by selling advertising around your pictures and/or by selling your pictures on tee-shirts, coffee mugs, etc. The redirected request takes just the picture. The advertising isn't displayed. So, these sites refuse to service the redirected request.
Second, when you post a picure on a popular forum site like bf.c, it's not unusual for that picture to be downloaded hundreds of times per day for weeks. That can consume a lot of bandwidth, bog down a server, etc. So, a lot of "free" web space or photo hosting places impose a limit on how much bandwidth you can use. In many cases, it amounts to just a few dozen views of a picture. It's plenty for you to share snapshots of your children with a few of your family and friends, but not enough to share pictures of your knives with the 18,000+ members of bf.c. So, the first few people to read the thread get to see the knife. The rest don't.
Third, many other web or photo hosting services charge extra fees if your bandwidth utilization goes above some monthly alotment. Again, the monthly allocation is enough to share a few snaps with a few family and friends, but not enough to share with 18,000+ people. So, posting one picture on bf.c can put you over your allocation and into extra fees (sometimes quite stiff) very quickly.
There is another way. Paying members here at bf.c enjoy the option to upload pictures to the bf.c server. There's no bandwidth or disk space limits and no extra fees. But, you have to be a paying member. Click
HERE for more information.
But, keep in mind that your paid membership is for YOU to upload YOUR pictures. It's against the rules for you to take other people's pictures and upload them "as a favor."
If I'm not going to my gym on a given day, you can't "borrow" my card and go in my place. My membership is for ME to workout, only ME. That's the contract that I have with my gym. That's the rules at my gym. But, if you want to come by my house, I can let you use my NordicTrack. It's my NordicTrack and if I want to loan it to someone, I can and my gym has nothing to say about that. So, it is against the rules and it is wrong for paid bf.c members to take photographs from non-paying members and upload them. If someone has their own webspace, they're paying for it, so they can do what they want.
My advice to you is to get a paid membership. It doesn't cost that much and the picture service alone is worth the price.
