Forum:Externally hosted images

The use of externally hosted images on Wikia sites is soon to be restricted. This usage has always been discouraged and there are many benefits to uploading images locally instead. Please see Help:Externally hosted images for a list of the reasons for using local images rather than externally hosted ones.

Please contact me if you would like a list of the pages on your wiki currently using external images.

Angela (talk) 12:20, 29 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Does this also apply to embedded youtube videos? (I personally would shed few tears over them, but I think others on our wiki disagree.)    Ryan W 00:05, 7 September 2007 (UTC)


 * No, YouTube embedding will continue to work in the same way. Since MediaWiki isn't yet good at handling videos on its own, external solutions are best for now, and we're going to be extending this feature to allow embedding of videos from Google Video too. Angela (talk) 04:06, 7 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Ah. Well, thank you for replying.    Ryan W 07:59, 7 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I've read all about this future restriction on the link given. But i think that images hosted on free hosting services like ImageShack mostly do no harm. I used them sometime when the image i want to put on "my" wikia project is not suitable to be use by other user. Like when posting an image of a screen capture in the Forum. ScreenCapture and ImageShack uploading is integrated in my windows. I use it a lot on reals forums. I understand that Wikia is not a forum, but if i can't used ImageShack anymore, i will feel like polluting wikia sometimes. We used hundred of images on the french Guild Wars wikia, but there's like only twenty externals images, i think. — TůζipVõrζąx Talk 01:15, 9 September 2007 (UTC)


 * How does ImageShack work? Do the images stay there forever, or until the person who uploaded them deletes their account? My concern is that useful images needed in the articles could disappear in future and it would be hard to get replacements. Angela (talk) 01:33, 11 September 2007 (UTC)


 * You can upload images to ImageShack with or without an account. As I remember they stay around forever, unless you upload them with an account and delete them yourself. But it's a good thing even without use in articles. On The Gaiapedia people come along to make profiles to much, and they upload images which have no point, or have a number of issues to them. All just so they can stick it up on their own personal userpage. Because of that we don't allow anyone to upload images for use on their Userpage and tell them to instead use an external hosting service and embed them into their userpage. Completely disallowing any use of images on Userpages cause external embedding doesn't work is fine, but It's kinda easier to just say, don't upload here, upload it elsewhere. ~ NOTASTAFF Daniel Friesen (DanTMan, Nadir Seen Fire) (talk) (tricks) (current topic) Sep 11, 2007 @ 02:33 (UTC)


 * I don't understand whether you're arguing for or against external images, but users should not be banned for uploading a profile photo. It's often the first step in joining a community which is something we want to encourage. If you look at Marvel Database, you'll see user profiles with an easy way to add your own avatar. User photos are not a bad thing. Angela (talk) 21:11, 11 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Ya, that's very true for most things. Unfortunately false for Gaians. Time has proven that Gaians come, make a profile, and then never come back. They don't have the mentality to stick around and contribute, they're just there so they can get themselves another profile page or create an article about themselves. ~ NOTASTAFF Daniel Friesen (DanTMan, Nadir Seen Fire) (talk) (tricks) (current topic) Sep 11, 2007 @ 22:09 (UTC)

Will usage of logo from a wikia site on Central be affected? I believe most info pages here right now hot-link the logo instead of uploading a duplicate to central. -PanSola 03:27, 11 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I think Wikia sites are whitelisted. Certain other sites may be whitelisted as well if needed. GHe (Talk) 03:36, 11 September 2007 (UTC)


 * All Wikia sites will be whitelisted so that images can be shared between them. Angela (talk) 21:11, 11 September 2007 (UTC)
 * You (Angela) were asking about how does ImageShack is functionning. No, the image dont stay there forever. In their FAQ we can read :
 * Your files will only be deleted if they do not adhere to our Terms of Service. If you are registered, your files will be available forever. If you are not registered, any file that you upload will continue to be available if it is accessed by anyone at least once per year.
 * So, it is certain that file we dont want to see vanishing ever should be uploaded to Wikia insted. But what when i want to share something in the forum that doesn't need to be kept forever ? Yes, i could upload anyway and delete later. But, how to be sure that this particular image has not been loaded by any user agent (browser) lately ?
 * Images on ImageShack never disapear if they are been used. 12 month is a lot of time. And about bandwidth; the purpose of the existence of ImageShack is too permit people to use images on web sites, forums, etc. In their FAQ they say this about bandwidth :
 * ImageShack allows unlimited bandwidth for videos and flash files, and allows each hotlinked image 100 megabytes of transfer per hour. If a hotlinked image exceeds this amount, it will become inaccessible, and you would need to send us an email in order to have it enabled again. In order to prevent inaccessible hotlinked images, please utilize the clickable thumbnail function as often as possible instead of hotlinking full images. Clickable thumbnails are generally small in size and do not use as much bandwidth as large images. Your images' viewers will be able to click on the thumbnails in order to see the large images. The most common causes of large bandwidth usage are animated gifs inside the avatar and signature section of message boards and non-thumbnailed series of large images.
 * But, i will understand if Wikia staff dont want to whitelist ImageShack anyway; it your right to take needed mesures to prevent abuse of services or encourage a better use of Wikia. See ya. — TůζipVõrζąx Talk 22:48, 11 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I'll add imageshack, but I still recommend uploading locally so you can give details on the author of the image. Angela (talk) 22:31, 20 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Is this an absolute requirement? I tend to externally upload images that are used for skins only. Plumber
 * Skins are the worst thing to use external images for. If you rely on these images, you need them under the control of the wiki community, not on an external site where anything could happen to them. Angela (talk) 04:13, 21 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I usually use Imageshack to host fan creations and stuff like that, and I'm trying to get people to make some of it (and fan comics, too), and in the past we ideally had people do that, but now that seems like it's being discouraged. --Crazyswordsman 02:40, 21 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Images from Imageshack are now excluded from this, so you can continue to use it, but for long term use on the wiki, it is much safer to upload them locally. Angela (talk) 04:13, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I recently had another complaint, from Diablocon. He said " This fucking sucks! Now my 360 gamer card doesn't show on my userpage! I can't upload it to the Wiki, the image updates every time I log into XBox Live! The site I got it from made it specifically for Wiki use, now that's ruined!"  As the highest ranking active member of my Wiki, I have to represent my constituents, and he's obviously not happy about this.  What should he do? --Crazyswordsman 19:09, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
 * There are ways around this without adding to the external image whitelist. For example, http://card.mygamercard.net/lastgame/diablocon.png could be added via site-wide javascript, or even via css using a "background-image: url" definition (if it was just for one person). If however there is a clear community use for this on ffwiki, it would be definitely considered. --Splarka (talk) &lt;Staff&gt; 08:35, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I spoke to Diablo about this; he needs instructions. --Crazyswordsman 17:43, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Is he a sysop? If not, one will have to do it for him. --Splarka (talk) &lt;Staff&gt; 06:59, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Yeah, he is. --Crazyswordsman 03:48, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Left him some instructions. --Splarka (talk) &lt;Staff&gt; 08:43, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Can inline css (with style=" ... ") be used for this ? That might solve many things... TulipVorlax 08:41, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
 * That won't work. Mediawiki wikicode parsing strips background-image definitions from inline css. --Splarka (talk) &lt;Staff&gt; 09:11, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi, i just experienced a strange situation. I have some images on ImageShack that are there since more than 2 years now. But their URL doesn't contain imageshack so thoses are still blocked. No problem. I will just re-upload them. And i think i'll open up an account on ImageShack. Images of people with an account are never deleted unless the user does it or in the case of inapropriate content (i think). So, if some images on ImageShack are still blocked, it's because they have been uploaded before ImageShack decided to change the way they "construct" URLs. TulipVorlax 23:28, 23 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Hum.. It seems i've "talked" to soon....
 * All ImageShack images are currently blocked.
 * http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/2340/vorlaxtransparentcu5.gif
 * TulipVorlax 23:46, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Oops! Wanted to preview but must have clicked the wrong button.
 * But, the preceeding image show up here but not there : TulipVorlax 23:48, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Ok, it's back, thanks. TulipVorlax 01:25, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Making an ImageShack template
I've just had an idea and made it in a sub page of my user space. It would be a template for images hosted on ImageShack. It's there : User:TulipVorlax/ImageShack. I did not tested it yet. I will put an image on ImageShack to test it later. By the way, this thing could support all languages (except that parameter names are in english). See ya TulipVorlax 02:55, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Image license aspect
I'm completely missing the image license aspect in the above discussion. I know many Wikia wikis don't take copyright seriously, but in my wiki we do, and therefore we demand license information for any image, and do not allow the uploading of copyrighted, unfree images under "fair use" claim. Only images under a free license such as GFDL or CC-BY-SA, or public domain, are permitted.

This means that we can not just upload any image we want to use in our wiki. 99% of all images that are available do not qualify. Uploading copyrighted work is only permitted if the copyright holder licenses their work in a way that is compatible with the GFDL. Many artists/photographers don't want this; for example they often don't want to permit commercial use, or modifications of their images.

So external hosting is probably the only possible way in which we could use such non-GFDL-compliant images - just like we embed YouTube videos which are non-GFDL-compliant - which is okay since they are external and not "part" of the wiki in any legal sense. It is therefore good if ImageShack and similar image hosting sites are, and continue to be, whitelisted for hotlinking in Wikia. Spankart 01:11, 10 December 2007 (UTC)