A Plea for Your Help

A Plea for Your Help!

Lots of you are writing HTML code that makes the graphics show up on your Page or in your email or chat, while leaving the image files on the original web site. That is called "direct-linking." The problem with it is that it increases the number of "hits" on the original web page. (Direct-linking also, by the way, slows the load time of your page while the visitor's browser seeks images all across the Web.)

Right-click then select File/Save As and copy the file to your hard drive. Then, upload or FTP the image file to your own web server (the same way you put the text on the server, but specify "binary"). Your web code usually won't require any URL in front of the img src at all.

If you are using WebTV, learn how to transload your images to an ISP.

If the owner of the original web page is paying for their space and for a flat number of "hits," then you are making the artist pay for visitors to your site! This puts the original web site at great risk -- their ISP may tell them they are getting TOO MANY hits, and that their monthly fee will be increased dramatically. (Recently, a popular graphics web site owner discovered that she had about 60% more hits than her counter showed, caused from direct-linking. Her monthly fee went from $40/month to $400/month! Her options were to take on a second job, or close her site -- she closed her site.)

Please, please, please! DO NOT direct-link to any of the graphics here at CatStuff, for any reason. If you do so, CatStuff might not be here in the future.