

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

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kwantam
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. :)

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

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kwantam
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.)

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

