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Show HN: Protect your links with a password

protectmylink.xyz

11–20 of 55 posts

Re: Show HN: Protect your links with a password

#11
post #2

If it's just a redirect, isn't it going to be bypassed as soon as the first user shares the real URL?

I guess since you’re going to have to give a password to someone, you can tell them not to do that.

Though I’m a bit confused why this is even needed. The sort of thing most people want accessible via a link, but only for certain people, tend to already have unpredictable URLs. I’m not sure how

https://gaggledocs.com/documents/aboevdowugwhoaofh

Is different from

https://protectmylink.xyz/owndoavwyagdo + a password

Especially when the original url is still publicly accessible on the internet.

Additionally, you normally have much better authorization options in the app you’re linking to.

I guess you get the benefit of a changeable link, unlike the canonical one? But then a link shortener is almost enough already.

Re: Show HN: Protect your links with a password

#15
post #4

What's the biz model ?

I hear what you're saying, but people DO just put stuff out there for it to exist and aren't necessarily looking to monetize it. Crazy I know :)

I hear what you're virtue signaling, but people DO have a right to wonder what will happen if a link redirect service runs out of money and kills their links

Re: Show HN: Protect your links with a password

#17
I would point out that this will likely be used 99% of the time by people who want to charge for access to content... that they don't themselves own.

If you've ever wandered the skeevier parts of the internet (the parts that a teenager not yet experienced at writing search queries might find themselves on if they were trying to e.g. download a software crack/keygen), then you'll frequently find that the pages you land are run by middle-men trying to grab some margin for themselves.

You'll see sites that pretend to be e.g. a torrent tracker or direct-download website, but where all the links actually are indirected by a service like Adfly — a service that interstitials those links with pages full of ads, which pay out to the person who created the links.

And these links often don't even go anywhere after the interstitial; the sites make money off of people hoping the site will work and therefore trying the links at least a few times before giving up.

(This "dark pattern" of an Adfly link pointing at nothing, or at another Adfly link ad-infinitum, is so prevalent that most adblockers just block adf.ly altogether, since an adf.ly link almost never takes the user anywhere useful but is just stealing their attention to no end.)

That's not exactly the parallel here — but I think that's a dark pattern that everyone here has experienced at least once.

The pattern that is applicable here, is another one used by these same skeevy sites: the "unlock the Download button below by clicking the link above and filling out a survey" pattern.

In theory, some of those might even work. (I've been curious and tried a few times, and I've never seen one that actually ever unlocks the Download button. Maybe because I'm not willing to disable my ad-blocker for the "survey"...)

But this service seems perfectly positioned to be used by people building that exact scummy flow. "Go through stupid revenue-for-me-generating process A, and I'll give you the password required to follow link B." (Where link B likely isn't even to something the person themselves owns / has any right to be making money on, but just something they found hosted somewhere else and SEO MITMed themselves in front of.)

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I would note that anyone that actually wants to charge for their own original content these days... would likely use a platform that both hosts the content and protects it behind a paywall. Gumroad, for example, or Patreon. (Or OnlyFans, even.) Unlike a link-redirection service, these platforms protect the content to ensure that only the people who pay for it will be able to access it — people can't just bypass it by sharing the redirected-to link. (They can re-upload a download somewhere, but that's a much higher barrier to most people, e.g. on mobile.)

Re: Show HN: Protect your links with a password

#18
post #4

What's the biz model ?

I hear what you're saying, but people DO just put stuff out there for it to exist and aren't necessarily looking to monetize it. Crazy I know :)

You don't hear what they're saying.

On HN, and especially regarding "infrastructure" services that you might depend on indefinitely for something, "what's the business model" isn't a question about how the service will be enshittified. Rather, it's a question of what incentive there is to keep a free service like this running. If there isn't one, then nobody should use the service, because it'll very likely get shut down as soon as it gets popular enough for its hosting costs to become nontrivial.

Re: Show HN: Protect your links with a password

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear what you're saying, but people DO just put stuff out there for it to exist and aren't necessarily looking to monetize it. Crazy I know :)

I hear what you're virtue signaling, but people DO have a right to wonder what will happen if a link redirect service runs out of money and kills their links

Then it becomes even more secure! Passwordless, serverless, you name it.
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