Storing Uploaded Images Without Running Out of Space

I currently run an outdoor site and people have been asking me to add the ability to add photos from their hikes. And it is an important feature for an outdoor site. But I am afraid they will start uploading 100s of large images and I will quickly run out of space.

Is there a common and free solution to letting people u开发者_如何学Gopload images without having to buy a tonn of server storage space?

Thanks, Alex

---

There are many cloud-based file hosting sites. The following is a partial, alphabetical list. See their pricing and FAQ pages to determine if it will fit your needs.

• Amazon S3
• Rackspace Cloud Files

To mitigate issues related to size, you should consider processing the images before storing them. Use server-based image tools to resize, reformat, and compress the images before putting them in storage.

• GD Graphics Library
• ImageMagick

---

TINSTAAFL. That said, there are fairly cheap bulk file hosting solutions like Amazon S3.

---

Rather than letting them upload, just let them embed into your site, simply recommend an image uploading solution and then have short tutorial under the uploader on how to upload their photos, they simply copy the link over into a php form and your website displays them using a fraction of the resources.