When I view ~10 year old web sites and forums it's rare enough that external links work at all, with all these link shorteners it's going to be even worse. I i

When I view ~10 year old web sites and forums it's rare enough that external links work at all, with all these link shorteners it's going to be even worse. I imagine in the not too distant future that link shorteners will no longer be used (for one of many reasons), if/when that day comes most link shortening sites will have no incentive to keep their service available, and it would be hugely tempting for them to modify existing links to display relevant targeted ads, instead of the destination pages. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if many of them exist purely with that intention.