There have been several threads that I wanted to participate in and post images in my reply, but in posting rules at the bottom of the page when I login it says I may not post attachments. So how exactly should I post images if I cannot make them attachments. Thanks for any help or information.

1. Upload your photo to imageshack or another image hosting site

2. Link to it here using the [img] tags.

I've never seen a forum were you can upload your own pictures and have the forum actually host them. Or am I wrong? Why does this keep being an issue with newbs?

I've seen it, but it's usually on smaller forums where they aren't as concerned with bandwidth issues.

Or forums where you pay and there's a lot of ads.

Yes. Some forums do this.

Many forums do this and it is not a big deal for bandwidth, it is more about server space and administration. The forum owner may not want to be a random picture host and MANY people are clueless. As in attaching images of smilies, or attaching the same pic over and over (each being a separate file on the server).

yep many forums do this...

not a bandwidth issue...

it is an admin issue...

but i am on forums that simply use photopost... a Vbulletin add on that becomes a "Photobucket' only for that forum... and that is slick... lile Photopost Vbgallery 2.4.2...

it's slick... seems like the new owners would bump up to a later Vbulletin and host avatars, and add a gallery...

just my opinion...