URL shortener policy; improving the user experience.

Discussion in 'Community News and Announcements' started by EvilSeph, May 19, 2011.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. I kinda want to implement that now.
     
  2. Offline

    EvilSeph

    Well? Where is it?
     
    Tux2 likes this.
  3. Offline

    Dreadreaver

    Imho adf.ly links should be allowed as OPTIONAL mirrors.

    I won't publish anything here until this is changed.
     
  4. Offline

    Juze

  5. It's not a mirror though. It's a redirection service.

    I don't think anyone's going to miss your plugins if you refuse to be consumer friendly.
     
  6. Offline

    TehKrush

    In reality, the consumers are being non-developer friendly if they don't use the adf.ly link. Stops the developer from making some miniscule amount of money. (I have made $197.65 from it so far)
     
  7. Well, I hate ads. I have batches of regular expressions that run on every website I visit to specifically remove them.

    As for adf.ly, if people are getting malware ads, then it's a bad idea. Get a better ad service.

    And for the record, free software that is paid for with ads is stupid. If you (the developer) believe your work is good enough that you are required to earn any amount of money on it (by using an ad service) then you need to just charge for the product. If you don't believe your work is worth charging money for, then you shouldn't be making money on it.
     
  8. Offline

    TehKrush

    That would bring back your old point, consumers would not use it (nor miss it) if I started charging for my mods, because it's not consumer-friendly.

    Also, if you get malware ads on adf.ly, you're doing it wrong. I have not once seen a malware ad. If you ever see one, you can report it to adf.ly and they remove it (we've had to do that sometimes with the ads that try to make you take a survey, and they've been taken down).
     
  9. Offline

    codename_B

    Also bukkit policy is free plugins, you're not allowed to post paid-for plugins here. So if a developer wants to make a few $ for a few hundred hours coding, what's it to you?
     
  10. Offline

    Void_Knight

    Tip guys, if you don't trust a bit.ly link, you can find where it leads by putting a "+" on the end of the URL. If it leads to some site that sounds malicious/inappropriate or another URL shortener, then you know and don't fall for it.
     
  11. Offline

    Dreadreaver

    My plugins were accepted with adf.ly links and they were accepted with a "Download for CB761+" inside the thread and now suddenly I have to change this and change that and do this and that just to satisfy some strange rules I that werent present/enforced when I posted my plugins.
    I don't want mods deleting images out of my thread or changing the description or stuff like that, hell its MY thread. And now with this whole adf.ly banning and some mods who changed the downloadlink in my thread without asking me .. thats a no-no. Juze posted some mirrors in some of my threads which is nice and perfectly fine.
    The problem is that I format my thread how I want it to look like and I dont want anyone changing that! If something is against the rules or against new rules they can tell me that and if I don't reply or abide they can move my thread to unsupported/inactive but changing my formatting, removing images or changing the downloadlink on their own without telling me ... that sucks. This hasnt been the first time and it's not really about adf.ly it's just that I'm fed up with this situation for now.

    @EvilSeph
    Srsly consider allowing adf.ly as an optional download as long as there is a direct download present. Also talk to your mods please, rules and regulations are fine but changing my thread as in reformatting text, replacing my plugin description(WTF?!), removing images and changing my downloadlinks without asking me ... I don't see why this should be happening. It's just more stupid work for me to roll back all the changes those mods do every now and then WITHOUT ASKING/TELLING ME. I just find my thread CHANGED sometimes. Someone just removed the "+" from a "for CB761+" download and as a result a user asked why my plugin wasnt supporting above 761 even though the threadtitle says [766] ... >.< Just an example .. Now Juze changed my download from "761+" to "761-798" and while I understand why he wants it to be the later I dont want this so he should have put my thread into "unsupported plugins" instead changing my thread after I explicitly told him that I dont want this changed to anything but "for CB761+" and even that would be harsh as my plugin was accepted with this and now its suddenly not ok anymore lol
     
  12. You can't ever claim your plugin works for anything higher than you test because any new version could change something you use or even explicitly block it (however unlikely that is).
     
  13. Offline

    Codex Arcanum

    Personally I'd recommend allowing adf.ly link as long as they are accompanied by a direct download link. If someone feels strongly about not using adf.ly, then they can choose to use the direct download. If someone feels strongly about getting some sort of reward for hours upon hours of coding, then they can give users the choice. I am not a plugin developer, but banning adf.ly seems like an arbitrary way to hurt plugin devs.
     
  14. It can't hurt the developer because they aren't losing anything. Nothing is being taken from them.
     
  15. Offline

    nickguletskii

    I am addressing all these people who want us to use github - get lost. I do NOT want to distribute other people's work that I use for debugging, which leaves me with a huge task of going through every single folder manually. With a dropbox + bit.ly combo, I get awesome power off wget, wide statistics from bit.ly and drag'n'drop/ctrl+s uploading from dropbox. Hard to moderate? I am sure it isn't as hard as moderating hotfile downloads. Moreover, bit.ly provides an awesome plugin for Chrome and Firefox that expands bit.ly links.
     
  16. I finally realized why the alert at the top of the forum was changing after the page loaded. My script was replacing the goo.gl link with the actual link.

    Who's the genius who posted a short URL in the alert, which ends up pointing to the forum anyway?
     
    zhuowei and Woodsy like this.
  17. Offline

    SpaceManiac

    Referral tracking, actually, I believe.

    Keep in mind that only adfly is being banned here (due to malware issues and ads - if you're not using it for the money, why are you using it?) and other URL shorteners are only being discouraged.
     
  18. Why would they need to track who read the forum post via the alert?
     
    arpey likes this.
  19. Offline

    SpaceManiac

    Just for fun? They typically track links in IRC topics the same way.
     
  20. Offline

    Psycho Robot

    The revenues, miniscule though they be, are being taken away from them. Last time I checked, $1 != $0
     
  21. Offline

    Dreadreaver

    It's really stupid without it ... I earned 3,5$ in a week just with 3 plugins and now I can't even get it to 5$ to get the money ... (you have to have earned at least 5$ to receive them)

    Not like it harms anyone when these links are there. Wget users should be smart enough to get the wget link from an adf.ly link as well otherwise they shouldnt use wget imho.
     
  22. Advertising revenue isn't something you earned though. The only way you can sell advertising space is if you are wasting resources by not utilizing what you have available, causing the space to be available to ads.
     
  23. Offline

    Psycho Robot

    Using adfly allows people to make a few bucks off their plugins. Banning adfly denies them of that opportunity. So when you say things like "they aren't losing anything", that's not true. That's the point I was trying to get at. I'm not 100% on the side of allowing adfly, however totally false statements like that have no place in any debate, unless they're false in favor of my side.
     
  24. So are you the kind of person who doesn't like ad blockers either?
     
  25. Offline

    Psycho Robot

    I have adf.ly whitelisted, but as a general rule, I use adblock
     
  26. Offline

    madcrazydrumma

    Yeh you all can use <Edit by Moderator: Redacted mediafire url> as you register there (only you not others) and you can get reward points for downloads. This increases and on the rewards pages you can earn quite alot of cash and premium deals but its for alot of points. also people can use uppit.com for free file hosting and also <Edit by Moderator: Redacted mediafire url> which is one of the best out there. Thanks for this policy, i dont see the point in adf.ly, etc...
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 13, 2017
  27. Offline

    EvilSeph

    I'm afraid this isn't up for discussion. People were continuously emailing me about how unpleasant it was to download a plugin and to say I was completely surprised would be an understatement. After having investigated the issue, I discussed it with my staff and we came to this conclusion and posted this announcement. If adf.ly was less in your face and more user-friendly/palatable, then maybe. But if that were the case, my email wouldn't be filled with complaints, now would it? Curiously enough, since we posted this announcement and have been cracking down on adf.ly and services like it, I haven't received any complaints. This is something we really don't have the want nor the time to deal with and the decision stands, sorry.
     
    TnT, zhuowei, Wakko and 1 other person like this.
  28. Offline

    Psycho Robot

    If a user ONLY provided adf.ly download links, I can easily see that being an issue and something to be banned, but what about users who post direct links as well as adf.ly links for those who wish to make use of them? People who dislike adfly can avoid it, and people who don't mind it in order to donate a few tenths of a cent to the dev can do so as well.
     
    Chronx6 likes this.
  29. Offline

    Dreadreaver

    word!

    This adf.ly-ban is a "nazi move" ... I'm german, I know what I'm talking about
     
    Noppoly likes this.
  30. Offline

    Psycho Robot

    Godwin would be pleased
     
    zhuowei, ZNickq, Lumbo and 4 others like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page