Backing up all linked images in all posts

[mistyPotato]

Links to images posted in a forum can become broken after a while. Images placed on ImageShack and PhotoBucket or any off-site host for that matter for example sometimes become unavailable if the account holder closes the account or the photos for the account are for any reason no longer available. Also, if a member leaves your forum under "bad" terms, he can cut access to all the photos he posted by changing the account.

On my particular forum, lots of technical "how to" photos are posted and the posts are practically useless without the photo. I also have a posted forum rule that images posted on my forum(s) grants the site ownership rights to a copy of the image.

So, I developed an easy way to actually save ALL images posted to my forum. With a few clicks, it saves a copy of all off site photos onto my hard drive in case a link becomes broken, I can simply change the link (also automated) in any post to point to the saved copy of the photo. I'm working now on making it all a dynamic process so that periodically, with a button click, I can Backup all photos referenced by a link to my local hard drive, then, any links that do not point to an available image would self correct to point to the local copy....no more missing images....ever.

It was a challenge but I enjoyed it.
But doing this made me wonder how everyone else does it?
What software does this ?
I can be contacted at ubuntu172@bellsouth.net


Keywords:
Broken Image Links
Missing Images
Deleted Images
Photobucket
Imageshack
Links to Pictures
Links to Images
Links to Photos
Photos not available