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Player0
11-03-2003, 03:30 PM
I never would have assumed that avatars would be abused. Yet, I just found out today there are are many people hosting avatars here and using them on other sites. I'm certainly not happy about this, and if anyone is doing this, please stop. Most BBSs allow you to upload your avatars right to their server, rather than linking from a URL such as LiquidNinjas.com.

The avatar.php program is one of the most used applications on this site. I beleive that most of the use is legit. My problem with it is that Im trying to keep LN.com fast, and accessing an avatar through the BBSs avatar system is INSANELY slow.

This isnt just like hosting an image somewhere. When someone links to our avatar system, the PHP has to be processed, the database is accessed, and THEN the image is loaded. This isnt just like a webserver loading an FTP. If you want to host an image, USE the gallery. Thats fine, I'm cool with that, even if your not that active here. If you have pictures of your case, and your from another site, and want a place to put them, put them here, thats cool, it will give us something to look at. If you want to create an account with us to host an avatar or sig, I'm going to delete it, but even that Im not strict about, as long as its hosted in the gallery where its efficient.

But using Avatars to host images for other sites is UN-ACCEPTABLE. And I'm going to put a stop to this asap.
Player0
11-03-2003, 03:31 PM
PS - What admin is in charge of the Gallery and making sure our rules are followed there?
Synthohol
11-03-2003, 04:01 PM
WackyComputer
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jimmyang
11-03-2003, 04:15 PM
My sig is hosted here at the image gallery, that's not a problem right?
BTW how do someone use BBSs to connect their avatar?
Player0
11-03-2003, 04:32 PM
Right click on your avatar, you get a link:

http://www.liquidninjas.com/bbs/avatar.php?userid=1386&dateline=1067691815

If someone uses this in an IMG tag elsewhere on the net, then it causes excess load. Again, this is loading a PHP file, then accessing a database, and the loading an Image. Its not just calling the image through apache. Its a HUGE amount of overhead, it causes issues, it can corrupt the DB, and I'm not paying for it.

No, of course, I dont mind whats hosted in the gallery. its meant to do image hosting. Avatars.php isnt. If your a productive member of the site, you're welcome to put anything up there you want, i dont care if its a picture of your cat or a car or sig or what. But if you only post on HardOCP, and only came here to get some free fast hosting, and those images arent of any value to anyone else here, then they are going byebye.

Thanks Synth, just wanted to make sure we appointed someone already :)
ralf_c
11-03-2003, 09:46 PM
what you said sounds fair to me p0. any way, why would any one host a simple thing like an avatar here if most forums that have avatars give you the choice to load an avatar localy:confused: makes no math in my head.


maybe you should add an avatar abuse rule or something, then if people complaint because their stuff got deleted then you can point out they are just leaching.
Player0
11-03-2003, 10:11 PM
Im pretty sure the people doing it are kind of oblivious as to why its bad. But, I dont have a good fix on whos doing what yet. I need to write a special log file parser to find it.
ralf_c
11-03-2003, 11:05 PM
nail'em:grab:
tripodal
11-03-2003, 11:08 PM
Yummy!


P0, you still have LN running super quick. Nice job.
jimmyang
11-04-2003, 02:15 AM
Originally posted by ralf_c
what you said sounds fair to me p0. any way, why would any one host a simple thing like an avatar here if most forums that have avatars give you the choice to load an avatar localy:confused: makes no math in my head.


exactly what I was thinking.....:confused: