A LJ PSA: Hotlinked Icons

[mishalak]

I saw a post on my reading list referencing one by elke_tanzer about hotlinking.

LJ has a feed for the latest images posted publicly here: http://www.livejournal.com/stats/latest-img.bml

samplebitch, no really that's her username, set up a community with an automatic script to scrape off any image that is posted publically that meets LJ icon requirements and post them to her community iconscraper. The posts in the community hotlink the original source of the images.

So what does that mean for you? Well it will tend to bog down the loading of your icons if you post a new one and her community is getting a lot of views that day. I have no idea, being a idiot writer type who just uses LJ to read and post stuff, if this is significant or not. But if you'd prefer that your new icons not be posted to this group there is a way to opt out, by opting out of the latest images feed.

Make sure you're logged into LJ as your journal. Go to the Admin Console at http://www.livejournal.com/admin/console/ and input set latest_optout yes and click on the execute button.

To opt out a community you maintain, type set for communityname latest_optout yes and click on the execute button.

I did it because I'm not sure and whenever I'm not sure I vote no. I doubt anyone would use my icons on their own journal without permission, and I'm not sure I would mind as long as they were not pretending that they look like me or something. But I'm not sure I want pictures I post in the latest pictures feed so I'm opted out until I understand it better.

Comments

[julesjones]

Thanks. I've been meaning to look that command up anyway, given how much of my site bandwidth is now chewed up by these scraperbot communities whenever I post an image.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.

[emberleo.livejournal.com]

Huh... the feed itself says not to spider the links. Is the iconscraper against the rules?

--Ember--

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I have no idea.

And really if you aren't going to spider it, what good is it? It isn't as if there is any use you can get from just random pictures going by. Eh. So I opted out and moved on.

[dandelion-diva.livejournal.com]

Here via perlandria. Thanks. :)

Gessi

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

You are welcome.

[cindy-reddeer.livejournal.com]

Thank you, since I started creating some of my own icons and the iconscraper community doesn't include credit info it is better to be safe than sorry.

Cheers