I agree.....care must be exercised if this is the case. But there are times......a while back someone posted a HUGE HUGE bitmap picture that took like 10->20 seconds to download even over my broadband connection. This "mistake" could be corrected by substituting a smaller file in place of the huge one (the name and location must remain the same). This smaller file could for example be a new picture or a 1 bit per pixel B&W bitmap that had a message in it that the original picture was removed or say what the link to it was.

Michael Karas

PS

I also want to add that I know Craig Steiner has a desire that any technical information that is embedded into any forum post should be sourced in a way that it is ensured of being there still even 5 years from now. This is important so that the content can be valuable in the future. If the embedded graphics are lost then the posting becomes next to useless. So anyone that does embedd a graphic should take this into account. Here are some things to think about:

- If you source a picture from a user page on 8052.com you should not then subsequently remove the files from the 8052.com server. You should also not try to delete your user page.

- If you put pictures on a different web site make sure that it is legitimate to place them there and that there is a reasonable possibility that you can maintain a long term handle on that site that stays under your control. Keep in mind that some of these free web page sites such as yahoo geocities msn and others are not good choices of places to host forum post pictures from.

- The space on any server is finite and so always keep in mind that smaller is better. Use efficient file storage formats such as GIF and JPG and note that each type of format is superior for certain types of images. JPG is great for full color images that are dithered and/or antialiased. GIF is best for presenting images that have just a few colors such as line drawings like we see here often.

- Along the same lines as "smaller is better" please note that many users may very well have a slower internet access than you have and so a smaller graphic is far more considerate of those users.

Michael Karas