I have had several threads where I figured the image would be seen in the thread, and instead I get, "Link to External Image" even when following the instructions on posting an image.

Other times, the actual image does get posted.

So what is the difference, what am I doing wrong, and how can I ensure that the image is shown in the thread?

I'm working on a lengthy thread on Enlightenment that includes various vital images, and am wondering how to make sure the images are in the thread.

Thanks,
Dom

nevermind

Cool. I didn't know you could still do that.

However, if you outlink an image like that, it might very well eventually end up as a little red "X"

If it's something worth keeping around, it's better to take a minute to do it the long way, I think.

EDIT: Or do they stick around forever even if they are deleted/moved on the external link when using the ats image code?

You guys have stumbled upon a technical aspect of "hotlinking/outlinking", and back in the day, linking an image from a "small" site was considered taboo. Nowadays, most sites have bandwidth to spare, and if they post an image, it's known it will be linked all over. The modern world of highspeed connections relieve the old mindset of "OMG, I'm stealing bandwidth. Bandwith, if you host a webserver, should not be a concern. Look at Facebook, and Tumblr, and the myriad of other hosting sites.

Yes, as Zarniwoop states, it's better to snatch an image off the net, download it, then re-upload it to your ATS upload spot. You'll have an in-site permalink. All good.

However, linking a picture from Yahoo, for example, is as good as a permalink. For the amount of traffic that it induces, there's not a problem. A thread on ATS that outlinks to an image on an obscure site is not really an issue either, as there is a small amount of traffic involved.

If said thread hits the front page, well, there may be increased traffic over the server, but still, traffic is what drives advertising. If the outsourced traffic causes a server overload, there's another site with spare bandwidth to compensate. Every image you are linking to ATS has multiple copies on different servers. In the modern age, it's called load balancing, and unless the image is on your own personal server, the load is balanced across many different webservers. No need to worry if you are linking in from a popular commercial website. ATS utilizes load balancing as well, and if someone wants to use an image from ATS, they can. Does ATS worry about the extra traffic and bandwidth usage? Hardly. It's good for statistics. The more traffic across your server, the better. Popularity is key here. Even remote linking produces statistical traffic. It's all good.

goofed up, sorry