I try to avoid dupes in the url database by looking it up first. It looks like this user had used my simple REST API and simply added a random number to the end of each request. Cunning little swines!

If I could be bothered, I’d have the system go and grab the head of the page too and make some kind of comparison too.

S’funny - I just saw also that someone had used urlb.at to shorten a tinyurl.com url. hehehe. some people, eh? :))

Today I removed over 3000 links from it which were clearly spam - the url was easy to spot.

Maybe I’ll give some thought on how to create a kind of ‘Akismet’ like ‘blacklist’ to help stop these even getting submitted into the database.

I think that approach could be interesting for all of us who build these things

cheers!
Kosso

ps: what’s the shortest url/domain you own? Mine is shw.ag

IMO, I still believe every company with multiple websites should have their own URL shortening service rather than use any third party service (including mine).

You are 100% right! I know nothing about programming but figured out a workaround a few years ago by using subdomains

psk.funDiva.com
funDiva.blogspot.com/2005/08/princess-samantha-kitten-and-notorious.html

But trying to explain HOW to use subdomains for my computer challenged friends proved way too hard and thats if their registrar even offered subdomains.

And I always liked the look of funDiva.com/psk better

I can accomplish this with cpanel easy but I would LOVE to know how to set this up on a web page for my friends. I have no interest in making it a public service, just an easy way for them to use their own shortened domain redirects.

Your radio show on the subject was never archived, anyplace else I can get the info?

Thanks in advance,
Christy

I understand about the issues of association, and I think I\’m prepared to address that.

I am, however, very interested in a comment like:

Obviously the links aren’t yours but anybody who runs a service that is open to the public has legal responsibilities.

What sort of legal responsibilities are you aware of regarding the use of public systems? Are you discussing US law, or another country? It is not as if we\’re providing physical facilities, subject to building code or some such.

Are you honestly aware of legal obligations regarding this sort of service?

I mean, I understand that there are issues. If I was not able to afford much bandwidth I would not have appreciated the extra 12,000 or so hits to the redirector from the one spammer I\’ve had so far.

I\’ve already noticed that since my redirectors correctly give 301 codes on redirect, the only backlinks or SE results I get are for incorrectly formed links, and mostly obvious spam links. The valid links pass all reference, page rank, and SE queries on to the target page. This makes for a bit of marginal publicity, at best.

I may look into implementing SURBL functionality, if the traffic gets to be a problem. Admins who block URL shorteners have their own reasons, and make their own decisions regarding what they allow on their site.

But the worst problem so far comes from a knee-jerk user reaction. He sent a mail to the abuse addresses at the site, my registrar, and my hosting service which appeared to be accusing me of spamming his blog. Since the redirector cannot create spam or post to a blog, it is a good thing I have an intelligent hosting provider.

In fact, what I have learned about SURBL lists today will get mentioned on my page at robertalansoloway.com at the next update!

Thanks again for the feedback, too. Are there other methods you can recommend besides the SURBL for checking such things without user input? I\’m REALLY interested in a phishing URL check.