Daft question about hotlinking before I get involved in an online argument elsewhere...
 

I'll use GFY as an example to this straightforward question.

If I hotlink an image, from elsewhere and embed it in my post using [img] tags...

Does this increase server load on GFY?

I say no. They say yes? Am I wrong or just confused?

I could understand how hotlinking an image FROM GFY (ie the logo at the top) and displaying it over many multiple websites, could increase the serverload of GFY...

But surely not displaying an image here from elsewhere?

The image doesn't, no.

You are right

No…………..

Cheers guys - Just wanted to check I wasn't having a senior moment :thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup

Most people don't know shit about how servers and webhosting works, even people who claim to do this for a living.

That is why is called hotlinking on the first place . . .

But like, what if they're talking about page load speed for the user? Then that can affect SEO since that's a metric these days.
Unless SEs are smarter than that and know what to load when their bots crawl stuff.. :upsidedow

No, it's not that deep - Its someone who wants to try and assert authority, regarding his personal preferences. Saying that its a better user experience to have a small thumbnail from a image host, rather than just showing the image in the post. That its 'easier on the eye' than a 'huge' (regular size, scaled down by forum if need like GFY does) image...

This is laughable nonsense of course, because the image host wants me to use, gives you popups, and pop unders, make you click twice to get to the pic, and then disables the back button on the browser, meaning you can't get back to the forum without retyping the URL in a new tab...

But on top of that, he also gives the reason that the inline images 'Add to the server load'... Ridiculous.

Infact, I don't know where to start with his idiocy. I could rip him a new one, but I can't be bothered really. There are more important battles to fight that are actually worth my time...

He's not trolling. Just a genuine weirdo... I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going mad, as it was stated with such authority, you would think he was a mod on the forum. But like I say, better things to do than flame wars with people that are incorrect to begin with...

I would say no.

Plus as gfy.com just has a few webmaster views, I suspect it would have next to no effect on the load of the pic.

It is not as if you hotlinked to a site that gets millions of views.