Hotlinking

Hi guys, just wanted to mention something before I start posting again. I've been adding more games to the review archives, and noticed that a lot of people have been hotlinking to the screenshots posted there - which is perfectly fine, because the default images for each game are hosted on Flickr anyway so it doesn't use up any bandwidth. I encourage it even, especially if you're using the screenshots to start your own freeware games thread or get others to play indie games. (no backlinks necessary)

Normally I wouldn't mind if people are direct linking to any of the screenshots, but lately it's using up quite a bit of bandwidth (several gigs of it), and I have only a little over 5 GB of bandwidth every month. So I'm down to two options - purchase extra bandwidth, or enable hotlinking protection. I'm not fond of doing hotlinking protection at all, but it's the only choice I can take at the moment. I'll put up a PayPal donation button in case anyone wants to donate for bandwidth purchase. If I get enough to purchase additional bandwidth for the next few months then I'll allow hotlinking again. (sorry...)

An example is this Kongregate forum thread. If you're hotlinking to the default screenshots (anything that starts with http://farmx.static.flickr.com/ is fine) then there's no change. Images will still work as usual. They won't be deleted unless Flickr decides to suspend the free account.

The freeware archives is free to use, has no ads and costs nothing - but try not to abuse it too much... I need all the bandwidth I can get my hands on to make a mirror for this year's best of lists.