"Also, don't use Imgur to host image libraries you link to from elsewhere, content for your website, advertising, avatars, or anything else that turns us into your content delivery network."
Seems as though they don't want to be a CDN, not that they don't want direct linking from forum users? Anyway I went for a dig through Alan's old reddit posts because I thought I recalled him saying he's fine with direct links
> Nothing has changed in regards to direct linking. I'm not sure what you're seeing exactly, but we'll always allow you to direct link to any image you want.
> People linking to the page rather than the image is what keeps imgur going. If everyone linked to the direct image then imgur would have no source of revenue. However, I want people to use the service however they want, and by no means would I ever force anyone to do it one certain way. So, I like it when people link to the page because that's how imgur makes money, but you don't have to do it if you don't want to. I'm just happy that you like the service.
> Also, don't use Imgur to host image libraries you link to from elsewhere,
what can that possibly mean? there's no way to use imgur at all without linking to it from elsewhere, except if you visit imgur.com as a destination site (which is fine, but not how imgur has been promoting itself for years)
The people who most want hotlink-embedding are precisely the people who don't "own" a website, but rather are posting content on someone else's services (forums, blog hosts, etc.) that allow semi-arbitrary HTML embedding (so you can write an <img> tag) but don't support attachment uploading or auto-rehosting.
![http://imgur.com/foo.jpg"](http://imgur.com/foo.jpg"){kind=link}
"Also, don't use Imgur to host image libraries you link to from elsewhere, content for your website, advertising, avatars, or anything else that turns us into your content delivery network."