What about Vatsimindicators? They are images hosted on a separate site that must be hosted there specifically so it can show your flying status on the Vatsim network, my signature is an example.Also what about the signatures some payware developers offer - such as PMDG's "Proud 737 Pilot" etc., those are also hosted on the PMDG site for users.As far as I know neither example puts cookies on to your computer.

There are always exceptions to every rule (sigh)... If users want to support a developer's efforts by using their images, such as your example of the PMDG images, that is fine, AS LONG AS; you have permission to do so, and it doesn't come with a cookie attached. Ken and I will immediately shut down a user's account if images or signatures are accompanied by a cookie. And, it is YOUR responsibility to make sure that it doesn't come with a cookie attached. The rule about images comes from the practice in the early days of the forum of folks linking to other's sites and sucking bandwidth without the site owner's knowledge or permission. That rule still stands.

Those are fine David. They don't set a cookie by simply viewing them in the forum message as part of your signature (which the ads.flightsim.com cookies do).

Thanks Tom :-jumpy

So I take it that this means no sigs hosted on Photobucket and such then?How about the PMDG one's lurking all over the place, for example, the one in my sig is from precisionmanuals.com, is this okay?

Can I have some milk with my cookie please :)

Tom,I'm taking a huge risk here in embarrassing myself ;-) , but how can I check if my signature has a cookie to it? It's hosted on an old homepage of mine.Thanks for any tips in advance,Petehttp://members.aol.com/pzsoulman/myhomepage/logo.gifAMD64-3400,1GB/2700DDRAM,WinXP(SP2),DirectX9.0c,Geforce6800(128MB)(Det.71.89), CH Yoke/Pedals

You're OK. I loaded the link directly and it's not dropping cookies (or even crumbs :-) ).Doug

Thanks Doug, really appreciate it.Petehttp://members.aol.com/pzsoulman/myhomepage/logo.gifAMD64-3400,1GB/2700DDRAM,WinXP(SP2),DirectX9.0c,Geforce6800(128MB)(Det.71.89), CH Yoke/Pedals

Ohhh.....I need to check if my Knight Penguin has a cookie.....

Wow !:-spacecraft

I think Ethically, that is pretty sad.So much for integrity. :-lol :-lolAnything for a buck, I guess. Thanks for the heads up Tom.Regards,Joe

It appears they might use a cookie for the coding - but it is a session only cookie so I assume it goes away right after. I don't see how this could cause harm and I mean that site is specifically made for signatures only, it's the whole point of it :(www.vatsimindicators.netIf it does set a cookie please let me know whether or not this site is an exception to that rule, or if Vatsim indicators will not be allowed on Avsim forums - which would be a shame as I think it's a neat feature but if need be I will change my signature - plus if so you should probably make a sticky specific to Vatsim indicators.

We have recently determined that images hosted on forums.flightsim.com and which are used in signature files here in AVSIM also attempt to place a cookie on your machine. The cookie is from ads.flightsim.com. This is a violation of our policies on two counts. Images can only come from your own web site, or from AVSIM's. Linking to an image on someone else's server is forbidden. Secondly, it violates our policies of no cookies in messages here. I won't even bother addressing the ethics of allowing people to link to images on a server that, oh by the way, serves up a cookie, and probably unknown to the user doing so...If you link to a server not owned by you for your image or you and / or you place cookies in messages in AVSIM's forum, you will loose your account. Please inspect images you use and ensure that they do not come from a third party site.