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[+] What do you mean, nO sTEALIT? Just that. nO sTEALIT = no steal it = DO NOT TAKE WHAT IS NOT YOURS. [+] It's kewliez to copy someone else's text from their site, and then paste it onto my site! I also love to take other people's pictures, put them on my site, and pass them off as my own! NO. This is not okay. People are under the impression that just because it's on the Internet and no one is there to catch them and haul them away in handcuffs, it's not stealing. Well guess what? It is. Would you visit someone's house and steal a painting that they made, or a sculpture? No? Then why would you visit someone's website and steal their text and images; their creations? [+] I'm not convinced. Taking other people's stuff is so much easier than creating my own! Well, it makes you look like a dimwit. No kidding. Everyone will be able to tell what you've done -- especially when it comes to slapping elaborate text and well-made graphics onto a pre-made Tripod template, which is usually the case. In other words, everyone will know that you're stealing, not to mention, why would anyone want to visit your site when it's exactly the same as someone else's? ... hint: they wouldn't want to. [+] You're a meanie! I don't know how to make my own website, so I have to steal other people's stuff! NO, you don't. So you don't know how to make a website.. so what? Everyone has to start somewhere. Search for online tutorials, or find a friend who's willing to show you the ropes. It may take some time, yes, but at least you can say that you did it yourself, and didn't steal from someone else. [+] What is hotlinking? Hotlinking is the devil. [+] .. no, seriously, what is hotlinking? Hotlinking is when someone takes an image from your website and puts it on their own website. As if that wasn't bad enough, they link the image right off your server. In other words, they are using your bandwidth to steal your work in order to pass it off as their own. The lowest of lows. [+] Hotlinking is okay, though, right? NO. Hotlinking is NOT OKAY. Every time you hotlink an image from someone else's website, you are using their bandwidth. Bandwidth is how many bytes of data can be transferred from a website to all the computers to visit it monthly. Most of the time, as is the case with personal domains, this bandwidth actually has to be paid for. Free sites, such as those hosted on Tripod or GeoCities, have a very small amount of bandwidth. For them, once it's gone, it's gone for the hour, the day, or the month. In other words, their entire website goes poof. [+] Yeah, but I hotlink images anyway! No one can find out. ^________^ Wrong. Nowadays, almost all websites -- free or paid for -- have some sort of "tracking device" that tells the website owner who has been accessing what, and from where. In other words, I can view my logs and find out what image you hotlinked, what webpage or forum of yours that you hotlinked it off of, and who you are. [+] But still... it's not my problem. You can't do anything to me. Wrong again. You know that beautiful photo that you hotlinked from my website, and then gloated over for an hour because now your website looks so very kewliez, and you aren't even losing any of your valuable Tripod megs? Well, what if one day, that photo magically turned into *this*? Or how about *this*? Gee, then everyone would know what a big thief you are. It can be done, and I will happily do it if I find any images that are hotlinked from my site. In fact, I also have a few more "special" images that I would be more than happy to copy over the image you hotlinked ... but they aren't exactly appropriate to post here. Think of them as the "big guns". [+] Alright, fine! .. but it's okay if I hotlink to your images from a forum, right? I need a signature pic! Nope, it's certainly not okay. It's not okay to hotlink from your own website, someone else's website, a forum... ANYWHERE. It's simply not okay. [+] I tried to hotlink a picture of yours and it won't load! It shows up as a red X! What did you do?! mind-bender.org has special hotlinking protection in place, which disables you from being able to hotlink to any image hosted here at m-b.org. The image will appear broken. Occassionally, I may allow friends to host and hotlink images from m-b.org .. but that is WITH MY PERMISSION. If you do not have my permission, expect your precious hotlinked image to be changed to something else. nO sTEALIT Webmasters, especially my lovely hostees here at m-b.org, are more than welcomed to link back to nO sTEALIT to help promote proper website netiquette. if you wish, you may take one of the following link-ready images: (or make your own!)       |
