No, it's still the way it was before with the attachment folder already being full. I am sure they could go back through and kill out graphics older than mm-dd-yyyy, but then of course those graphics would be missing from older posts.
The other alternative would be more space. The average image that I post (I would guess) is around 100k in size. That's 10 images per megabyte of storage. If we add just an extra 5 gigabytes, it would allow another 50,000 images. (actually more, because I am sure that my 100k/image is higher than the average graphic size)
For those that have an upload/web space, there are advantages...
...the graphics are always there (as long as one doesn't delete the images from their server or let the web-hosting lapse).
...the graphics can be updated/swapped, without doing anything on Noel's forum, just by changing the graphic (with the same filename) on your own server.
To me, it doesn't really make any difference if there is more space, as it is just as easy to just copy it to the server and reference it by url.
The one thing the forum doesn't support, that would have always been nice, is to be able to just paste images directly into the message. However, I know the forum software is older and isn't a graphic editor, rather a text editor, so that it isn't possible. If I'm talking with an astrofriend on Facebook and I want to include an image, I only have to copy it from my computer and hit paste. On here, the images have to exist somewhere that the forum can reach and that means either its own folder (which is full) or to some web-addressed graphic that it loads from the server each time.