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A comment on Show HN: I created a URL shortener that can be entirely hosted on GitHub Pages. Parent comment

Re:Show HN: I created a URL shortener that can be entirely h... by rsync on Monday November 16, 2020 @12:26PM (#25114368)
"I was always fixated with URL shorteners and always wanted to write one myself. While it would be easy to write one that works with a server, I loved the idea of hosting and running one for free."

I felt exactly the same way and did, in fact, build one.[1]

It was pretty simple. There's an interesting twist to the particular one I built - it's not specifically a URL shortener, it's a "Universal Shortener".[2] Also no tracking or cookies or third party connections, which I find pleasing.

The disappointing part is seeing the malicious spam and phishing URLs that get shortened. We have had to manually flag-hold-approve a lot of strings and IIRC we outright block anything with 'paypal' in it.

We also gave a kill-function to our upstream ISP so that they could immediately act on phishing complaints without our having to be involved in real-time.

[1] https://0x.co

[2] https://0x.co/hnfaq.html

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: I created a URL shortener that can be entirely h... by LeoPanthera on Monday November 16, 2020 @09:56PM (#25119830)
My biggest problem with this is the domain name. If you say "oh by", a vanishingly small amount of people will translate this to "0x". And you can't say "oh ex dot co", because the URL has both a 0 and a O in it - which will also always be ambiguous when written down. So you have to say something like "zero ex dot co", which I suppose is fine, but it has a lot of extra syllables.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: I created a URL shortener that can be entirely h... by ValentineC on Monday November 16, 2020 @01:13PM (#25115002)
Since we're on HN, and this isn't addressed in either FAQ: did anyone end up paying for custom codes?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: I created a URL shortener that can be entirely h... by rsync on Monday November 16, 2020 @02:32PM (#25115962)
Yes! People do, in fact, buy codes.

I've spent almost zero time on "Oh By" in the last 24 months as things at rsync.net have been very busy. So, we haven't made a sale in months due to lack of publicizing it.

However, I think there are unknown, emergent use-cases out there for "Oh By" that I hope people will discover. I am going to pivot back to "Oh By" next year ...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: I created a URL shortener that can be entirely h... by nelsontky on Monday November 16, 2020 @12:36PM (#25114508)
Oh that is cool! It does remind me of https://telegra.ph/ by Telegram! (Even though they weren't really advertising it as a universal shortener). Just a quick question, how did you promote your platform!
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: I created a URL shortener that can be entirely h... by rsync on Monday November 16, 2020 @02:33PM (#25115977)
I've done almost nothing to promote it. I just mention it once in a while (like now) when the topic of shorteners comes up.

I also sent a notice to all rsync.net customers, years ago, when we launched it.

That's it.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: I created a URL shortener that can be entirely h... by bryogenic on Monday November 16, 2020 @04:50PM (#25117423)
What does the "searchable" option mean? I couldn't find anything about it in the faqs.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: I created a URL shortener that can be entirely h... by rsync on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @02:48AM (#25121165)
We're going to make an index page with links on it that cascade down to every code that is published and marked "searchable".

Then google can just find that index page and index every link on it - and all codes marked searchable will be indexed by google.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: I created a URL shortener that can be entirely h... by voltagex_ on Monday November 16, 2020 @05:48PM (#25118080)
Blocked under the phishing category by my corporate proxy, FYI.
[ Parent | on HN ]