Image Hosts and what to use them for

Started by Arc, September 22, 2014, 12:15:16 AM

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Arc

When exercising your powers as a forum warrior, it is often necessary to use hosted images to make your post stand out in the endless sea of text. However, there are so many hosts it can be hellish to wade your way though, and you end up using what you're used to.

Here's a simi-complete list of the best image hosts and what to use them for:

[COLOR="Green"]--Use--[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Green"]Imgur - [/COLOR] http://imgur.com/
Use for images under 1000px, or anything you need to load fast. The best general image host at the time of this posting. Use this one if you dont know what to use.

[COLOR="Green"]Minus -[/COLOR] http://minus.com/
Use for images over 1000px. Does not damage images over 1000 pixels. Loads significantly slower then Imgur, but at significantly higher quality for large images.

[COLOR="Green"]Mediacrush -[/COLOR] https://mediacru.sh/
Can be used for SVG and other Vector images (!!), also useful for any other extended format you need to host. Excellent host for general versatility.

[COLOR="Green"]Gfycat -[/COLOR] http://www.gfycat.com/
Use for animated images, particularly gifs. Far, far better then any other host in this aspect.

[COLOR="Red"]
--Don't Use--
[/B][/COLOR]

[COLOR="Red"]Imageshack, Tripod, Tinypic, Photobucket, Postimage, Dropbox/Google Drive (in most cases), Imagebam, Flickr, FreeImageHosting, MojoImage, xtupload, Iimmgg, or Picasa.[/COLOR]

Why? Three primary reasons:
Quality: Many of these hosts downscale images, or don't support transparency.
Longevity: The VAST majority of these will take down an image after a period of time, effectively killing it.
Ease of use: Many of these are built badly or haven't been updated in years.