IMPORTANT: Guidelines on posting images from flickr and other external sources

[invincible]

tl;dr version:
Get the BB code like in the screenshot below if you're going to post stuff from flickr. Otherwise your post may be deleted.


As you may have been aware, SSC was recently blacklisted by flickr for image hotlinking violations. This situation has now been resolved, but in future we have a few guidelines that we'd like your assistance with. These apply both to images hosted on flickr and elsewhere.

Guidelines for linking to flickr
Flickr is happy to allow hotlinking off their servers, although their guidelines state that when you do this, you should link back to the flickr site. This applies even if the photos are your own. As a recommendation, if the photos are taken by someone else, it is a good practice to credit the author. This is as simple as just mentioning their flickr username.

Examples
GOOD
[url=http://(link to photo page)][img]http://(direct link to image)[/img][/url]
By abcd @ flickr

GOOD
[img]http://(direct link to image)[/img]
By abcd @ flickr: http://(link to photo page)

OKAY
[img]http://(direct link to image)[/img]
http://(link to photo page)

BAD
[img]http://(direct link to image)[/img]

Violations
We don't want to punish you, but we will send reminders to users who may not be aware of these rules. Repeated violations may result in posts being edited or deleted.

Linking from other sites
If the photo is not your own, please try to add a quick line to credit the photographer and to provide a link to the site it came from.

If the photo is your own and you are using a hosting service, it is your responsibility to understand the rules, if any. As a general guideline, if the service provides some BBcode tags, try to use those when possible.

Saving images
Some sites configure their servers to block hotlinking. Some users may then decide to save the image and upload it to a hosting service. This practice is not recommended, as the owner of the site is likely to have done that to prevent copyright infringement. Photos and other content on the internet are still covered by copyright unless otherwise stated. Some people may claim that posting material on the internet puts it on the public domain. This is not true. Copyright infringement will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis and may result in a warning, deletion of posts and as a last resort suspension of your posting privileges.

Final notes
We recognise that flickr is used by many of the users here, both as a tool to store and manage their own photos and to provide access to many more photos taken by others. It helps bring a lot of valuable content to our forums so we'd appreciate if you could assist both SSC and flickr by following the above guidelines.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me by PM or post a reply in this thread (resolved queries will be archived to keep this thread tidy)