URL shortening (was Re: Need /etc/apt/sources.list)

[Arno Schuring <aelschuring@hotmail.com>]

Dotan Cohen (dotancohen@gmail.com on 2011-05-06 23:07 +0300):
> 
> No, this is not a matter of preference. There is no reason to pipe the
> links through some third party service
[..]
> 
> What advantage exists at all to use tinyURL?
While I share your sentiment in general (I would never click on a
tinyurl link without noscript), it does have its uses. Twitter and
other character-impaired services come to mind.

However, this mailing list is archived. That means that links given on
this mailing list are not simply fire-and-forget, they should be able
to be resolved years from now. And while we cannot guarantee that any
link remains valid, it is foolish to assume URL shorteners outlive the
target website.

In other words, please do not use (unnecessary) URL mangling. It
needlessly makes your message useless for posterity.


Thanks,
Arno