
Pygmy: Open-source URL shortener in Python - amitt001
https://github.com/amitt001/pygmy
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jdnier
Have you given much thought to how this link shortener might be abused? Your
[https://pygy.co/](https://pygy.co/) example site doesn't provide an abuse
contact, for example. That doesn't help when someone sets it up deliberately
to host spammy links, but providing a default abuse contact page might be a
good general step to raise awareness that link shorteners are often abused,
and that anyone using the project responsibly should be prepared to handle
abuse complaints.

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amitt001
That's a good suggestion. I am gonna add it. Thanks!

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Rjevski
Just wondering, what's the actual use-case for an URL shortener in 2018?

I would understand maybe like 10 years ago when SMS was still king and you
were limited in characters, but now?

URL shorteners now look shady (and can be used to conceal malicious links),
could track you, and even if they have no nefarious intentions it's still an
extra DNS lookup, HTTPS negotiation and redirect.

TLDR: good project as a proof of concept, but seems completely irrelevant
nowadays.

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amitt001
It's true that URL shorteners use has changed how it was used a few years back
but it's still very relevant.

One very good use case of link shorteners is marketing & sales campaigns. A
lot of marketing companies like to share short and branded custom links on
social media and later check the click and other stats to see the conversion
rate.

I have also seen companies using URL shorteners for internal link sharing.

I have two real cases where my project is used are:

\- One of the schools in Spain uses the project website(pygy.co) for creating
secret links and sharing with students in school competitions. They share the
password with the winners(I received an email from them). \- One of the
company is China has forked the project and are using it.

Anyhow, I created this as a personal project for learning purpose but I can
see it's use cases.

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Rjevski
> A lot of marketing companies like to share short and branded custom links on
> social media and later check the click and other stats to see the conversion
> rate.

True, but as an user it does not serve me (quite the contrary actually, as it
invades my privacy), so my point (and habit) of never clicking into shortened
links still stands. I’m actually surprised brands would prefer shady-looking
links over linking to their own domain directly.

Not to mention, you can do analytics server-side on the page you’re linking to
without having to have an intermediary system & extra redirect.

> Anyhow, I created this as a personal project for learning purpose but I can
> see it's use cases.

Quite impressive actually, seems very feature-complete and well built. Keep up
the good work!

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bspammer
Just to add on, sometimes it's useful to be able to link to large query
strings without large numbers of characters in situations where there's no way
to copy and paste (for example any form of print media).

Many internet giants have set up their own link shorteners for this very
purpose: see [https://goo.gl/](https://goo.gl/) and
[https://t.co/](https://t.co/)

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bauripalash
Your project name is _Pygmy_ But your url is pygy.co

That's kind of weird, if the url was , pygmy.co , it would be better.

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amitt001
It was not available and don't have that kind of money, for a demo project, to
buy it :(

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hkai
Has anyone contacted you yet with the explanation of the word "pygmy" and the
tremendous harm that you're causing?

Wikipedia:

>In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is
unusually short.

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amitt001
"Tremendous harm" How?

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blechinger
I imagine the commenter is concerned about the colonial/bigoted connotations
that word carries when applied to people groups.

Pygmys are a subset of a species whose physical attributes are smaller than
the main species. Applying that to people is obviously... Problematic at best.

I don't see how reusing the word, given its original use in biology, is
directly causing harm. If anything I think it's a clever and decent
reclaimation of the word.

