By: Emeryl Tekutsu
Konnichiwa. Basically, I am writing this for the AQ because it would be better suited on their page, not mine. And it would reach a lot more people too. So let me start.
A lot of people have gotten into a Neopets craze. This is great and all, my friend got me into it too and I go ahead and play around with it when I'm bored. Then I discovered guilds.
I was looking around at different guilds and shops, and none interested me enough so I went ahead and made my own tiny guild. That's when I was wondering how people upload images for their layouts. And I suddenly grew very suspicious. I went and looked at several of the advertised anime guilds and all their pictures were direct linked. From there I looked at some of the shops and lo and behold, more direct links. Images, Midis, animated GIFs (yes, they aren't only directly linking to files, they're cluttering their pages while they're at it).
Even so, I went back to my own guild and figured out how to upload the images and link them on Neopets. So it is indeed possible.
Now, this brought me to thinking... How many people know proper netiquette? So many places direct link and keep doing so. I was so tired of seeing it I started e-mailing the places they were direct linking. Is it so difficult to take a minute and figure out how to link your own files? Are these people just being lazy or do they not know better?
Personally, I'd like to think they just don't know better because know one has ever told them. Poor grammar, direct links, cluttered pages... In all the basics it is a webpage, so shouldn't they be held to the same standards? I know it isn't just a few places either, because I've acquired a large list of guilds (specifically looking out for direct links).
http://www.neopets.com/guilds/guild.phtml?oid=dragonlord356
http://www.neopets.com/guilds/guild.phtml?oid=taisora
http://www.neopets.com/guilds/guild.phtml?oid=ruki22
http://www.neopets.com/guilds/guild.phtml?oid=fire_shiva
http://www.neopets.com/guilds/guild.phtml?oid=sakura_kat
http://www.neopets.com/guilds/guild.phtml?oid=belinda
http://www.neopets.com/guilds/guild.phtml?oid=sandrakireth
http://www.neopets.com/guilds/guild.phtml?oid=silver_wolf70
http://www.neopets.com/guilds/guild.phtml?oid=the_flaming_amarant
All right, I think you get the point. There are a lot of them.
A common thing I found was this link...
https://www.angelfire.com/anime3/duolinktrunks
That's right, a site that encourages all this direct linking and took the pictures from elsewhere without credit in the first place. Isn't that dandy?
So I guess my question is how long will it take people to peek out of their holes and notice that it isn't right to direct link? I know (most) WPRs state that it's wrong very clearly, a lot of sites make it a point that if you want to use their images you have to download it and upload it to your own server (and then give proper credit, of course)... It's been said several hundred times on this page and others alike, so if you own any of those guilds or shops how can I put it more bluntly than to say "It's not right"?
Update:
I got an e-mail from someone named ChibiBuni after that saying that
there were places to upload pictures to that you're allowed to direct link
from, so I went and looked up a few places, here they are:
http://manageauctions.com/index.htm
http://www.baypal.com/
http://auctioneer.brainprod.com/
http://www.freepicturehosting.com/
http://www.picturetrail.com/
http://www.freepichosting.com/
http://www.auctionwatch.com/
http://www.webshots.com/
http://www.deadzoom.com/
http://tupics.com/
Comments on this article can be sent to: Emeryl Tekutsu.
