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No, it's public and has been run for 11 years already and will continue to do so in foreseeable future. I would say it is the most popular one in my home countr

by Eriks 6y ago

No, it's public and has been run for 11 years already and will continue to do so in foreseeable future. I would say it is the most popular one in my home country and it has good reputation among users. From my experience most linkrot issues comes from the fact that sites and documents URL shorteners link to go down before URL shorteners themselves. Many websites from 11 years ago doesn't exist anymore.

stretchcat 6y ago
Will you die, will your heirs continue to operate this service? Or do consequences beyond your life not concern you? (e.g. "Why should I care about climate change, I'll be dead before it gets bad!") To mitigate the harm you've already caused, you should put the service into a read-only mode and contact Archive Team about handing off the database. You should do this today, before you get hit by a bus.
- Eriks 6y ago
  Thank you for being concerned for my life. I've set it up in a way that someone will take it over after my sudden death, don't worry. And I care about climate change, even after my death.
- dang 6y ago
  Please don't post in the flamewar style to HN or cross into personal attack. Those things aren't compatible with curious conversation, which is what we're going for here. We're also trying to avoid the online callout/shaming culture [1]. Even if you're right, beating people with a stick will neither improve their behavior nor the quality of conversation for anybody else. The endgame of this is a ghost town inhabited by a few nasty diehards, abandoned by users one would actually want to have a conversation with. That seems to be the default fate of internet forums but the goal of this one has always been to stave it off a little longer [2]. [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&type=comment&dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=online%20shaming%20by%3Adang https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&type=comment&dateRange=a... [2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=stave%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...
- prophesi 6y ago
  What harm have they "already caused"? Is link rot such a damaging phenomenon that it warrants attacking hobbyists and their not-for-profit public service? Will you help financially compensate their time setting up these fail-safes?
  - stretchcat 6y ago
    > What harm have they "already caused"? They have already inserted themselves as a middleman by shortening URLs, creating an additional point of failure which will inevitably break sooner or later. > Will you help financially compensate their time setting up these fail-safes? How about: Blow it out your ass. He made the mess, so if he has any integrity he'll foot the bill for cleaning it up.
    - Eriks 6y ago
      It's users choice to use a shortener to shorten their long URLs. Calling shorteners middleman is just wrong.
      - stretchcat 6y ago
        The person who uploads the link is not the only affected party. This affects every unrelated person who might ever want to follow those links long after the shortener is dead and gone.
        Eriks 6y ago
        Any link on the internet - shortened or not - can after some time die. Domain registration expire, websites get shut down. Domain changes ownership and new site goes up. Relax. It's just a lifecycle of Internet resources. Let us end this conversation. You obviously see things differently.
    - prophesi 6y ago
      > [Unnecessary crude remark]. He made the mess, so if he has any integrity he'll foot the bill for cleaning it up. He [set up a server with a link shortening service pro bono, eating the cost of server maintenance for 11 years], so if he has any integrity he'll [do more free work]. I'd argue it's the user's fault if they decide to trust a small hobby site to last until the end of time. How many link shortening services have you used which promptly died, causing you to find this ridiculous hill to die on?
dejj 6y ago
Do you have some form of information escrow in place? E.g. could archive.org store a page of all your short-url mappings?
- Eriks 6y ago
  Not at the moment but Archive.org is an option I'm considering.

by Eriks 6y ago

stretchcat 6y ago

Will you die, will your heirs continue to operate this service? Or do consequences beyond your life not concern you? (e.g. "Why should I care about climate change, I'll be dead before it gets bad!") To mitigate the harm you've already caused, you should put the service into a read-only mode and contact Archive Team about handing off the database. You should do this today, before you get hit by a bus.

Eriks 6y ago
Thank you for being concerned for my life. I've set it up in a way that someone will take it over after my sudden death, don't worry. And I care about climate change, even after my death.
dang 6y ago
Please don't post in the flamewar style to HN or cross into personal attack. Those things aren't compatible with curious conversation, which is what we're going for here. We're also trying to avoid the online callout/shaming culture [1]. Even if you're right, beating people with a stick will neither improve their behavior nor the quality of conversation for anybody else. The endgame of this is a ghost town inhabited by a few nasty diehards, abandoned by users one would actually want to have a conversation with. That seems to be the default fate of internet forums but the goal of this one has always been to stave it off a little longer [2]. [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&type=comment&dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=online%20shaming%20by%3Adang https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&type=comment&dateRange=a... [2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=stave%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...
prophesi 6y ago
What harm have they "already caused"? Is link rot such a damaging phenomenon that it warrants attacking hobbyists and their not-for-profit public service? Will you help financially compensate their time setting up these fail-safes?
- stretchcat 6y ago
  > What harm have they "already caused"? They have already inserted themselves as a middleman by shortening URLs, creating an additional point of failure which will inevitably break sooner or later. > Will you help financially compensate their time setting up these fail-safes? How about: Blow it out your ass. He made the mess, so if he has any integrity he'll foot the bill for cleaning it up.
  - Eriks 6y ago
    It's users choice to use a shortener to shorten their long URLs. Calling shorteners middleman is just wrong.
    - stretchcat 6y ago
      The person who uploads the link is not the only affected party. This affects every unrelated person who might ever want to follow those links long after the shortener is dead and gone.
      - Eriks 6y ago
        Any link on the internet - shortened or not - can after some time die. Domain registration expire, websites get shut down. Domain changes ownership and new site goes up. Relax. It's just a lifecycle of Internet resources. Let us end this conversation. You obviously see things differently.
  - prophesi 6y ago
    > [Unnecessary crude remark]. He made the mess, so if he has any integrity he'll foot the bill for cleaning it up. He [set up a server with a link shortening service pro bono, eating the cost of server maintenance for 11 years], so if he has any integrity he'll [do more free work]. I'd argue it's the user's fault if they decide to trust a small hobby site to last until the end of time. How many link shortening services have you used which promptly died, causing you to find this ridiculous hill to die on?

dejj 6y ago

Do you have some form of information escrow in place? E.g. could archive.org store a page of all your short-url mappings?

Eriks 6y ago
Not at the moment but Archive.org is an option I'm considering.