Wow, I love learning via importing old posts that the Google link shortener is going to purposefully break all links in summer 2025. Another good reason to not use shorteners; another thing you can’t control in the breakage train. https://developers.googleblog.com/en/google-url-shortener-links-will-no-longer-be-available/
For fuck's sake. I hated them anyway most of the time because Please Just Let Me Know What I'm Clicking On And Where It's Going, but this is just hostile.
@kalloway right? I really dislike them a lot, especially because they so often bundle tracking (so I use unpacking tools when I can), but I hadn’t really come across a large scenario from this angle yet, even though it’s also been something I’ve been concerned about. In my case, with these older posts, it was an automated crossposting thing so I think I didn’t really have any good options available at the time. Frustrating all around!
I think there are/were valid uses but the frustration tends to outweigh the benefits for me. ^^;;
I remember years ago, some fest being advertised on DW had a shortened link to... something. I politely asked for a non-shortened link because the chances of ending up in an infinite redirect loop on my old computer and slow internet was high. Got condescended at and the shortened link again. Tried explaining and got told no, they absolutely could not share the actual link.
It... just went to a google form.
(I obvs did not participate.)
@kalloway yikes!! That is so unkind of them - like - what is going to happen if they share the link? Though I guess it’s an indicator of the tone of the event 😬
Personally I think link shorteners are best if you control the link forwarding, especially if it’s for a page or file you are also hosting. The benefit there is if the link changes, you can update the shortener target and not break links already shared elsewhere. And you’re responsible for the upkeep of your own redirects.