I wouldn't call it a shortener, since most of the links it creates are longer than the originals. What would be a good name here? A URL redirector?
link obfuscator
The URL shortener that makes your links look as suspicious as possible
101–110 of 157 posts
Re: The URL shortener that makes your links look as suspicious as possible
#102I think it’s perfectly reasonable to make something useless for fun, it’s an interesting idea. But what I’d like to understand is why there are so many of the same thing. I know I’ve seen this exact idea multiple times on HN. It’s funny the first time, but once it’s done once and the novelty is gone (which is almost immediately), what’s the point of another and another and another?
I’ve been browsing this site for a decade plus and this idea was new to me. Maybe the author is in the same boat.
Edit: I see referencnes to shadyurl in the comments and I have heard of that, but probably wouldn’t have thought of it.
Re: The URL shortener that makes your links look as suspicious as possible
#103This is great. It created a link to my personal site that Firefox blocked me from going to.
Re: The URL shortener that makes your links look as suspicious as possible
#104I think it’s perfectly reasonable to make something useless for fun, it’s an interesting idea. But what I’d like to understand is why there are so many of the same thing. I know I’ve seen this exact idea multiple times on HN. It’s funny the first time, but once it’s done once and the novelty is gone (which is almost immediately), what’s the point of another and another and another?
I think it's just someone learning something new most of the time. I have home made url shorteners in go, rust, java, python, php, elixir, typescript, etc. why? because I'm trying the language and this kind of project touches on many things: web, databases, custom logic, how and what design patterns can I apply using as much of the language as I can to build the thing.
Right. But the question is why redo the exact same joke? Why not come up with another twist (like the URL lengthener) or do no twist but be useful?
I’m not criticising the author or anyone who came before. I’m trying to understand the impetus between redoing a joke that isn’t yours. You don’t learn anything new by redoing the exact same gag that you wouldn’t learn by being even slightly original or making the project truly useful.
Ideas are a dime a dozen. You could make e.g. a Fonzie URL shortener (different lengths of “ayyyyy”), or an interstellar one (each is the name of a space object), or a binary one (all ones and zeroes)… Each of those would take about the same effort and teach you the same, but they’re also different enough they would make some people remember them, maybe even look at the author and their other projects, instead of just “oh, another one of these, close”.
Re: The URL shortener that makes your links look as suspicious as possible
#105I think it’s perfectly reasonable to make something useless for fun, it’s an interesting idea. But what I’d like to understand is why there are so many of the same thing. I know I’ve seen this exact idea multiple times on HN. It’s funny the first time, but once it’s done once and the novelty is gone (which is almost immediately), what’s the point of another and another and another?
A fun project doesn't need to be original, IMO. URL Shortener is still one of the most popular System Design questions, building this project is a great way to have some experience / understanding of it, for example.
> A fun project doesn't need to be original, IMO.
I agree. But a URL shortener with a twist isn’t just fun, it’s funny. The joke—as opposed to the usefulness—is what’s interesting about it. But when the same joke is overdone, it’s no longer funny.
> building this project is a great way to have some experience / understanding of it
Re: The URL shortener that makes your links look as suspicious as possible
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that something specifically intended for this, like Anubis, is a much better option.
Anubis flatly refuses me access to several websites when I'm accessing them with a normal Chromium with enabled JS and whatnot, from a mainstream, typical OS, just with aggressive anti-tracking settings. Not sure if that's the intended use case. At least Cloudflare politely masks for CAPTCHA.
What do you mean "refuses"? The worst it should do is serve up a high difficulty proof of work. Unless it gained new capabilities recently?
Are you sure the block isn't due to the authors of those websites using some other tool in addition?
Re: The URL shortener that makes your links look as suspicious as possible
#107My favorite link of all time: https://jpmorgan.c1ic.link/logger_zcGFC2_bank_xss.docm Definitely not meta
I got one where the called script ended in ".pl" and I had a flashback to the 90s. My trousers grew into JNCOs, Limp Bizkit started playing out of nowhere and I got a massive urge to tell Slashdot that Alan Thicke had died.
Re: The URL shortener that makes your links look as suspicious as possible
#108I think it’s perfectly reasonable to make something useless for fun, it’s an interesting idea. But what I’d like to understand is why there are so many of the same thing. I know I’ve seen this exact idea multiple times on HN. It’s funny the first time, but once it’s done once and the novelty is gone (which is almost immediately), what’s the point of another and another and another?
I’ve been browsing this site for a decade plus and this idea was new to me. Maybe the author is in the same boat. Edit: I see referencnes to shadyurl in the comments and I have heard of that, but probably wouldn’t have thought of it.
Fair. I’d think they would look for prior work beforehand, but that’s perfectly valid.
Again, this was not a criticism, but a genuine question.
Re: The URL shortener that makes your links look as suspicious as possible
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
With Firefox on Android it simply says Deceptive site issue This web page at [...] has been reported as a deceptive site and has been blocked based on your security preferences. What's going on? I can't find any setting to disable this.
NextDNS is blocking it too ( https://google.c1ic.link/lottery_qrdLCz_account_verification ). The reason is that Google Safe Browsing considers that site as unsafe.
TBF it ought to trigger even the simplest heuristics so it wouldn't surprise me if it was automatically categorized that way.
Re: The URL shortener that makes your links look as suspicious as possible
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's just someone learning something new most of the time. I have home made url shorteners in go, rust, java, python, php, elixir, typescript, etc. why? because I'm trying the language and this kind of project touches on many things: web, databases, custom logic, how and what design patterns can I apply using as much of the language as I can to build the thing.
Right. But the question is why redo the exact same joke ? Why not come up with another twist (like the URL lengthener) or do no twist but be useful? I’m not criticising the author or anyone who came before. I’m trying to understand the impetus between redoing a joke that isn’t yours. You don’t learn anything new by redoing the exact same gag that you wouldn’t learn by being even slightly original or making the projec…
A joke isn’t the best example because there are jokes that never changes but the delivery is a sign of mastery. The Aristocrats is like Bach’s cello suite for comedians.