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I currently host https://femto.pw/ https://femto.pw/ - A URL shortener I've kept up for ~4 years and intend to indefinitely. It doesn't do anything with regard

I currently host https://femto.pw/ https://femto.pw/ - A URL shortener I've kept up for ~4 years and intend to indefinitely. It doesn't do anything with regards to tracking cookies or other dark patterns. It just redirects you using a 302 redirect.

Merman_Mike 6y ago
FYI that your site is blocked by this list: https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list HN post for that list here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25512273 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25512273
- miked85 6y ago
  That list is questionable at best. There are many claims the list author makes without any source code at all, though a lot of buzzwords. The reddit r/pihole moderator pulled the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/kh5dit/the_quantum_adlist/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/kh5dit/the_quantum_... . The thread was more entertaining before the list author deleted every downvoted comment they made.
  - Jap2-0 6y ago
    [0] is perhaps even more concerning - apparently it bears a striking resemblance to Steven Black's (slightly more reputable) list[1] [edit: plus a few hundred thousand other rules of questionable sourcing]. [0] https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list/-/issues/13 https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list/-/i... https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/issues/1487 https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/issues/1487 [1] https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts
  - Merman_Mike 6y ago
    I agree that it's questionable. I commented the same in the thread I linked: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25513161 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25513161 However, at least for Pi-Hole users, more is usually better, so I added the list to my Pi-Hole.
    - phire 6y ago
      > > We were testing an AI that could show some basic emotions about internet content, and turns out it was very precise at getting “annoyed” by ads and “unsolicited” third party connections… Holy shit that's such bullshit. They are basically claiming they invented a artificial general intelligence, with feelings, that happens to feel the same way about ads as us. It's basically sentient instead of publishing research papers, they turned it into an ad blocker.
      - srtjstjsj 6y ago
        It's just colorful language for the fact that ads and spyware score high on their model for bad websites.
        phire 6y ago
        First: Marketing bullshit is still bullshit. Even if it's not morally wrong, it makes you look like an idiot who doesn't understand the technology you are selling. In the worst case it might even be used as evidence that your work is a fraud. There is no benefit; To the lay person, It would sound just as impressive to say "We trained a machine learning model to detect ads and spyware" and that wouldn't immediately set off alarm bells with people familiar with the current state of machine learning. Second: Talking about fraud, the evidence linked above is pretty strong. Their alleged AI is somehow detecting test domains that authors of other lists as "ads or spyware". Test domains that aren't linked anywhere on the internet. In one "smoking gun" example, the test domain doesn't even have a DNS entry. The alleged AI can't even load the domain to scan it.
    - llacb47 6y ago
      No, more is not usually better. Especially with a garbage ""AI-generated"" (not) list with untrustworthy maintainers like this one. It's better to add a low number of lists with trusted maintainers, who actively curate their lists and respond to false positives. That means no "mega-list" abominations like oisd.nl. I suggest: https://www.github.developerdan.com/hosts/ https://www.github.developerdan.com/hosts/ https://gitlab.com/curben/urlhaus-filter/raw/master/urlhaus-filter-hosts.txt https://gitlab.com/curben/urlhaus-filter/raw/master/urlhaus-... https://raw.githubusercontent.com/notracking/hosts-blocklists/master/hostnames.txt https://raw.githubusercontent.com/notracking/hosts-blocklist... https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anudeepND/blacklist/master/adservers.txt https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anudeepND/blacklist/master...
- codefined 6y ago
  Hm, well I've got to work out how to get off that list! Thanks for giving me the heads up. EDIT: I'm not sure quite how to deal with being put on ad lists. Sure, people can upload any file to our host so it's plausible that someone, at some point, has uploaded an advert. Someone could also redirect to an advert domain and we'd have no way to really deal with that unless it was reported. Ideas are welcome for solutions.
  - Hnrobert42 6y ago
    Just some thoughts: 1. Reach out to the list maintainer to see why your site was added. 2. Create a blocklist comprised of those ad lists. Don’t redirect to sites on the blocklist. 3. (Of dubious practical value) Create a Terms of Service that says users may not use your to link to advertisements.
    - Merman_Mike 6y ago
      +1 to the second suggestion as a low-effort way to make some headway in staying off blocklists. A place to start might be this large, very popular list that combines a bunch of other lists: https://oisd.nl/ https://oisd.nl/ Actual text file is here (large file warning): https://hosts.oisd.nl/ https://hosts.oisd.nl/ Just prevent your service from shortening links to any of those domains.
      - rndomsrmn 6y ago
        You might want to consider checking for hosts listed in https://github.com/notracking/hosts-blocklists https://github.com/notracking/hosts-blocklists This is an excellent merged blocklist, with public whitelist (oisd is fully closed, no insight in what is whitelisted and why, also causing more false positives..)
        sjhgvr 6y ago
        No longer the case: https://oisd.nl/excludes.php https://oisd.nl/excludes.php
q3k 6y ago
What happens to it when you die? Do you have a contingency plan to export this data somewhere for archival purposes?
- codefined 6y ago
  I've worked with the Internet Archive to ensure continuity if I get hit by a bus or anything. A list of all items that have been uploaded to the site will be provided to them if anything happens to me.
jdc 6y ago
Femto's links don't seem to unfurl on Facebook

Merman_Mike 6y ago

FYI that your site is blocked by this list: https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list HN post for that list here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25512273 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25512273

miked85 6y ago
That list is questionable at best. There are many claims the list author makes without any source code at all, though a lot of buzzwords. The reddit r/pihole moderator pulled the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/kh5dit/the_quantum_adlist/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/kh5dit/the_quantum_... . The thread was more entertaining before the list author deleted every downvoted comment they made.
- Jap2-0 6y ago
  [0] is perhaps even more concerning - apparently it bears a striking resemblance to Steven Black's (slightly more reputable) list[1] [edit: plus a few hundred thousand other rules of questionable sourcing]. [0] https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list/-/issues/13 https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list/-/i... https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/issues/1487 https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/issues/1487 [1] https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts
- Merman_Mike 6y ago
  I agree that it's questionable. I commented the same in the thread I linked: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25513161 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25513161 However, at least for Pi-Hole users, more is usually better, so I added the list to my Pi-Hole.
  - phire 6y ago
    > > We were testing an AI that could show some basic emotions about internet content, and turns out it was very precise at getting “annoyed” by ads and “unsolicited” third party connections… Holy shit that's such bullshit. They are basically claiming they invented a artificial general intelligence, with feelings, that happens to feel the same way about ads as us. It's basically sentient instead of publishing research papers, they turned it into an ad blocker.
    - srtjstjsj 6y ago
      It's just colorful language for the fact that ads and spyware score high on their model for bad websites.
      - phire 6y ago
        First: Marketing bullshit is still bullshit. Even if it's not morally wrong, it makes you look like an idiot who doesn't understand the technology you are selling. In the worst case it might even be used as evidence that your work is a fraud. There is no benefit; To the lay person, It would sound just as impressive to say "We trained a machine learning model to detect ads and spyware" and that wouldn't immediately set off alarm bells with people familiar with the current state of machine learning. Second: Talking about fraud, the evidence linked above is pretty strong. Their alleged AI is somehow detecting test domains that authors of other lists as "ads or spyware". Test domains that aren't linked anywhere on the internet. In one "smoking gun" example, the test domain doesn't even have a DNS entry. The alleged AI can't even load the domain to scan it.
  - llacb47 6y ago
    No, more is not usually better. Especially with a garbage ""AI-generated"" (not) list with untrustworthy maintainers like this one. It's better to add a low number of lists with trusted maintainers, who actively curate their lists and respond to false positives. That means no "mega-list" abominations like oisd.nl. I suggest: https://www.github.developerdan.com/hosts/ https://www.github.developerdan.com/hosts/ https://gitlab.com/curben/urlhaus-filter/raw/master/urlhaus-filter-hosts.txt https://gitlab.com/curben/urlhaus-filter/raw/master/urlhaus-... https://raw.githubusercontent.com/notracking/hosts-blocklists/master/hostnames.txt https://raw.githubusercontent.com/notracking/hosts-blocklist... https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anudeepND/blacklist/master/adservers.txt https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anudeepND/blacklist/master...
codefined 6y ago
Hm, well I've got to work out how to get off that list! Thanks for giving me the heads up. EDIT: I'm not sure quite how to deal with being put on ad lists. Sure, people can upload any file to our host so it's plausible that someone, at some point, has uploaded an advert. Someone could also redirect to an advert domain and we'd have no way to really deal with that unless it was reported. Ideas are welcome for solutions.
- Hnrobert42 6y ago
  Just some thoughts: 1. Reach out to the list maintainer to see why your site was added. 2. Create a blocklist comprised of those ad lists. Don’t redirect to sites on the blocklist. 3. (Of dubious practical value) Create a Terms of Service that says users may not use your to link to advertisements.
  - Merman_Mike 6y ago
    +1 to the second suggestion as a low-effort way to make some headway in staying off blocklists. A place to start might be this large, very popular list that combines a bunch of other lists: https://oisd.nl/ https://oisd.nl/ Actual text file is here (large file warning): https://hosts.oisd.nl/ https://hosts.oisd.nl/ Just prevent your service from shortening links to any of those domains.
    - rndomsrmn 6y ago
      You might want to consider checking for hosts listed in https://github.com/notracking/hosts-blocklists https://github.com/notracking/hosts-blocklists This is an excellent merged blocklist, with public whitelist (oisd is fully closed, no insight in what is whitelisted and why, also causing more false positives..)
      - sjhgvr 6y ago
        No longer the case: https://oisd.nl/excludes.php https://oisd.nl/excludes.php

q3k 6y ago

What happens to it when you die? Do you have a contingency plan to export this data somewhere for archival purposes?

codefined 6y ago
I've worked with the Internet Archive to ensure continuity if I get hit by a bus or anything. A list of all items that have been uploaded to the site will be provided to them if anything happens to me.

jdc 6y ago

Femto's links don't seem to unfurl on Facebook