How to Post Images to Internet Message Boards or Forums

Most Internet message boards allow users to post images, but figuring out how to do it can be frustrating. I hope that this brief tutorial may help.

Finding a place to host your image

Very few message boards will allow you to host your image with them. This means that before you can post an image, you have to find somewhere else to host it. If you already have a website, you can simply upload the image file to a directory on your server, and link to it from there. If you don't have a website, though, or if you have limited bandwidth, you'll want to use a site such as www.photobucket.com or www.flickr.com to host your image. These sites allow you to upload digital photos for free (though you can also pay for additional storage space and bandwidth). Read the terms of use carefully, though. Some sites limit the types of images you can store with them (Flickr, for instance, specifically bars you from hosting icons at their site, and prefers that you not upload anything other than photos), and they may also require that you link back to the site if you post photos elsewhere. Also find out how much bandwidth you're allowed to use. Because everyone reading your post will be loading your image, you can quickly use up your bandwidth allowance on some sites, and your image will be replaced with a notice that you've exceeded your allowance.

A note about hotlinking

Linking to an image hosted on one site from another site is called "hotlinking." Although most message boards do require hotlinking to post images, you should never, ever hotlink an image hosted on someone else's site. Before linking to an image which you did not create, it's important to do two things. First, make sure that the author of the image doesn't mind you posting it elsewhere. Most images online are copyrighted, and the copyright holders may not want their images appearing anywhere but on their own sites. And second, unless the author of the image requests that you link directly to their file, you should download the image to your own computer and then upload it to your image host. Linking directly to an image on another person's server can be considered a form of theft, as they may be required to pay extra for the bandwidth you're using. You're also displaying their image without displaying the content that goes with it, including any advertising they might have linked it with. And posting a copyrighted image without permission could expose you to legal liability.

Now, let's post an image

Okay, so you've got an image you'd like to post, you've gotten permission to use it, and you've uploaded it to your own server or to a free image host. Now, how do you get it onto a message board?

The first thing to do is find the URL (Internet address) for your image. In Firefox, you right-click on the image and select "Copy Image Location" from the drop down menu. In Internet Explorer, right-click on the image, find the line that says "Address (URL)," highlight it, right-click on the highlighted text, and select "Copy."

For the following example, we'll assume that the image is called "sample.jpg" and it's hosted at www.something.com. The URL for the image would then be www.something.com/sample.jpg.

A few Internet message boards will allow you to use HTML. If this is the case, then you can post the image by typing {img src=www.something.com/sample.jpg}, using carats , rather than curly brackets {}. (You should be able to just paste the image URL you copied in the previous step, after the tag.)

If the message board does not allow you to use HTML (and very few do), you'll need to use forum code instead. Usually, this means that your post will look like this: [img]http://www.something.com/sample.jpg[/img]. Notice that your image here goes in between the tags, rather than being included in the HTML code, as in the example above.

A final note

Posting images to Internet message boards can be both frustrating and intimidating. But once you understand the steps, it's really not so difficult. Happy posting!