In an effort to preserve threads going forward, I've added the feature that will scan submitted posts and automatically attach any hot linked images - thus removing the need for the linked site to stay online.
I've been testing it and all is good so far (it will ignore anything linked from the forum domain itself, obviously), a few sites block it but it seems the majority work as expected.
This means in the future we shouldn't have loads of threads with dead photo links.
A shame I didn't implement this years ago, some cracking threads have been ruined by the evil red X, but oh well, better late than never!
