IsNSFW.com - The Safe For Work way to share Not Safe For Work links

http://isnsfw.com

by grexican • 17 years ago

84 52 17 years ago

I launched a new service yesterday and I'd like to get some feedback on it.

It's a URL shortener that allows you to safely share NSFW content with people. You create a URL, give it a rating, and the user has the option to follow.

Thoughts? Ideas? Rants and Raves?

Cheers -eli

grexican5• 17 years ago

Looking for thoughts, feedback, rants, raves. The site is essentially a safe way to share not safe content. With URL shorteners becoming popular it's hard to know if what you're clicking on is safe to visit (especially at work).

isNSFW.com aims to fix that.

Cheers -eli

keltecp112• 17 years ago

Great idea ELI... I like the 'rating' system... clever.

cedsav3• 17 years ago

err.. the "I'm at work" button should not redirect you to Disney.com. try Google instead. Otherwise, great idea.

[added link: http://isnsfw.com/yLyQTM]

grexican5• 17 years ago

really? people seemed to LOVE the disney.com redirect. They found it quite amusing :) It originally went to google though, like you suggested. We'll see how things test out and it might very well make it back to google.

Thanks for the feedback -eli

harpastum• 17 years ago

Why not just return the visitor to the previous page (if it exists)? If it doesn't exist, Google seems to be the best bet.

bigsassy• 17 years ago

This is a great idea. I really hope that this becomes ubiquitous with posting NSFW links.

It would be nice if you could affix multiple content descriptors, much like how the ESRB handles their rating system. See below for a reference:

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp

techraven• 17 years ago

I like the idea, only problem is keeping it clean and simple... maybe version 2.0 will have this :)

ks• 17 years ago

I like your idea.

Perhaps you should make the rating optional? If you want people to use this, you should make the number of steps required to a minimum

cedsav3• 17 years ago

a couple wording suggestions:

"Offensive Material: Link contains offensive content such as references to religion, abortion, 911, and the devil."

"Link MAY contain", and 911 should be 9/11 (unless you're referring to the US emergency number)

aplusbi• 17 years ago

Suggestion: being able to select more than one rating. A link may have gore and nudity, it would be helpful if you can easily specify both.

paulgb• 17 years ago

I like the idea of a url shortener indicating the content. My real pet peeve is tinyurls to PDF files though. isPDF.com appears to be available, any takers? :)

jemmons• 17 years ago

How about a bookmarklet to drag into my bookmarks bar? I know it doesn't seem like much, but constantly copying and pasting URLs into shortening services is an inconvenience (and is seriously low-hanging fruit).

grexican5• 17 years ago

bookmarklet was added today.

dandelany2• 17 years ago

Just something little: Since you've got such a nice URL, you might make the NSFW-ness a little more obvious by generating links with NSFW capitalized (ie. http://isNSFW.com/XsYK8G rather than http://isnsfw.com/XsYK8G). isnsfw isn't as immediately parsable. Otherwise, very well done!

PStamatiou• 17 years ago

Any possible way to provide a description of the link as well, automatically? Perhaps display the page's meta name/desc and page title?

KWD• 17 years ago

Though not a particular fan of URL shortening services, I do have to say I like that you have put an original and useful spin on the concept.

tsally• 17 years ago

Oh wow, a URL shortener with a clear purpose and benefit. Nice work. :)

antileet• 17 years ago

Actually, I'd written a simple service for the same purpose two years ago, I think some people use it right now:

But this new service seems to have more features, good for them :)

iroach• 17 years ago

Is this a proper use? http://isnsfw.com/liars

grexican5• 17 years ago

While it's proper use, if you read our ToS things as outrageous as foxnews are not allowed to be promoted with isnsfw... sorry. ;)

ajkirwin• 17 years ago

Hi Eli, suggestion for the "I'm at work" button. Make it redirect to something fun and informative. Like say, a random twitter trend or somesuch!

mkyc• 17 years ago

Usability: Make the URL textbox bigger and autofocus it on load. Give the OGNX labels a bit of rounding to make them look like buttons. Give them some highlighting when selected. This will keep people who don't know better from getting annoyed with those little circle toggles. Submit goes on the bottom-right. s/custom alias/alias, add a hover or question mark to it that explains what it's for. Add some overlay js/ajax to give me the new link without having to go to a new page.

Design: Align your header's (logo, speech bubble) width with the google-advertisement-banner-footer width to make the middle stand out. What's up with affiliates? Put that junk into the box right under the banner. Your copy/link/share link colors are ugly. 2 lines of text max in your description.

Copy: Comma or exclamation after 'Congratulations', period after 'others'. Some of your wording is unprofessional. Don't try to be funny. Some bosses won't look kindly on a site like this just because of your language. For example, your http://isnsfw.com/44dfs6 'porn star' might get hit by someone's work filters and get your site blacklisted.

Good plan. Go find some decent sfw url shortener sites, see if you can set up mutual linking with them ("Have something sfw to share? Try [random friend]"). And do you realize that your source of revenue is under the fold on 900px height netbook screens? Many college students use those.

(When submitting, put your comments into the the actual post, not into a comment. Title should also be 'ask hn, feedback on nsfw-friendly link shortener isnsfw.com')

seregine• 17 years ago

So...can I browse links that others submit? By category?

grexican5• 17 years ago

No... we're debating this feature at this point. It's NSFW material, so should we be listing all the NSFW content out there or should it be more private for you to share your NSFW content?

I'm torn on this one, what do you guys think.

keltecp112• 17 years ago

yes. content is king.

paulbaumgart• 17 years ago

You could make it an option to set a link as 'private' so it doesn't enter the global listing.

quizbiz2• 17 years ago

When someone clicks through your filter question, ask the question in small print, "Want to see more NSFW stuff?"

brc• 17 years ago

Surely paid adult content sites pay affiliate commissions? Why not forward through to some if the person wants to see something NSFW? It might even be a monetization strategy that actually works.

quizbiz2• 17 years ago

How are link shorteners monetized? I'm just curious because it seems everyone wants to start a niche URL shortener.

jmtulloss• 17 years ago

I think they're just cheap enough to run that niche shorteners can easily be done without a monetization strategy.

vaksel• 17 years ago

I think Nudity and XXX should be the same button. You can use that space, to add another button for stuff like Youtube and flash game sites.

tracy2• 17 years ago

"Offensive Material: Link may contian offensive content such as references to religion, abortion, 9-11, or the devil."

First of all, there is a spelling mistake. Secondly, how is religion, 9-11 or the devil offensive? You may think it's an ironic joke, but most people won't get the joke, and frankly, it's not that funny. So if I were you, I'd not try to joke on that page, but give examples that genuinely describe what could be offensive.

All the same, it's a really great service, and I think it will be big.

gaius• 17 years ago

Maybe controversial instead of offensive.

dandelany2• 17 years ago

I don't think this is a joke. Essentially, he means "content such as offensive references to religion, abortion, 9-11, or the devil." The topics themselves are not offensive, but it's easy to talk about them offensively.

jdbeast00• 17 years ago

is it just me or is the 'i'm at work' functionality redundant? if you didn't wan't to see NSFW content, you woudln't have clicked on the 'isnsfw' link. What if you built in the category into the link, like http://isnsfw/xxx/KJ89F

jimfl• 17 years ago

I used to just replace the protocol with nsfw:// so that clicking the link would go nowhere, and that recipients would have to replace nsfw:// with http://. I was thanked on many occasions for this convention.

This is a nice automated rendition of that.

rms• 17 years ago

Are you going to submit yourself to the adult filters to be blocked? Seems like it is standard to do that and then mention that at the bottom of the page

yters• 17 years ago

Cuz what we all need is another way to waste companies' time and resources by browsing porn. It's our right after all, and how dare those prudes frown on our proud and righteous lifestyle. No one's getting hurt are they? After all, beautiful people need some way to make money too, am I right or am I right?

Moo-Juice• 17 years ago

Great stuff, good idea.

andr• 17 years ago

How about adding the rating to the link? http://g.isnsfw.com/blah. Then you won't need a preview.

mrbuwch• 17 years ago

This is solving the wrong problem. What I really want is a service that tells me if a particular link is NSFW. How about a Firefox plugin which links back to a database of NSFW links on a server somewhere. Then, whenever I click on a NSFW link on Reddit, a little box can pop up saying "warning, don't view this at work" and I have the choice to wait till I go home to visit it.

Seriously, it's a great idea and I would totally implement it if I had the time/motivation.

davida• 17 years ago

simplicity is nice. I look forward to the 'aggregation' of the links shared. Top 10 "O" ratings..will be cool.

annoyed• 17 years ago

wish i woulda thought of that