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I don't understand companies using a 3rd party service for something like this. Unless you really, really need an ultrashort domain, it's pretty trivial to do y

by ajb 5y ago

I don't understand companies using a 3rd party service for something like this. Unless you really, really need an ultrashort domain, it's pretty trivial to do your own - for example, if you have an aws account you can use a bucket as a redirector. No code version: aws --profile $PROFILE s3api put-object \ --bucket $BUCKET \ --key $KEY \ --website-redirect-location $URL

JamesSwift 5y ago
Yes, url shortening is about the simplest thing you can build honestly. I'm all for not hand-rolling everything but its honestly just not worth the cost/headache of relying on someone elses service for this.
- WorldMaker 5y ago
  On the flipside, "build it yourself because it is easy" is what led exactly to the mess at hand with git.io. It was someone's fun hackday project that quietly people and teams (including teams internal to Github) started to rely on it and then the site turned out be a maintenance burden and spam vector and needed to be shutdown.
  - JamesSwift 5y ago
    The difference is internal vs public. I'm saying build one for internal use (public is readonly). That way you don't deal with moderation and spam.
    - ajb 5y ago
      Exactly. I did this at one company because it was less hassle than making sure that finance update the CC on yet another external service every year.
    - WorldMaker 5y ago
      Yeah, I'm just saying that's how it sometimes starts: a "quick and dirty" internal tool to just get something done snowballs over the years into "this needs an easier self-service interface to make it easier for Bob in Accounting because he just has so many slides" into "hey since we have this great self-service tool, let's make it customer facing and bill it as a product since we already put all this work into it". Maybe your internal systems are less prone to such complexity effects that turn "internal only" tools into "customer facing products" accidentally all the time, of course. Just that it's an interesting risk, well worth stating, and it is fun seeing all comments on shutdown notices of exactly one such "internal only" tool that accidentally became a "customer facing product" saying "just build it yourself". "Just build it yourself" doesn't entirely protect you from it being your "internal only" tool that's the next trending HN deprecation notice headline.
vlovich123 5y ago
Have you seen https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863? The "it's pretty trivial to do your own" piece is trivial if you already have gone through the effort of setting up an AWS account and finding a globally unique bucket name across all S3 users. That option by the way requires entering a CC, personal details, and requires you to pay expensive rates compared with shorteners which are typically free. Not to mention that the resultant URL is still comparatively long Most people won't do that. FWIW, most larger companies I've worked at have their own internal URL shortener that they run for all their internal docs and whatnot. That doesn't solve the public use case though.
- ajb 5y ago
  Yes, I have seen that and I knew someone would reference it Sure, most people won't do that. But the user base of github is not most people, it's developers, a large fraction of which work at a company which has an AWS account or equivalent, and I questioned specifically "companies" not "people" using an external service for this.
  - vlovich123 5y ago
    Did you notice how this post is talking about academics? Convenience is a thing and it doesn’t matter how technical or not you are.

by ajb 5y ago

JamesSwift 5y ago

Yes, url shortening is about the simplest thing you can build honestly. I'm all for not hand-rolling everything but its honestly just not worth the cost/headache of relying on someone elses service for this.

WorldMaker 5y ago
On the flipside, "build it yourself because it is easy" is what led exactly to the mess at hand with git.io. It was someone's fun hackday project that quietly people and teams (including teams internal to Github) started to rely on it and then the site turned out be a maintenance burden and spam vector and needed to be shutdown.
- JamesSwift 5y ago
  The difference is internal vs public. I'm saying build one for internal use (public is readonly). That way you don't deal with moderation and spam.
  - ajb 5y ago
    Exactly. I did this at one company because it was less hassle than making sure that finance update the CC on yet another external service every year.
  - WorldMaker 5y ago
    Yeah, I'm just saying that's how it sometimes starts: a "quick and dirty" internal tool to just get something done snowballs over the years into "this needs an easier self-service interface to make it easier for Bob in Accounting because he just has so many slides" into "hey since we have this great self-service tool, let's make it customer facing and bill it as a product since we already put all this work into it". Maybe your internal systems are less prone to such complexity effects that turn "internal only" tools into "customer facing products" accidentally all the time, of course. Just that it's an interesting risk, well worth stating, and it is fun seeing all comments on shutdown notices of exactly one such "internal only" tool that accidentally became a "customer facing product" saying "just build it yourself". "Just build it yourself" doesn't entirely protect you from it being your "internal only" tool that's the next trending HN deprecation notice headline.

vlovich123 5y ago

Have you seen https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863? The "it's pretty trivial to do your own" piece is trivial if you already have gone through the effort of setting up an AWS account and finding a globally unique bucket name across all S3 users. That option by the way requires entering a CC, personal details, and requires you to pay expensive rates compared with shorteners which are typically free. Not to mention that the resultant URL is still comparatively long Most people won't do that. FWIW, most larger companies I've worked at have their own internal URL shortener that they run for all their internal docs and whatnot. That doesn't solve the public use case though.

ajb 5y ago
Yes, I have seen that and I knew someone would reference it Sure, most people won't do that. But the user base of github is not most people, it's developers, a large fraction of which work at a company which has an AWS account or equivalent, and I questioned specifically "companies" not "people" using an external service for this.
- vlovich123 5y ago
  Did you notice how this post is talking about academics? Convenience is a thing and it doesn’t matter how technical or not you are.