| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Should TinyUrl be banned from the site? Thread poster: Kim Metzger
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Recently, I provided some reference information for a KudoZ question using a tinyurl link, and someone warned others not to click on the link, arguing that TinyURL may conceal malware.
I've found them extremely useful in KudoZ as a way of avoiding monstrosities like this:
... See more Recently, I provided some reference information for a KudoZ question using a tinyurl link, and someone warned others not to click on the link, arguing that TinyURL may conceal malware.
I've found them extremely useful in KudoZ as a way of avoiding monstrosities like this:
http://www.google.com.mx/imgres?imgurl=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kEPnaLtwZ-4/S-
ctpvOv3zI/AAAAAAAAIUk/dDa6mIUNGT8/s1600/SDC10261.JPG&imgrefurl=http://uhurufurniturephilly.blogspot.com/2010/05/solid-pine-table-chairs-by-ikea-75.html&usg=__kjpR0lIRMkCLjp1_Aene4hL5frA=&h=624&w=928&sz=145&hl=en&start=0&sig2=CHg4TwO90xIXiOmeW2OTpA&zoom=1&tbnid=LJVCwNsFLHKYIM:&tbnh=143&tbnw=174&ei=RiAiTo0uh-SxA_eSwPoP&prev=/search?q=Ikea+pine+table&hl=en&sa=G&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7GGLL_en&biw=1024&bih=460&tbm=isch&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=47&page=1&ndsp=8&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0&tx=112&ty=96
Instead of http://tinyurl.com/64dn7aa
I'd say we need to know what the site's policy is on this issue. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Amy Taylor 
United States
Local time: 20:03
Italian to English
| Frankly that's silly | Jul 17, 2011 |
If I receive an unsolicited e-mail containing a tiny url I probably won't click on it. But if someone is taking the time to assist me with a terminology query, I really doubt that they'd intentionally lead me astray. Especially not someone like you, Kim, who many of us recognize from countless valuable contributions across the site.
I'm sure that those offering warnings had the best of intentions, but we're translators. Whether making a decision on a term or a link to click, the sa... See more If I receive an unsolicited e-mail containing a tiny url I probably won't click on it. But if someone is taking the time to assist me with a terminology query, I really doubt that they'd intentionally lead me astray. Especially not someone like you, Kim, who many of us recognize from countless valuable contributions across the site.
I'm sure that those offering warnings had the best of intentions, but we're translators. Whether making a decision on a term or a link to click, the same rule applies: consider the source.
Amy ▲ Collapse
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Anyone who goes to the trouble of making a link accessible in this way is clearly not a malfeasant. It is a highly practical way of pointing to authentic uses of a proposed string on the world's leading search engine.
| | | | Rachel Fell
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:03
French to English
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with Kim and Andrew - Tinyurl offers a preview version, but I do't usually use it, as the ordinary version seems sufficiently straightforward.
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| Dislike TinyURLs | Jul 18, 2011 |
Although I agree that some URLs are a monstruosity, with TinyURL the problem is that you can't assess the potential quality of the link until you have opened it, and this makes you lose time.
For instance, when someone gives URLs to resources containing or explaining some term they are proposing in a Kudoz answer, I want to know whether, for instance, they come from alibaba.com (pure cow manure for its automated translations) and similar sites, or instead from reputable universities... See more Although I agree that some URLs are a monstruosity, with TinyURL the problem is that you can't assess the potential quality of the link until you have opened it, and this makes you lose time.
For instance, when someone gives URLs to resources containing or explaining some term they are proposing in a Kudoz answer, I want to know whether, for instance, they come from alibaba.com (pure cow manure for its automated translations) and similar sites, or instead from reputable universities, government websites, research institutes, etc. By using TinyURLs you are destroying that advanced "plausibility assessment", in my opinion.
Edited to add this: As for whether TinyURLs should be banned, personally I think banning does not help anyone. You should be able to use whatever sources of information and whatever ways of presenting them (personally I do not just give the URL but instead copy/paste the full example in my answers), but presenting information in one way or the other increases or decreases the usefulness of your answer. If a majority of askers do not like TinyURLs (I don't know whether they like them or not), you will certainly have worse chances of being selected as the most useful answerer.
[Edited at 2011-07-18 05:11 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 04:03
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| Perhaps ProZ.com could force users to use the preview function | Jul 18, 2011 |
Kim Metzger wrote:
Recently, I provided some reference information for a KudoZ question using a tinyurl link, and someone warned others not to click on the link, arguing that TinyURL may conceal malware.
That is true.
However, I think tinyurl is a good thing, and users can use the "preview" function to avoid the malware issue. Instead of http://tinyurl.com/64dn7aa, use http://preview.tinyurl.com/64dn7aa. This will take the user to a tinyurl page that shows what the link is before redirecting the user to the linked page.
Perhaps ProZ.com can be set to automatically add the "preview" bit to the tinyurl URLs, to ensure that malicious users can't link to malware sight unseen. Because you can take any tinyurl URL and simply add "preview" to it.
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Samuel wrote:
Perhaps ProZ.com could force users to use the preview function
No forcing please... Kim is in his right to use whatever URLs he wants, but imposing anything to others as a consequence is different matter.
Personally, I very rarely open TinyURLs, even with the preview.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 04:03
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote: Samuel wrote:
Perhaps ProZ.com could force users to use the preview function No forcing please...
Perhaps "forcing" was the wrong term. What I meant was that ProZ.com should automatically update the link from the non-preview version to the preview version.
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| I see! Sorry then | Jul 18, 2011 |
Samuel Murray wrote: Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote: Samuel wrote:
Perhaps ProZ.com could force users to use the preview function No forcing please... Perhaps "forcing" was the wrong term. What I meant was that ProZ.com should automatically update the link from the non-preview version to the preview version.
Sorry mate. I got it all wrong then. What you say makes a lot of sense. Not that I would then use TinyURLs...
| | | | | I don't see the point of using tinyurl on a site like this. | Jul 18, 2011 |
I would have thought the purpose of tinyurl is so that people don't have to type out long URLs - so you might use it in a print publication, for instance. But online, it doesn't matter how long the URL is, because you just click on it.
| | | | Susan Welsh
United States
Local time: 22:03
Russian to English
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| Why I use TinyURLs + @Samuel | Jul 19, 2011 |
I use them because, when I try to copy/paste a long link into Kudoz, the field chops it off before the end and it doesn't work. I guess this is with the actual URL field. But it's the same in the text of a Kudoz reply (I just tried clicking Kim's long link, and it took me to Google Images home page, not the actual site, which I could access with his TinyURL link).
I also use them when writing or editing for typeset copy to be posted in PDF format, because a URL won't work as a link ... See more I use them because, when I try to copy/paste a long link into Kudoz, the field chops it off before the end and it doesn't work. I guess this is with the actual URL field. But it's the same in the text of a Kudoz reply (I just tried clicking Kim's long link, and it took me to Google Images home page, not the actual site, which I could access with his TinyURL link).
I also use them when writing or editing for typeset copy to be posted in PDF format, because a URL won't work as a link if it breaks over a line ending.
I had no idea about a malware problem.
By the way, Samuel, your preview.etc link doesn't work -- I got error 404.
Is there some other way to deal with these problems besides TinyURL?
Susan ▲ Collapse
| | | | Alison MacG
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:03
German to English
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| Banned? – Probably not, but I personally would never click on a shortened url | Jul 19, 2011 |
I may be in the minority here and some may consider it overcautious, but, for me, the issue is simply that of safe browsing – and my PC is my responsibility. Surely I can’t be the only one unwilling to click on a link without knowing where it will take me?
I do think it is extremely unlikely that anyone posting a link of this kind in KudoZ or in a forum would do so with the deliberate intention of passing on malware. I also think it is extremely unlikely that anyone would post ... See more I may be in the minority here and some may consider it overcautious, but, for me, the issue is simply that of safe browsing – and my PC is my responsibility. Surely I can’t be the only one unwilling to click on a link without knowing where it will take me?
I do think it is extremely unlikely that anyone posting a link of this kind in KudoZ or in a forum would do so with the deliberate intention of passing on malware. I also think it is extremely unlikely that anyone would post a link that they did not themselves consider to be safe.
However, no matter how much I may trust Kim (or any other poster), his posting of a link tells me simply that, having made a choice, he is happy to visit a particular website on his PC. This does not necessarily mean that this choice will be the right one for me or my PC. I want to be able to make my own informed choices and decisions about the relative safety or otherwise of any given link or website. The ProZ site has a huge number of users/members and anyone who is logged on can post a link to virtually anything.
The nature of our work means that research into awkward and often obscure terminology can throw up results leading to all sorts of unfamiliar websites of different origins and we should exercise a degree of caution. One of the features of some internet security software is the rating of the security level of websites alongside search results by way of icons. While I know that nothing is infallible, if a site is given the green light I feel happier, but if it is given an exclamation mark (annoyance factors) or a cross (known threats), then I certainly won’t go there. If I’m interested in a link someone has posted on KudoZ and don’t already know the site, I generally check its rating first, but with tinyurl, etc., I can’t do that unless I also use the preview feature, adding yet another step (or two) to the whole process, meaning that I’ll probably just not bother and move on.
Samuel’s idea about ProZ automatically converting tinyurls to the preview version is a good one, though. It would be good if you knew that clicking on a tinyurl on ProZ could never take you anywhere other than the preview page.
Alison
PS It would be interesting to conduct the following mini survey:
1. Has your PC ever been infected in any way?
2. Would you click on a tinyurl or similar link? ▲ Collapse
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Nesrin
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:03
English to Arabic
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| Courtesy issue | Jul 20, 2011 |
One of the reasons why I was driven away from Twitter is that EVERYONE uses tinyurls all the time due to the character count restriction. I'm not that worried about malware from unknown sites if the person who posted the link is known to me (though one should always worry), but I do feel I have the right to know where my click is taking me before I click on it!
I can see that it can be useful on Kudoz and even here on the forum though (as you can see, because Kim posted the long lin... See more One of the reasons why I was driven away from Twitter is that EVERYONE uses tinyurls all the time due to the character count restriction. I'm not that worried about malware from unknown sites if the person who posted the link is known to me (though one should always worry), but I do feel I have the right to know where my click is taking me before I click on it!
I can see that it can be useful on Kudoz and even here on the forum though (as you can see, because Kim posted the long link above, the discussion area has become much wider than usual). Perhaps, just out of courtesy, the person posting a tinyurl could get into the habit of mentioning what site the tinyurl is about to take us, e.g:
see: tinyurl.blabla (Google Images)
or, like Tomás suggested, and like I do as well, post the actual text from that link alongside the link. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | My two cents | Jul 20, 2011 |
Alison MacG wrote:
PS It would be interesting to conduct the following mini survey:
1. Has your PC ever been infected in any way?
2. Would you click on a tinyurl or similar link?
1. Yes.
2. No.
Cheers!
| | | | yoviajera
Venezuela
Local time: 22:03
Spanish to English
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| I use bit.ly | Jul 21, 2011 |
I like it and i can customise the urls because i signed up for an account. It's free and you can shorten your links and customise them to display something like: bit.ly/whateveryouwant
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