Implemented Change copy & paste picture functionality in 1.2

[Martok]

In Xenforo 1.2, the functionality for copying and pasting pictures differs from previous versions. In 1.2, when copying and pasting a picture, it is uploaded as an attachment into a forum post. In earlier versions, if the image was copied from another website, the pasted picture was inserted as an image linked from that site. Images copied from a computer weren't inserted and they had to be uploaded as a file before inserting into a post.

Proposal
A function in the ACP is added to enable/disable this new functionality. Disabling it would revert the functionality to that in 1.1.5 and earlier. If this isn't possible to implement, then I would propose that this new functionality is removed altogether and is reverted to that in 1.15.

Why?
Discussion on this new functionality started here:

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/a-new-editor-and-much-much-more.50519/page-35#post-577041

The issue with this new functionality is that many users will continue to use the copy and pasting pictures as they have done before with the consequence that forums will end up hosting the images instead of simply linking to them. This has consequences for server space (especially for large forums) as well as copyright - some websites take a very hard line on other sites, including forums, taking and hosting their images, and ultimately it's the forum owners' responsibility not to breach copyright.

Although we can try and educate our users, we won't succeed in at least some cases, especially with the less tech-savvy. Setting permissions to prevent using attachments doesn't solve the issue either as there will be users who do want to upload images that they have on the computer.

Don't get me wrong, I think this new functionality is great. However, I think it's going to cause more problems for forum admins, hence my suggestion of either a control in the ACP to enable/disable this feature or to revert the functionality to what we currently have in 1.1.5.

 

[Wildcat Media]

Not to say there isn't an issue here, but I feel like it's being blown out of proportion a bit - there's actually only one situation where the behavior changed between 1.1 and 1.2 where it actually worked correctly in 1.1: in Chrome (only), right click an image on a page, select "copy image", paste in the editor. That would upload in 1.2 where it would link in 1.1. I've changed it to detect this case.

That is good! My main concern was the storage space, where users may unknowingly think they're hotlinking to an image when it is in fact being uploaded.

 

[rellek]

So let's turn that thread around and let's suggest for people like me that img-tagged images are uploaded to the local filesystem for reasons I already gave. OK?

Thanks for clarification, though, Mike.

 

[Martok]

Not to say there isn't an issue here, but I feel like it's being blown out of proportion a bit - there's actually only one situation where the behavior changed between 1.1 and 1.2 where it actually worked correctly in 1.1: in Chrome (only), right click an image on a page, select "copy image", paste in the editor. That would upload in 1.2 where it would link in 1.1. I've changed it to detect this case.

This is the situation that I and others had a problem with, copying of images from other websites and pasting them into the editor causing them to be uploaded as attachments and not hotlinked. Now that you've changed this I believe resolves the issue. Thank you.