Whoa, time-out... it seems we have a simple misunderstanding here. No need to get upset.

There's nothing wrong with using dedicated services like Imageshack to host thumbnails/pictures which are public domain, like Maksutov and others have done in the past (I know Mak and other folks create their own from time to time as well). I've used it repeatedly to display my own photographs and such, as I've very limited personal hosting space. The thumbnail feature it offers is nice because it allows users the option of clicking on the photo or not, which is especially courteous to dial-up users.

This is fine:



The issue of hotlinking images from news services is what prompted this discussion, as I'd sent Candy a private message about it. Regardless of the fact that they may have adequate bandwidth, it's still an inconsiderate practice, and such images are copyrighted. When linking to a news story, what you should do is simply include a url to the originating page and not hotlink the image. Viewers can see the picture(s) if they click on the link. You should not take images from media sites and upload them to Imageshack or your own personal webspace to get around the hotlink request present in the FAQ, again, because the images are copyrighted.

Including smilies of one's own design, public domain, or from the emoticon sites which explicitly allow for their emotes to be linked to directly is okay.

Let's not make this harder than it needs to be.