• Greg Clarke@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    URL shorteners are but inherently bad. I find them useful. I self host them on domains I own. So they’re secure, trust worthy, I can track engagement, and I can update them if need be.

    Plus, I’m pretty sure Twitter forces you to use their shortener. My URL http://gho.st was “shortened” to a longer https://t.co/blahblah URL 😂

    • jarfil@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      I can track engagement, and I can update them if need be

      That’s inherently bad as in:

      • Third party (you) tracking the user
      • Hiding the true target from the user
      • Destroying any attempt at content archival

      They’re not inherently bad “for you”, just for everyone else.

      • Greg Clarke@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Third party (you) tracking the user

        I’m not tracking users, I’m tracking engagement. I’m not Zuckerberg

        Hiding the true target from the user

        99.99% of website use a reverse proxy, the target is nearly always hidden. I don’t think you understand how the internet works.

        Destroying any attempt at content archival

        Who would archive a shortened URL and not follow the link to its target? It’s not my fault if people don’t know how to archive my content.

        URL shorteners are not inherently bad.

      • 👁️👄👁️@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I see zero reason why others would be entitled to archive your content, nor hiding the true target from the user. Those are not bad things.

      • Greg Clarke@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        This obviously depends on the context. For instance, I’m speaking at a public event and I put a link up on a presentation to my website. The website is running on my nginx server so I could already track every visit. Having a shortened URL helps me gauge the value of my talk. It’s not black and white

    • mom@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      I self host them on domains I own.

      I’ve been trying to get a short domain to do exactly that, do you know any good brokers?