Show HN: pygm.us, the fail-only URL shortener

by kwantam • 15 years ago

2 4 15 years ago

kwantam2• 15 years ago

I wanted a project to get myself familiar with the pyramid framework, so I threw together this little jobby.

As I say on the site, the idea is that if a URL shortener is known to be unreliable, it'll force people to use it only for short-term convenience (the "non-evil" use case) and thus won't cause long-term problems (e.g., what if the site goes away, et cetera).

I realize there are other concerns (operators trying to monetize the links by inserting interstitial ads), so I suppose you'll just have to trust me when I say I promise that pygm.us won't do that. :)

copypasteweb2• 15 years ago

The problem of target URL being unknown until you follow the link still applies.

kwantam2• 15 years ago

Totally true. It seems to me that for most of the legitimate temporary uses (e.g., shortening a google maps URL), that's not a huge issue.

Agreed that there's still, e.g., the problem of people hiding affiliate links behind shorteners and the like.

Note also that you can always append = to the URL to get its status page, which tells you where the link goes. (I realize this is a less than satisfying solution to the general problem.)

copypasteweb2• 15 years ago

It's not about affiliate links or advertisements. Target URL should be just there, without contacting random servers to determine it.

Show HN: pygm.us, the fail-only URL shortener

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