LF forum on eBay

[Marko]

First off, I'm not sure if this belongs here, so please move as needed.

There's an eBay auction for a Tachi in which the seller does not just mention this site, but provides live link directly to a manual in pdf form on largeformatphotography.info.

For some reason, it sounds a bit fishy to me, hence this message. If all is cool, I wouldn't mind to have this message deleted.

http://cgi.ebay.com/TACHIHARA-4X5-FIELD-CAMERA-ALMOST-NEW-BEAUTIFUL-MUSIC_W0QQitemZ200001723163QQihZ010QQcategoryZ15247QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[David A. Goldfarb]

It's up to Tuan, of course, but I don't see anything wrong with it. If there's a good web page or online manual for something I'm selling I'll often include a pointer toward the site with a sentence or two describing the contents of the link.

[tim atherton]

why fishy?

[Marko]

why fishy?

Call me old-fashioned if you will, but linking directly to a large file such as pdf, especially from a high-traffic site, only uses up the bandwith and brings no benefit to a hosting site.

Linking to the site itself or to a page from which that pdf is available would be something different, of course.

If I'm mistaken and there is nothing wrong with the practice, all the better.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I think that it would be problematic if it were a hotlinked image. The URL isn't hidden, so lfphoto.info gets some benefit from the link. How many people are going to want to download some big PDF for the Tachihara manual while casually browsing eBay anyway?