[thelist] to upload or to include image urls
Ken Snyder
kendsnyder at gmail.com
Tue Oct 7 18:01:28 CDT 2008
Bob Meetin wrote:
> Is there a consensus on whether it's better to allow the audience to
> upload images and include them in a page they have access to write to or
> include URLs only?
>
> Some considerations
>
> - uploading certainly gives you more control of the image in terms of
> content, size and dimensions
> - linking to another site, such as flickr, whatever is seemingly
> simpler, but less control of network and image size
>
> If you were selling used car parts which would you rather do? We're
> interested in increasing activity and traffic to the site, not just
> selling the parts as on craigslist which is a sweetheart...
>
Other pros and cons (some you probably thought of already):
UPLOADING PROS
- Ability to easily display various sizes (e.g. thumbnail, summary, detail)
UPLOADING CONS
- You become responsible in some degree for inappropriate images
- You have to tighten security to prevent spamming or other abuse
- You must work to ensure scalability, probably storing data in a
database for a load-balanced environment
LINKING CONS
- Some users may not be familiar with or willing to post an image
elsewhere such as flickr
- Hard to police bad links
My choice would be uploading, but that may be because I just barely
finished writing an image uploader and thumbnail viewer this week :)
- Ken Snyder
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