Sorry for the late reply, but forums do allow you to upload your own images. Every modern script (both paid and free) has an attachment feature or a gallery add

Sorry for the late reply, but forums do allow you to upload your own images. Every modern script (both paid and free) has an attachment feature or a gallery add on you can use with it. However, this isn't the best for the actual users, because: 1. Most forums disable hotlinking for obvious reasons. So if they upload an image to a forum, they'll then have to do the same thing for every other forum they post it on. 2. Forums often require users to register to see attachments, so the images are either invisible or reduced to tiny thumbnails for guests. Stuff like Imgur and Photobucket got popular because people could post an image once and use the same URL lots of times knowing anyone could see it. But yeah, forums do host images themselves and have for about a decade or so. Very few have problems with disc space, bandwidth or illegal content either, I know since I've run them for years without issue.