@eloquence
Having posts or other indexed/indexable content refer to URL shorteners is dangerous for referrals/archiving/…:

#ArchiveTeam, the people behind e.g. the effort to archive US government websites in a hurry—before they were deleted/changed in an even greater hurry by the current administration, write about #URLShorteners:

"Such services are a ticking timebomb. If they go away, get hacked, or sell out, millions of links will be lost (see Wikipedia: Link Rot)."
https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/URLTeam

@theintercept : Most (if not all) Mastodon instances know how to "shorten" links:

https://theintercept.com/2025/03/27/israel-target-palestinian-journalists-gaza/

(Even with metadata it does not get longer:

https://theintercept.com/2025/03/27/israel-target-palestinian-journalists-gaza/?utm_content=buffer7b5d2&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=theintercept
)

Please use the the real domain name to prevent that people click on links impersonating your website.

Your readers deserve it.

@dutchnewsnl :

I *never* boost toots that contain one or more "shortened URL's" (if a third party is involved). It would be great if erveryone did like me.

A "make internet safer" request: please stop using "URL shorteners".

They are not necessary, they invade the privacy of people who click such links (such services sell "visitor" behaviour"), "visitors" do not know to which website they will be sent AND NEITHER DO YOU (it may work for you today, but there are no guarantees - at all).

More info (in Dutch) in https://www.security.nl/posting/879514/rant+-+onveiliginternetten_nl.

Mastodon.social (like "my" instance) truncates the readable alternative of long URLs in a smart way, as can be seen in a toot from Dan Gillmor
(@dangillmor@mastodon.social) below (tap "Alt" for textual info "behind" the image).

There is NO REASON whatsoever (unless buff.ly pays you, which wil lead to even more Mastodonts hating you) to use *inherently risky* third party URL-shorteners.

As an alternative, you could set up a shortened URL service on your own website, like NOS.nl does. For example:

https://nos.nl/l/2558946

which actually is (readable but not clickable):

https:⧸⧸nos.nl/l/2558946

It opens:

https:⧸⧸nos.nl/liveblog/2558946-vs-en-israel-polsten-oost-afrikaanse-landen-over-gazaplan-trump

(I replaced https:// by https:⧸⧸ in the non-clickable links to prevent Mastodon from shortening those URL's).

@dangillmor@mastodon.social

@soatok +9001%

"#Quishing" with malicious #QRcode|s is rampant and even aided by the fact that most #QRcodes are run through #URLshorteners!

@amin @RL_Dane +9001%

#URLshorteners result in increased #LinkRot!

@sans_isc : even if https://i5c.us does *not* appear to be a regular URL-shortening service, nothing in it's domain name convinces me it's not. Perhaps they're offering *you* a free service that *visitors* pay for with a loss of privacy.

I do not want to, and simply cannot (I apologize for my intelligence not being artificial) remember all possible aliases of https://isc.sans.edu - in order to prevent from being fooled or phished.

Why is this not as stupid as Microsoft (microsoft.com) asking their customers to log in to:

   login.microsoftonline.com

instead of somehing like:

   login.customer.microsoft.com

?  #WhatWereTheySmoking

Mastodon has its own, IMO excellent built-in URL-shortening system for the final link you asked us to visit:

   https://isc.sans.edu/diary/31136

In fact, the full link to that article is automatically shortened by Mastodon fine too:

   https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Tracking%20Proxy%20Scans%20with%20IPv4.Games/31136

I juste posted additional reasons in a toot to Margarita Estévez-Abe in https://infosec.exchange/@ErikvanStraten/112887650119094186.

Let's all do our best to make the internet a safer place!

@JapanProf