Whats a bitly link?

[KGGaming]

So I was reading the community standards as I was curious, because for a second there I though you could be banned for being a fanboy. And then I came across it saying no shortened links but how exactly does a bitly link differ from a standard URl that it somehow is shorter. Does it not use a html series or not use the http/https in its name? Just wondering

[Arika]

because you cannot see where the link is going to take you.

 

for example, hover your mouse over this

https://www.google.com/

 

now hover your mouse over this

Not google

 

bottom left will still show the URL you're going to regardless of the text. URL shorteners hide this information and makes it easier to trick people into going to different sites.

[Spotty]

bitly and other link shorteners will create a short link that will then redirect to a different website. It will appear as a bit.ly/<random series of letters/numers>

For example you could put in the URL to this thread to create a shortened link to it.

 

The main problem is that you don't know where that redirects to by looking at the link. It could take you to google.com, or it could take you to a download link for a virus or to a pornographic website. You really don't know without clicking it.

 

There's really no benefit to using shortened links on the forum. There's no character limit for posts (such as what twitter has) but if a link is too long and you want to make your post neater without long links in your post you could just use the text editor to insert your link LIKE THIS.

 

[kelvinhall05]

As said above, it is URL shortenting.

 

Example: https://bit.ly/2ATsjwh