I've noticed that if I don't log in I can's see the pictures that I've posted here. However, links and pictures hosted on photo bucket are displayed. Is this a designed feature to get guests to register or is this some unintended consequence? As it stands, guests get to read the words, link to external sites and see photos hosted elsewhere, but aren't allowed to see the photos hosted here?
That is the default handling of photos on many forums. I presume it's to promote membership and at the same time cut down on server bandwidth that could be considered "wasted" on non-members.
It just seems strange that pictures hosted on other sites, display to non-members here. while pictures uploaded here are suppressed. I thought maybe I was not posting the pictures properly.
Actually it's not strange at all. Every time you view a photo or video in your browser you are downloading it (caching aside). This downloading costs what is called "bandwidth" on your website hosting plan much in the same way you pay for minutes on your cell phone. You don't have unlimited calling on your cell phone and similarly you don't have unlimited downloads from your website from your website hosting provider. When content is hosted (stored) on third party websites such as Photobucket or YouTube, for example, and linked here (or any other website for that matter) there is no bandwidth usage of the web server that hosts the website. This principal is why websites such as Photobucket and YouTube exist at all.
