4 ms·

Is this Microsoft "killing" off a perfectly stable and low maintenance/overhead product/service just to save a few pennies? As a GitHub paying customer, I would

Is this Microsoft "killing" off a perfectly stable and low maintenance/overhead product/service just to save a few pennies? As a GitHub paying customer, I would gladly pay an extra few cents per month for this feature to continue. We use link shortening all the time especially for linking to a specific commit + line reference in our code. Shutting this down makes zero sense. :-(

Dayshine 4y ago
From the blog posts and sudden speed it reads more like a spam/phishing problem. The original blog post suggests you can make vanity urls. So perhaps it's open to git.io/your-bank-here-etc Does it support github pages? Because then it's clearly a massive problem.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
OldTimeCoffee 4y ago
I think the problem is that it wasn't low maintenance. The moderation of the links for malicious links was becoming an increasing drain on resources. It's the same problem most large tech services run into eventually.
- zinekeller 4y ago
  Unfortunately, most people just throw "eh, it's low-maintenance". To bring down the point, here's the source code for that link shortener: https://github.com/technoweenie/guillotine https://github.com/technoweenie/guillotine. It was last updated in 2015. If you don't believe that this is the source code, this was directly linked to in its announcement: https://github.blog/2011-11-10-git-io-github-url-shortener/ https://github.blog/2011-11-10-git-io-github-url-shortener/. If the extreme lag (in an attempt to save the links) is indicative if its backbone, it's probably just running in a single server, which is very likely to be horribly outdated. It might not be due to the cost of removing the malicious links, it might be that Git.io as a platform has a cost in of itself (even excluding common things like domain and hosting costs).
  - userbinator 4y ago
    It was last updated in 2015 You just proved the point.
    - zinekeller 4y ago
      ... and you didn't understand the underlying problem, which proves my point of people quickly dismissing "low-maintenance" applications. This isn't a Windows application which still chugs because of immense herculean compatibility made by Microsoft, this application, which was supposed to be quickly installable in Heroku... isn't. That says a lot.
      - maryjpenny 4y ago
        Heroku you say? Could it be related to this? https://github.blog/2022-04-15-security-alert-stolen-oauth-user-tokens/ https://github.blog/2022-04-15-security-alert-stolen-oauth-u... “The applications maintained by these integrators were used by GitHub users, including GitHub itself.”
        zinekeller 4y ago
        Very unlikely to be honest, especially that there's no private* data present in Git.io. * Technically the links are not publicly listed, which might jeopardise some obnsscure but technically-available repository, but it doesn't store private data.
        maryjpenny 4y ago
        Historical DNS TXT shows that git.io was (and probably still is) hosted on Heroku. From the original post: “due to the security of the links redirected with the current git.io infrastructure” What does “security of the links” even mean? Disclosure? Tampering?
        freemint 4y ago
- kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
  Seems like a good way to discover malicious GH accounts.
klaustopher 4y ago
Since January 11th, 2022 you could no longer generate new git.io links (See [0]). If this feature is used "all the time", you should have gotten problems in the last 4 months. [0] https://github.blog/changelog/2022-01-11-git-io-no-longer-accepts-new-urls/ https://github.blog/changelog/2022-01-11-git-io-no-longer-ac...

Dayshine 4y ago

From the blog posts and sudden speed it reads more like a spam/phishing problem. The original blog post suggests you can make vanity urls. So perhaps it's open to git.io/your-bank-here-etc Does it support github pages? Because then it's clearly a massive problem.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

OldTimeCoffee 4y ago

I think the problem is that it wasn't low maintenance. The moderation of the links for malicious links was becoming an increasing drain on resources. It's the same problem most large tech services run into eventually.

zinekeller 4y ago
Unfortunately, most people just throw "eh, it's low-maintenance". To bring down the point, here's the source code for that link shortener: https://github.com/technoweenie/guillotine https://github.com/technoweenie/guillotine. It was last updated in 2015. If you don't believe that this is the source code, this was directly linked to in its announcement: https://github.blog/2011-11-10-git-io-github-url-shortener/ https://github.blog/2011-11-10-git-io-github-url-shortener/. If the extreme lag (in an attempt to save the links) is indicative if its backbone, it's probably just running in a single server, which is very likely to be horribly outdated. It might not be due to the cost of removing the malicious links, it might be that Git.io as a platform has a cost in of itself (even excluding common things like domain and hosting costs).
- userbinator 4y ago
  It was last updated in 2015 You just proved the point.
  - zinekeller 4y ago
    ... and you didn't understand the underlying problem, which proves my point of people quickly dismissing "low-maintenance" applications. This isn't a Windows application which still chugs because of immense herculean compatibility made by Microsoft, this application, which was supposed to be quickly installable in Heroku... isn't. That says a lot.
    - maryjpenny 4y ago
      Heroku you say? Could it be related to this? https://github.blog/2022-04-15-security-alert-stolen-oauth-user-tokens/ https://github.blog/2022-04-15-security-alert-stolen-oauth-u... “The applications maintained by these integrators were used by GitHub users, including GitHub itself.”
      - zinekeller 4y ago
        Very unlikely to be honest, especially that there's no private* data present in Git.io. * Technically the links are not publicly listed, which might jeopardise some obnsscure but technically-available repository, but it doesn't store private data.
        maryjpenny 4y ago
        Historical DNS TXT shows that git.io was (and probably still is) hosted on Heroku. From the original post: “due to the security of the links redirected with the current git.io infrastructure” What does “security of the links” even mean? Disclosure? Tampering?
        freemint 4y ago
kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
Seems like a good way to discover malicious GH accounts.

klaustopher 4y ago

Since January 11th, 2022 you could no longer generate new git.io links (See [0]). If this feature is used "all the time", you should have gotten problems in the last 4 months. [0] https://github.blog/changelog/2022-01-11-git-io-no-longer-accepts-new-urls/ https://github.blog/changelog/2022-01-11-git-io-no-longer-ac...