Re: SPAM SPAM SPAM !!! Re: Sip?

[Heddle Weaver <weaver2world@gmail.com>]

On 15 March 2011 23:40, Dotan Cohen <dotancohen@gmail.com> wrote:

On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 03:11, Rob Owens <rowens@ptd.net> wrote:
> I've seen posts like this on Freecycle, and they're almost always spam
> or malware.  I haven't looked at this link, and I suggest you don't
> either.
>

The problem here is the use of the redirect service. I also never
follow those links. Not only are they "blind links" masking the
destination, but why add an unreliable extra link to the
already-fragile chain of events that must transpire to access a
webpage. What if tinyurl's server is down, or gets hacked, or goes out
of business, or becomes malicious?

 

I only use the service because it saves even short links like this one from getting broken by MUA character limits: http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/2011/1/29/4737705.html
And I only use tinyurl because it's stable, unlike the .ly extensions which are hosted in Libya, for example. Governments appear to be taking down sites more than the average cracker or script-kiddie does these days. I pretty much place them in the same category.

What if? What if the U.S. government takes down another 84,000 sites by mistake, as it did recently? Tinyurl wasn't one of them.

Still and all, before I'm guilty of contributing to yet another off-topic thread, sorry for disturbing everybody's day.
Regards,

Weaver.

-- 
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, 
by the wise as false, 
and by the rulers as useful. 

— Lucius Annæus Seneca.

Terrorism, the new religion.