Please help clarify my confusion...

First, I apologize for my confusion about this. I hope it makes sense and I hope this is the correct forum for it...

I read somewhere that for better computer security, it's good for photos on your computer not to be placed on boards, etc., directly from your computer...that they should be parked at a hosting site and then placed from there. Does anyone know if that is correct, and if so, why, and could DG be considered such a host site? (Properties on my photos shows the address as DG and not "my pictures" on my computer.)

....Or am I just ALL confused, lol. Thanks so much for any help. :)

Uploading a photo to a website does not compromise your system. If it did, uploading to a hosting site would compromise your computer's security just as much as uploading to DG would. Once you upload, your photo is hosted at whatever site you've uploaded it to, but you still have your original copy on your computer.

P.S. If you want others to be able to see your photos, you'd need to post them in your DG diary or journal, which are visible to anyone as long as you've not marked the diary or journal private. Photos posted in the forums are only visible to DG subscribers.

This message was edited May 3, 2005 12:18 PM

I don't think you gain anything security-wise by uploading your images from a hosting site versus your hard drive. (Could be wrong, but I don't think so.)

This may have not been your question, but just in case it was... putting your pictures on a hosting site and then linking to them from there could be considered bandwidth theft by the hosting site. (Other sites might permit it; we don't, although we've had people try using us as their hosting site.)

At one time in the past there was a gardening site that actually gave step-by-step instructions on how to do this because they didn't want to pay for the bandwidth to host the images on their site. I can certainly sympathize with their desire to keep their monthly expenses in check, but to expect another site to pick up the tab for your bandwidth is not the way to go about it, IMHO.

I think what they were talking about is if you host an image with YOUR computer, that is set your computer up as a server, and that would compromise the security of your system, especially if it wasn't set up properly (which it probably wouldn't be if you didn't really know what you were doing).

-Paul-

This message was edited May 3, 2005 12:26 PM

Everyone, thanks so much for the help. It really clarifies things for me. I WAS just totally confused, lol.

Gardenwife, that makes perfect sense and was what I was thinking, too.

Paul, yes, I believe that must have been what they were talking about. And Terry, I agree...that is just plain wrong.

I'm just thankful for this terrific site and that we can safely share our gardening photos with each other. I had set my journal to private until I could get more info on this...back to make it public again, lol. Thanks again. :)