Image hosting sites.

[djg]

Storage in the cloud is very cheap these days. Infinitely cheaper than doing it on hardware. The forum could have its own storage up there. Integrating it with phpbb, well, I don't know that.

[Jan-hendrik]

I've used tinypic.com for many years without any problems. But I keep all my files on my own media as well.

[White Exec]

If we pay for it, and it's part of our contract agreement with the storage provider, then it should work ok.
I don't read that Imgur paragraph as Will does. That first sentence seems pretty clear.

Whichever way, we should be backing up photo and attachment content held remotely (and having the means to restore them into posts), because ultimately we can't rely on 3rd party hosting sites not to change conditions or go out of business. FCF have just done all this; it's been a lot of work but is working well, apparently with a modest increase in server storage space.

[xantia_v6]

I've used tinypic.com for many years without any problems. But I keep all my files on my own media as well.

I read somewhere that tinypic is part of the photobucket empire...

[Jan-hendrik]

I read somewhere that tinypic is part of the photobucket empire..

That does not bode well then

[xantia_v6]

I have come to the conclusion that the only safe long-term solution is for forums such as this to have a backup copy of all displayed images, and the ability to use those backups where appropriate.

I have spent quite a bit of time in the last month helping phpBB forum owners rescue and restore photobucket images. I know that Ciaran will do something about this when he has time.