Unnecessary code when adding sprites?

Question

One way to add sprites to questions/answers here is to go to that Pokémon's sprite page and copy-paste the markdown code, which looks like this:

[![Gastrodon](https://img.pokemondb.net/sprites/black-white/normal/gastrodon-east.png)](http://pokemondb.net/pokedex/gastrodon)

But when fiddling around with it, you can actually make the sprite appear with much less coding, like so:

![Gastrodon](https://img.pokemondb.net/sprites/black-white/normal/gastrodon-east.png)

You can eliminate the (http://pokemondb.net/pokedex/gastrodon), as well as the square brackets and the Pokémon's name (although I understand why that should be there), and get the same result.

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I didn't write this to point out any errors, just to ask if the extra information is necessary or not, or was necessary at some time in the past. It's not significant, I'm just curious.

Comments

"Note: hotlinking our images uses bandwidth and costs us money. Please show your support by linking back to us (as in the provided code). Sites that cost us excessive bandwidth without linking may be blocked."

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You overestimate my ability to understand technomumbojumbo. But fizz explained it in simpleton's terms for me.

Answer 1

You're right, technically all Markdown will require you to add for your image to appear is this code:
![](https://img.pokemondb.net/sprites/black-white/normal/gastrodon-east.png)

However, there's a reason Pokemaster adds the extra details to the code here. First of all the text that is written in the square brackets is the text that is displayed if the browser fails to load the image. If you're literate with HTML, you'd see the effect is similar to adding an alt attribute to your image. I'll intentionally break the link so you can see what would show up in this case (note mobile browsers might read this differently):

The text in parentheses (following the link to the actual image) is the address that the image will link to if you click it. So you'll notice in your original post that the first Gastrodon links to the DB's Pokedex page, but the second one doesn't because you removed the code on that one. In this case, the alternative text would show up with the link as well if the image fails to load. This is convenient, but linking back is also a means to help support the site since linking those sprites externally through pokemondb.net costs the site bandwidth.

(If you're not sure what this means, bandwidth is the amount of data transfers a website makes to user's computers. So even if you link an image from the DB on a page from a different website, every time that page is loaded, it actually costs the DB bandwidth as well because it's getting the image from pokemondb.net. Since web hosts often charge based on bandwidth, those sprites can potentially cost money to actively distribute like Pokemaster is doing here, so it's nice to link back so the DB can get some more exposure in exchange for the bandwidth cost.)

So the code isn't necessary per se, but leaving it there is generally convenient and helps support the DB, especially if you're linking to the site externally.

Comments

Interesting. Thank you for the enlightenment!

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NP, glad it was helpful :)
(Note Pokemaster should correct anything wrong here, not a web developer myself lol.)