Ever single image that is displayed on here is cached locally - not directly from the source. The reason for this is that if the site disappears it doesnt break the thread as the image is missing.
To me, there's nothing worse than coming to read an old thread and finding the important images have disappeared. It's also the reason why hosting of this site is so expensive!
As i mentioned, all images stored here will soon be converted to webp images - which should lead to very little loss however a smaller file size.
Example - if you look at the Image above of IJ apron - the source of that image is shown as "
https://www.pinballinfo.com/community/attachments/indiana-jones-pinball-aprons-print3-jpg.249631/" - i.e. held locally. I do admit there is a little compression added, however at over 80% of the original it's as close as you can get on the web short of the original.
In the next release of the forum software is also the ability for "large source" images (i.e. straight from mobiles) to be alowed and processed internally into something more web-like. Most people dont need 2k images of a source to appreciate the quality... however thats what some mobiles take pictures at and what is attempted to be uploaded...