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I currently host https://femto.pw/ https://femto.pw/ - A URL shortener I've kept up for ~4 years and intend to indefinitely. It doesn't do anything with regard

I currently host https://femto.pw/ https://femto.pw/ - A URL shortener I've kept up for ~4 years and intend to indefinitely. It doesn't do anything with regards to tracking cookies or other dark patterns. It just redirects you using a 302 redirect.

Merman_Mike 6y ago
FYI that your site is blocked by this list: https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list HN post for that list here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25512273 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25512273
- codefined 6y ago
  Hm, well I've got to work out how to get off that list! Thanks for giving me the heads up. EDIT: I'm not sure quite how to deal with being put on ad lists. Sure, people can upload any file to our host so it's plausible that someone, at some point, has uploaded an advert. Someone could also redirect to an advert domain and we'd have no way to really deal with that unless it was reported. Ideas are welcome for solutions.
  - Hnrobert42 6y ago
    Just some thoughts: 1. Reach out to the list maintainer to see why your site was added. 2. Create a blocklist comprised of those ad lists. Don’t redirect to sites on the blocklist. 3. (Of dubious practical value) Create a Terms of Service that says users may not use your to link to advertisements.
    - Merman_Mike 6y ago
      +1 to the second suggestion as a low-effort way to make some headway in staying off blocklists. A place to start might be this large, very popular list that combines a bunch of other lists: https://oisd.nl/ https://oisd.nl/ Actual text file is here (large file warning): https://hosts.oisd.nl/ https://hosts.oisd.nl/ Just prevent your service from shortening links to any of those domains.
      - rndomsrmn 6y ago
        You might want to consider checking for hosts listed in https://github.com/notracking/hosts-blocklists https://github.com/notracking/hosts-blocklists This is an excellent merged blocklist, with public whitelist (oisd is fully closed, no insight in what is whitelisted and why, also causing more false positives..)
        sjhgvr 6y ago
        No longer the case: https://oisd.nl/excludes.php https://oisd.nl/excludes.php
        llacb47 6y ago
        Right on time, sjhgvr can't allow his rep to be (rightly) blemished on any corner of the internet.
    - TylerE 6y ago
      > 3. (Of dubious practical value) Create a Terms of Service that says users may not use your to link to advertisements. That seems entirely unenforceable. Aren't ALL websites ultimately advertisements?
      - recursive 6y ago
        > Aren't ALL websites ultimately advertisements? No. Some are just information, art, or what-have-you. Here's one I just found now. https://aaron.axvigs.com/ https://aaron.axvigs.com/
        TylerE 6y ago
        That could still be considered an advertisement of his existence and writing skills. If the goal is purely informational, why is the author's name attached? The site also advertises the CMS it runs on. That's my point, by a reasonable standard, ANY site that exists is an advertisement for something or other, thus a rule saying "no linking to advertisements" is worse than useless.
        kortilla 6y ago
        This must be the mindset it takes to work in the ad tech industry. Ads are sort of like porn. There are lots of things you certainly know serve no other purpose than to advertise something and you can block them outright. Native advertising is certainly difficult though.
        TylerE 6y ago
        Do not work, nor I have I ever worked, in ad tech.
        recursive 6y ago
        I guess you have a different understanding of what "advertising" is than the general understanding.
  - Moru 6y ago
    For me the problem is that you hide URL's that I can click on and have no idea where I end up. So I block all url-shorteners as a principle on my pi-hole.
- miked85 6y ago
  That list is questionable at best. There are many claims the list author makes without any source code at all, though a lot of buzzwords. The reddit r/pihole moderator pulled the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/kh5dit/the_quantum_adlist/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/kh5dit/the_quantum_... . The thread was more entertaining before the list author deleted every downvoted comment they made.
  - Jap2-0 6y ago
    [0] is perhaps even more concerning - apparently it bears a striking resemblance to Steven Black's (slightly more reputable) list[1] [edit: plus a few hundred thousand other rules of questionable sourcing]. [0] https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list/-/issues/13 https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list/-/i... https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/issues/1487 https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/issues/1487 [1] https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts
  - Merman_Mike 6y ago
    I agree that it's questionable. I commented the same in the thread I linked: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25513161 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25513161 However, at least for Pi-Hole users, more is usually better, so I added the list to my Pi-Hole.
    - phire 6y ago
      > > We were testing an AI that could show some basic emotions about internet content, and turns out it was very precise at getting “annoyed” by ads and “unsolicited” third party connections… Holy shit that's such bullshit. They are basically claiming they invented a artificial general intelligence, with feelings, that happens to feel the same way about ads as us. It's basically sentient instead of publishing research papers, they turned it into an ad blocker.
      - srtjstjsj 6y ago
        It's just colorful language for the fact that ads and spyware score high on their model for bad websites.
q3k 6y ago
What happens to it when you die? Do you have a contingency plan to export this data somewhere for archival purposes?
- codefined 6y ago
  I've worked with the Internet Archive to ensure continuity if I get hit by a bus or anything. A list of all items that have been uploaded to the site will be provided to them if anything happens to me.
jdc 6y ago
Femto's links don't seem to unfurl on Facebook

Merman_Mike 6y ago

FYI that your site is blocked by this list: https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list HN post for that list here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25512273 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25512273

codefined 6y ago
Hm, well I've got to work out how to get off that list! Thanks for giving me the heads up. EDIT: I'm not sure quite how to deal with being put on ad lists. Sure, people can upload any file to our host so it's plausible that someone, at some point, has uploaded an advert. Someone could also redirect to an advert domain and we'd have no way to really deal with that unless it was reported. Ideas are welcome for solutions.
- Hnrobert42 6y ago
  Just some thoughts: 1. Reach out to the list maintainer to see why your site was added. 2. Create a blocklist comprised of those ad lists. Don’t redirect to sites on the blocklist. 3. (Of dubious practical value) Create a Terms of Service that says users may not use your to link to advertisements.
  - Merman_Mike 6y ago
    +1 to the second suggestion as a low-effort way to make some headway in staying off blocklists. A place to start might be this large, very popular list that combines a bunch of other lists: https://oisd.nl/ https://oisd.nl/ Actual text file is here (large file warning): https://hosts.oisd.nl/ https://hosts.oisd.nl/ Just prevent your service from shortening links to any of those domains.
    - rndomsrmn 6y ago
      You might want to consider checking for hosts listed in https://github.com/notracking/hosts-blocklists https://github.com/notracking/hosts-blocklists This is an excellent merged blocklist, with public whitelist (oisd is fully closed, no insight in what is whitelisted and why, also causing more false positives..)
      - sjhgvr 6y ago
        No longer the case: https://oisd.nl/excludes.php https://oisd.nl/excludes.php
        llacb47 6y ago
        Right on time, sjhgvr can't allow his rep to be (rightly) blemished on any corner of the internet.
  - TylerE 6y ago
    > 3. (Of dubious practical value) Create a Terms of Service that says users may not use your to link to advertisements. That seems entirely unenforceable. Aren't ALL websites ultimately advertisements?
    - recursive 6y ago
      > Aren't ALL websites ultimately advertisements? No. Some are just information, art, or what-have-you. Here's one I just found now. https://aaron.axvigs.com/ https://aaron.axvigs.com/
      - TylerE 6y ago
        That could still be considered an advertisement of his existence and writing skills. If the goal is purely informational, why is the author's name attached? The site also advertises the CMS it runs on. That's my point, by a reasonable standard, ANY site that exists is an advertisement for something or other, thus a rule saying "no linking to advertisements" is worse than useless.
        kortilla 6y ago
        This must be the mindset it takes to work in the ad tech industry. Ads are sort of like porn. There are lots of things you certainly know serve no other purpose than to advertise something and you can block them outright. Native advertising is certainly difficult though.
        TylerE 6y ago
        Do not work, nor I have I ever worked, in ad tech.
        recursive 6y ago
        I guess you have a different understanding of what "advertising" is than the general understanding.
- Moru 6y ago
  For me the problem is that you hide URL's that I can click on and have no idea where I end up. So I block all url-shorteners as a principle on my pi-hole.
miked85 6y ago
That list is questionable at best. There are many claims the list author makes without any source code at all, though a lot of buzzwords. The reddit r/pihole moderator pulled the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/kh5dit/the_quantum_adlist/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/kh5dit/the_quantum_... . The thread was more entertaining before the list author deleted every downvoted comment they made.
- Jap2-0 6y ago
  [0] is perhaps even more concerning - apparently it bears a striking resemblance to Steven Black's (slightly more reputable) list[1] [edit: plus a few hundred thousand other rules of questionable sourcing]. [0] https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list/-/issues/13 https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list/-/i... https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/issues/1487 https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/issues/1487 [1] https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts
- Merman_Mike 6y ago
  I agree that it's questionable. I commented the same in the thread I linked: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25513161 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25513161 However, at least for Pi-Hole users, more is usually better, so I added the list to my Pi-Hole.
  - phire 6y ago
    > > We were testing an AI that could show some basic emotions about internet content, and turns out it was very precise at getting “annoyed” by ads and “unsolicited” third party connections… Holy shit that's such bullshit. They are basically claiming they invented a artificial general intelligence, with feelings, that happens to feel the same way about ads as us. It's basically sentient instead of publishing research papers, they turned it into an ad blocker.
    - srtjstjsj 6y ago
      It's just colorful language for the fact that ads and spyware score high on their model for bad websites.

q3k 6y ago

What happens to it when you die? Do you have a contingency plan to export this data somewhere for archival purposes?

codefined 6y ago
I've worked with the Internet Archive to ensure continuity if I get hit by a bus or anything. A list of all items that have been uploaded to the site will be provided to them if anything happens to me.

jdc 6y ago

Femto's links don't seem to unfurl on Facebook