Do people actually appreciate URL shorteners?

@hpod16
only for live presentations where the participants need to type something in from on-screen, and only if the URL is awkwardly long with random looking bits.

@hpod16 intranet / group / own shorteners (where authentication and auditing with consequences can happen) - yes they are great, especially at big orgs.

Internet sourced and shared - no, way too easy to do bad things.

@hpod16
They are potentially evil. Only existed because original Twitter was a stupid design and had too small a text limit as if the Internet was an early GSM phone,

It's tricky; i think it's neat but, it's prone to misdirect people into malicious sites.

@catsalad @hpod16 Or, https://creepylink.com

@hpod16 @joshg That plus QR codes, which get harder to scan as url length increases!

@hpod16 No, it just adds another failure point. If you have annoyingly long URLs like:

example.com/cgi-bin/pages/2025/02/13/posts/pages.php?article=rocks&format=html

... you should fix that. If you absolutely must, just set a short link on the same server:

Redirect example.com/rocks -> example.com/cgi-bin/pages/2025/02/13/posts/pages.php?article=rocks&format=html

@paveljanicek @hpod16 Works great! :3

https://service.hf25u.link/hidden_oodRd3_account_verification.pdf

@hpod16 "I don't care" is a no btw

@paveljanicek https://ic6do.com/N0DA2K_urgent_update.docm

@hpod16 I would only ever use it for the link in my bio.

@catsalad @hpod16 Your phishy URL asked me to come out & play, but my adblocker wouldn’t let me…

@juanejot @hpod16

Let's get creepy then! https://creepylink.com/

@hpod16 @catsalad Yeah, that one worked, but I’m disappointed not to see anything about the free dinner just for listening to a time-share sales pitch, where it linked me to.

@hpod16 theyre nice when i have to share a long url to a device that i have to type it out on, but i know where the link goes and only use open source ones

something something im an outlier and shouldn't be counted

@catsalad @paveljanicek @hpod16 https://support.ic6do.com/Ireqke_invoice lmao

@catsalad @paveljanicek @hpod16 omg @ivpn 's anti tracker blocked it

@hpod16 Yes, in some circumstances: if I trust the shortening service and it’s a printed URL (for inside, on a flyer) that I’ll have to type.

@paveljanicek @catsalad @hpod16 inevitably these end up getting used by scammers sadly

@hpod16 Same goes for links to documents instead of pages. I'd like to see some sort of clear declaration if what I'm about to click/tap will start downloading a file.