Information on our hotlinking policy

app/index.rb

@@ -82,3 +82,7 @@ end
 get '/permanent-web' do
   erb :'permanent_web'
 end
+
+get '/hotlinking/?' do
+  erb :'hotlinking'
+end

app/site_files.rb

@@ -207,6 +207,7 @@ get '/site_files/allowed_types' do
   erb :'site_files/allowed_types'
 end
 
+
 get '/site_files/mount_info' do
   erb :'site_files/mount_info'
 end

views/hotlinking.erb

@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+<div class="header-Outro">
+  <div class="row content single-Col">
+  <h1>Neocities Hotlinking Policy</h1>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="content single-Col misc-page">
+  <p>Neocities has measures in place to prevent hotlinking of content from non-Neocities sites.</p>
+
+  <h2>What is hotlinking, and why don't you allow it?</h2>
+  <p>
+    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inline_linking">Hotlinking</a> is when a non-HTML file hosted by Neocities is embedded into another site that is not hosted by Neocities.
+  </p>
+
+  <p>
+    We don't allow this because the purpose of Neocities is not to be a file server, but to be a portal for people creating their own web sites. When Neocities is used as a file dump for other sites, it hurts Neocities sites by cutting into the amount of bandwidth available to them. We want to promote Neocities sites, and this allows us to focus our resources on serving them as fast as possible.
+  </p>
+
+  <p>
+    If you have a site on another server, the best way to serve files for it is by putting them directly on that server. Not only does this ensure that the files will not disappear in the future, but it also makes it easier for you to backup that site independently.
+  </p>
+
+  <p>
+    If you need to store files for hotlinking use, there are plenty of alternatives. <a href="http://imgur.com/">Imgur</a> for example is a place you can store images that can be served by anyone.
+  </p>
+
+  <p>
+    Please keep in mind that our reasons for doing this are purely out of requirement. We need to focus on being sustainable to run Neocities without advertisers and stay independent, and preventing Neocites from being used as a "file dump host" is a part of that process.
+  </p>
+
+  <h2>Is there a way to remove the hotlinking restriction?</h2>
+  <p>
+    The hotlinking policy currently applies to all sites. We can't currently make exceptions because of the way our proxy servers work. We may change this in the future.
+  </p>
+</div>

views/site_files/allowed_types.erb

@@ -6,17 +6,21 @@
 
 <div class="content single-Col misc-page">
   <h2>Currently Allowed File Types</h2>
-  <ul style="font-size: 16pt">
+  <p>
-    <li>HTML (.html, .htm)</li>
+    <ul style="font-size: 16pt; margin-bottom: 20px">
-    <li>Image (.jpg, .png, .gif, .svg, .ico)</li>
+      <li>HTML (.html, .htm)</li>
-    <li>Markdown (.md, .markdown)</li>
+      <li>Image (.jpg, .png, .gif, .svg, .ico)</li>
-    <li>JavaScript (.js, .json, .geojson)</li>
+      <li>Markdown (.md, .markdown)</li>
-    <li>CSS (.css)</li>
+      <li>JavaScript (.js, .json, .geojson)</li>
-    <li>Text (.txt, .text, .csv, .tsv)</li>
+      <li>CSS (.css)</li>
-    <li>XML (.xml)</li>
+      <li>Text (.txt, .text, .csv, .tsv)</li>
-    <li>Web Fonts (.eot, .ttf, .woff, .woff2, .svg)</li>
+      <li>XML (.xml)</li>
-    <li>MIDI Files (.mid, .midi)</li>
+      <li>Web Fonts (.eot, .ttf, .woff, .woff2, .svg)</li>
-  </ul>
+      <li>MIDI Files (.mid, .midi)</li>
+    </ul>
+  </p>
+
+  <p>In addition, we have measures in place to prevent <a href="/site_files/hotlinking">hotlinking</a> of content from non-Neocities sites.
 
   <h2>Why are there restricted file types?</h2>
   <p>
@@ -33,7 +37,7 @@
   </p>
 
   <p>
-    We are working on upgrading our infrastructure to deal with these problems more effectively (such as automatic virus scanning for executables, and using globally-distributed site caching to improve performance for sites and increase our bandwidth capabilities). Until then, we have a whitelist of allowed file types, but we will let you know if this changes in the future (and we expect it to). Thank you for your understanding and patience.
+    We are constantly working on upgrading our infrastructure to deal with these problems more effectively. Until then, we have a whitelist of allowed file types, but we will let you know if this changes in the future. Thank you for your understanding.
   </p>
 
   <h2>Is there a way to remove the whitelist?</h2>