Post PDF files here?

[Agaricus bisporus]

Can I post a PDF file here? The little box says I cannot attach files. That implies it is possible, so why can't I?

Any clues?

[mixture]

Agaricus bisporus,

PPRuNe do not host non-text user content for obvious reasons.

Just like you do with photos, host the PDF elsewhere and link to it using the link tool ==>http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/editor/createlink.gif

[Agaricus bisporus]

Thanks mixture. The reason is not obvious to me but what the hey?

"Host the PDF elsewhere" Err, right!

Sorry, I'm none the wiser.

[green granite]

If it already exists on the internet just post the URL, if not then upload it to a file hosting site such as rapidshare etc and then post the URL.

[mixture]

The reason is not obvious to me but what the hey?

Text is lightweight, in relative terms, it costs nothing to store and nothing to transmit.

Images and other binary items (e.g. PDF files) :

(1) Introduce the realm of viruses and illegal content that is tricky to police with a high degree of accuracy... the site owners probably don't want to take on that responsibility.
(2) cost more to store because their size is unknown (sure you can set a maximum size, but the question remains how do you accurately forecast space requirements ... you end up overspeccing the infrastructure which equals $$$)
(3) cost more to transmit because the higher volume of content being transmitted takes longer than a couple of paragraphs of text (when you view an image in someones post on PPRuNe, your computer is actually making two requests.... one to the PPRuNe servers to the text, and one to the external hosting site where the image is located)
(4) The infrastructure design is somewhat different, on a site such as this you might even be getting into the realms of using a third-party CDN (content distribution network) for your binaries, which just adds to the operational expenditure.

In a nutshell PPRuNe is a popular and busy forum and you end up with a shed load of files and a potentially large number people wanting access to them ....many opportunities for problems if not done correctly.