I made a topic because I can not save the profile anymore when an avatar is set by "Specify avatar by URL" in the profile.
Trying to save any alterations in the profile returns a message:
The following errors occurred when trying to save your profile:
The avatar you have selected is either too large or not an avatar.
I first thought it was a problem in my settings or my host but I found out that at least 3 other SMF forums than my own forum that use versien 2.0.17 have this problem (including this Simplemachines forum)
My topic about it: https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=574286.0
Found out that it is the hotlinkprotection in my hostaccount that caused this problem.
I have that option "on" for quite a while and it never caused problems. Thats weird, isn't it?
No, it's not weird, it's functioning *exactly as intended* to prevent you from doing exactly what you were trying to do.
Putting an avatar like that is literally hotlinking.
I'm now trying to exclude a map on my server apart from the hotlinking setting, so that I can park there avatars that I use on other fora.