How do broken images work?

[Jaxel]

Several people on my website are using the IMG tag to post images from twitpic. Unfortunately, what they dont realize is that twitpic doesn't support cross linking; so no one can see the image except them, since its loaded in their cache.

However, I've noticed a disparity. Sometimes, broken images appear on my website as... well, a broken image. You know, a square, with a red X or a ripped image inside of it (depending on your browser). This is how it appears to me. However, some other users are not getting the broken images, instead they are simply getting the text "[IMG]", it leaves them confused.

Why does it do this? I would rather my users get a broken image, instead of an empty IMG tag; the broken image tells them something went wrong. An empty IMG tag tells them nothing; instead they think my website is broken... they should be thinking twitpic is broken.

 

[Paul B]

I think this depends on the browser.

 

[Mike]

Indeed it does. Firefox just seems to display the alt text, instead of anything indicating it's a broken image.

 

[Mike]

Interesting blog post though: http://blog.doxmart.com/2009/08/11/...n-image-placeholders-in-firefox-3-and-beyond/

I've not tried it yet.

 

[DroidHost]

Interesting blog post though: http://blog.doxmart.com/2009/08/11/...n-image-placeholders-in-firefox-3-and-beyond/

I've not tried it yet.

if the other browsers has such a feature it will be nice if you build our own Broken indicator