Smilie Craze --- EVERYONE Please Read!

[JLC]

Hey folks...

We've got no problem with y'all using extra smilies that are not on our current list. HOWever....it is still firmly against the TOS/Rules of this site to post images hosted on someone else's website. Every single time that thread is clicked on, all those images draw bandwidth off someone else's website...and that's just bad mojo!

So please...please...if you want to use them, you must download them either to your OWN server space where you pay for the bandwidth used...or to your own gallery space right here at BP.net.

Those posts would start looking funny if all the smilies got deleted.

Thank you for listening and understanding!

[Sputnik]

Shouldn't this be a sticky?

[recycling goddess]

did you know there are some sights that you can link to with no problems?

http://emoticons4u.com/love.htm

when you click on the emoticon... it gives you an addy to use! for example:

[img] http://users.telenet.be/eforum/emoticons4u/love/302.gif [/img]
(of course i added some spaces to show the code and not link to the image)

so... wouldn't these be allowed?

[JLC]

did you know there are some sights that you can link to with no problems?

http://emoticons4u.com/love.htm

when you click on the emoticon... it gives you an addy to use! for example:

[img] http://users.telenet.be/eforum/emoticons4u/love/302.gif [/img]
(of course i added some spaces to show the code and not link to the image)

so... wouldn't these be allowed?

It would be really hard to enforce existing rules if we allowed exceptions like that. I appreciate the fact that they seem to encourage direct links back to their site, but the staff is already busy enough to have to try and follow up on every smilie used to see if it's allowed by a 3rd party site or not.

[jglass38]

It would be really hard to enforce existing rules if we allowed exceptions like that. I appreciate the fact that they seem to encourage direct links back to their site, but the staff is already busy enough to have to try and follow up on every smilie used to see if it's allowed by a 3rd party site or not.

In my opinion, this seems awfully silly. Even though it doesnt violate the TOS it's still not allowed? Do you also check every picture posted to see if it is linked from a site such as photo bucket or if its leeching someone else's bandwidth? It seems to me things might be focused in the wrong direction. But again, thats just my opinion.

[recycling goddess]

couldn't the "rule" be... you can post smileys from this site and from the one i posted and otherwise... please don't.

cause honestly... is this something which really needs to be enforced? seems like a waste of time IMO.

[JLC]

In my opinion, this seems awfully silly. Even though it doesnt violate the TOS it's still not allowed? Do you also check every picture posted to see if it is linked from a site such as photo bucket or if its leeching someone else's bandwidth? It seems to me things might be focused in the wrong direction. But again, thats just my opinion.

Our focus is on enforcing the rules. The TOS states that it is not allowed to post images directly from 3rd party sites. It does not clarify whether or not that site allows such posting. So...doing so still violates OUR rules.

Photobucket is a viable option for posting pictures because that space "belongs" to the person using it, so long as it is their account.

Yes, the staff makes a point of checking images to be sure they are not "illegally" posted.

I don't understand why you believe enforcing our rules is "going in the wrong direction"...especially when you often advocate even MORE rules for us to enforce.

I have not deleted any smilies yet....nor do I want to. I don't want to spoil anyone's fun. This was intended as a gentle reminder to follow the rules as they currently exist. We can't enforce the rules for some people, and then let everyone else slide just because the images involved are small and cutsie.

[JLC]

Shouldn't this be a sticky?

I considered that....but the Site Info forum already has a ton of them. And folks tend to just ignore them anyhow. (How often do we have to refer people to read stickies?)

However, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if folks bumped this every once in a while to keep it in public view. I'd really, really hate to have to start deleting smilies!

[jglass38]

Hey folks...

We've got no problem with y'all using extra smilies that are not on our current list. HOWever....it is still firmly against the TOS/Rules of this site to post images hosted on someone else's website. Every single time that thread is clicked on, all those images draw bandwidth off someone else's website...and that's just bad mojo!

So please...please...if you want to use them, you must download them either to your OWN server space where you pay for the bandwidth used...or to your own gallery space right here at BP.net.

Those posts would start looking funny if all the smilies got deleted.

Thank you for listening and understanding!

Are there some examples of where this has happened? I haven't seen it...

[Adam_Wysocki]

Hey folks...

We've got no problem with y'all using extra smilies that are not on our current list. HOWever....it is still firmly against the TOS/Rules of this site to post images hosted on someone else's website. Every single time that thread is clicked on, all those images draw bandwidth off someone else's website...and that's just bad mojo!

So please...please...if you want to use them, you must download them either to your OWN server space where you pay for the bandwidth used...or to your own gallery space right here at BP.net.

Those posts would start looking funny if all the smilies got deleted.

Thank you for listening and understanding!

I think it's a great policy! ... The few times I've needed to use "non stock" smilies, I've just uploaded them to my own site ... works great!

ROCK ON Judy, I'm with you on this one!!



-adam