Currently I’m using Facebook connect and Twitter oauth to authenticate users. and I’m using their profile image urls directly instead of storing them on my server. I guess it’s better to save the thumbnails and think eventually may need to do that, but for now am trying to save as much money as possible. (I’m currently using Heroku to host my project and can’t store files unless I use S3 or the likes, which would cost me money)
I’m wondering if this is OK, and if most web apps start out this way. Or if I need to store the images.
Also, now I want to let users set up accounts without Twitter or Facebook. In this case, is there a way to use a “third party thumbnail hosting site” (I don’t even know if such a thing exists) for free instead of using S3? It can even be a short term hack, since I plan to eventually implement image storage if this gets traction.
I think not storing them is the best way. If someone changes their picture, you always show the latest this way, if you stored them, well then you would have an old version of their picture after time which could make your app look stale.
As for where to store alternatives, I would really consider s3. It is very cheap storage, and thumbnails won’t need a lot of space. It would only get expensive if you had a LOT of users, and if you have a LOT of users, you should be able to afford the storage.
Also, have you looked at Gravatar? A lot of people have those linked to their email addresses, it might be another good way to get their picture. http://en.gravatar.com/site/implement/