Well, bitly has ruined its free level shortening service.

[conuly]

I probably don't really need to shorten links, but I'm in the habit of doing it. Ugh. I need to find something new.

*********

I don't know what I'm looking at, but that first image is amazing!

Ancient Fashion: The Oldest Pieces of Clothing and Accessories Ever Found

This Chinese American Aviatrix Overcame Racism to Fly for the U.S. During World War II

Never seen an exploding star? This year, you'll have your chance

A 9-year-old boy’s dream of a pet octopus is a sensation as thousands follow Terrance’s story online

Most people are disgusted by these animals. These New Yorkers are filling their homes with them.

A strange fungus could transform emerging cicadas into ‘saltshakers of death,’ scientists say

College students, inmates and a nun: A unique book club meets at one of the nation’s largest jails

The cloud under the sea

Ahead of Paris Olympics, police oversee evictions, leading to charges of 'social cleansing'

Angry farmers in a once-lush Mexican state target avocado orchards that suck up too much water

‘Did Something Happen to Mom When She Was Young?’

The vast ravines swallowing whole neighbourhoods around the world

Inside the Kenyan cult that starved itself to death

Comments

[brokenallbroken]

I know link shortening has its uses, but personally I like knowing where something goes before I click on it.

[steorra]

Me too.

[conuly]

Yeah, I get that. Bitly used to have custom links for a lot of common news domains and at some point that stopped too.

[adrian_turtle]

What is the advantage of shortening links? I can see why one might use it where there are very tight character limits (ie, twitter), but otherwise it looks like making things gratuitously inconvenient.

Surprise! Here's an article you already read!
Surprise! Here's an article behind a paywall!
Surprise! Here's an article from a publisher you're boycotting!
Surprise! Here's an article from an untrustworthy journal!
Surprise! Here's an article you already read, again!

[conuly]

When I started doing it, multiple people said that even in a href tags long URLs stretched out their screens.

Which really seems to me to be some weirdo problem with their browser settings, but it was trivially easy to oblige them.

Plus, they're all neat and tidy that way.

[conuly]

Surprise! Here's an article you already read!

And don't recognize from the headline?

Surprise! Here's an article behind a paywall!

Well, I use bypass paywalls and never have to worry about that. In the rare times when bypass paywalls doesn't work, I use the archive.today link or I open it in a different browser or I hit "esc" the second the text loads or I turn off javascript or - if worst comes to worst! - I either close the link or I pay up. But mostly the first two things work well.

[darkoshi]

I prefer being able to see the actual URLs too.

That first photo looks like something AI-generated to me. I found these other pages which add credence to it, but I'm still not 100% certain it is real:
https://newatlas.com/architecture/shenzhen-zhongshuge-x-living-bookstore-spiral-bookcase-design/
http://www.xl-muse.com/html/en/index.php?ac=article&at=read&did=295

This shows similarly surrealistic bookstores:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/gorgeous-bookstore-china-creates-other-worldly-space-180976143/