mhmd
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pro-tip: if you ever get a bit.ly link that you don't trust, add a "+" to the end of the URL so you can be taken to the info page instead

e.g.: bit.ly/3AOKQTQ -> bit.ly/3AOKQTQ+

· · Tusky · 8 · 172 · 135
jay 🌺

@mhmd what if I don't trust bit.ly?

0
Anti-Tank Tooter

@mhmd thank you!

1
Badly-optimised primate

@ExperimentV @mhmd neat.
Still don't really like shorteners but this is good

0
bsp

@mhmd
This also works with a lot of other shortened links as some of them are branded bit.ly links and some other services have copied that function:

e.g. https://ogy.de/yawc -> https://ogy.de/yawc+

0
Midas

@mhmd
Why do people still use link shorteners? Char limited social networks like Mastodon and Twitter use a fixed size for every link and unlimited social networks, forums, blogs etc don't need shortening anyways

1+
Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰
@midas @mhmd IRC? 😃
1+
Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰
Actually I have one use case for URL shorteners: Posting URLs that a URL parser parses wrong. But that's pretty rare, mostly you can get away with percent-encoding some punctuation.
0
Midas

@clacke @mhmd
Hmm ok, I never used IRC and didn't thouhgt about that🤔 How large is the character limit in IRC chats?

1
Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰
@midas @mhmd socially enforced limit only
0
Trötifant

@midas @mhmd

I encountered one or two cases where it seemed to make some sense. For example providing a link in a picture.

But on the bit.ly info page you are nevertheless exposed to privacy risks: server in USA, several third-party connections (Amazon, Google Analytics) storing 15 cookies...

If a bit.ly link is not really important to me, I just leave it aside. Else, I use an online tool like this one to see where it leads:

https://webbkoll.dataskydd.net/en/results?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F3AOKQTQ%2B#requests

0
Hans van Zijst
Good tip, thanks!
0
Christian

@mhmd great tip, thanks!

0
Albert Magellan

@mhmd @digitalcourage In the past, you could also see statistics there...

0
/xarvos/
@mhmd Cool tips, thanks for sharing. It's been forever since I've seen a link shortener tho.
0
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