Posting links - a few words to help

[helvella]

Sometimes, if you try to get a link to a website to post (here or anywhere else), you will see a link which is long, often very long.

If the link is something like this:

helvella . com /?<loads of stuff>

that is most likely do some of the following:

Identifying the person who was logged into the website. Or who received an email containing the link. Not just who, but where they are and even when it was sent to them.

Identifying that the link was part of some sort of campaign - such as an emailing of all customers/registered users.

Identifying what group of users. If the campaign was targeted at women, for example, or age, or other information that they know about the person they sent an email to.

Identifying that the person is an affiliate of the site and, if the link is used, especially if used to buy something, who will receive the commission.

Mostly, if you just use the first part of the link, before but not including the question mark, it will still work but won't pass on all this information.

(We have a policy against posting most affiliate links.)

Try the link before the question mark, on its own:

helvella . com /

If that works, just post that. Sometimes it won't work - e.g. if the link is to same sort of search when it will contain the search terms.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

You learn something new every day! Thanks Helvella. Those long links are often seen with Amazon, I'll be double checking any that I post now 😊

[helvella in reply to SeasideSusie]

I wouldn't be surprised if some of them do many devious things.

I don't know what Amazon do, but you could imagine:

The big retail site (BRS) sees someone logged into their site - let's call that person Alice. BRS records your purchasing and browsing history in their systems. And add a unique number to the long string of information.

You send that link to someone else - Bob - and they use it. BRS can then use this unique number to link Alice with Bob. If BRS then look at Bob's browsing and purchasing history, they might see similarities and differences to Alice's history. Say, Alice bought a hammer one day, a nail the next. Then Bob uses the link Alice sent to buy a hammer. BRS will assume Bob will now want to buy nails. And add them to emails or "suggestions" that Bob sees on the BRS site.

No-one really cares about hammers and nails but there are things you might not want random others to know about. Even the trivial example of buying birthday and Christmas presents.

[TSH110 in reply to helvella]

That’s exactly what’s going on. You used to be able to hit a button that gave a short link to copy abs paste but that’s been removed 🙄 it’s the very devil to get rid of the of junk added to it there must be an easy way. There used to be ☹️

[helvella in reply to TSH110]

If you are thinking of things like tinyurl, there is a very good reason not to use them.

This is an example (which links back to this very page):

tinyurl.com/2pjm4jnk

But how do you know where the link will take you? You only have my word for it.

It went from being a generally useful technique to an invitation to visit sites you would never wish to go anywhere near - full of viruses, trojans, etc.

[TSH110 in reply to helvella]

No it’s wasn’t tinyurl. It just removed all the add on gobbledygook giving a nice clean and clear link. Obvious what it was linking to. It was next to the breadcrumbs window but since the latest update it’s vanished 😬

[helvella in reply to TSH110]

I must have entirely missed what you are talking about! It doesn't trigger any recognition whatsoever.

[TSH110 in reply to helvella]

On an iPhone where the url box is there was something you could choose to get a tidy link but since the latest update it has vanished

[humanbean in reply to TSH110]

Breadcrumbs?

[helvella in reply to humanbean]

Primarily what the link cleaning facility was and how it did it.

But, yes, secondarily, not sure what TSH110 meant as the breadcrumb window.

[TSH110 in reply to helvella]

humanbean en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bre...

I’m not making it up see!

[helvella in reply to TSH110]

Yes - I know about breadcrumbs - but can't think what part of HU had them!

[humanbean in reply to TSH110]

I never knew there was a term for that! Thanks for the info.

[TSH110 in reply to humanbean]

That’s what our IT guy called them all the data in the url. That was years back when I was a CMS databasing wizard before hypothyrodism completely destroyed my analytical mind. They used eating as the naming system so that’s why it’s bytes, menu etc there’s even a nibble which is some tiny piece of data

[RedApple]

The part of the link that starts with a question mark (?) is the clue.For example:

?utm_campaign=thyroiduk&utm_medium=email&utm_source=notification&utm_term=daily+digest

The above comes from a link to a specific post on this forum, received in my HU Daily Digest email.

The bit before the ?, takes me directly to the individual post on this forum. The bit after the ? tells the HU stats bot that it came from their Daily Digest email.

[helvella in reply to RedApple]

An excellent example! Thank you.

[Anthea55]

Thanks helvella, that's going to be very useful. It's also helpful to understand what the extra bits mean.

Sometimes my daughter sends me a link to something she thinks I should buy, such as grandchildren's birthday presents. I've tried cutting it down and it still works.

I've also wanted to send her a link to an article in my online newspaper which comes as an email. When I open the link in my browser it comes up with loads of stuff after the ?. When I remove that I still get the article I wanted and can send her the reduced link.

[helvella in reply to Anthea55]

For Amazon, you can be even more ruthless. (I have added a few spaces to stop HU converting it into a clickable link!)

https: // smile.amazon.co.uk /HTI-Toys-Sport-Sponge-Football /dp /B0025B0UPM

You can just use the Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) - B0025B0UPM - and do your own search for that product. That stops any information associating the link sender with the link recipient. (Unless it is so rarely looked at they can assume that Alice saw it, and passed it on to Bob, who used it a few minutes later.)

[TSH110 in reply to helvella]

Very helpful 😉

[humanbean]

I always remove the text in links from the question mark onwards, and I always test the truncated link before I post it - but occasionally I've found that they simply don't work which is very annoying. So, sometimes the garbage has to stay.

[helvella in reply to humanbean]

That does happen. And this is one example.

If you want to find documents about levothyroxine that are available from the MHRA (PILs and SPCs), you can go to their website and type "levothyroxine" into their search box.

This is their website:

products.mhra.gov.uk/

Type levothyroxine and let it search.

That changes the link to become a search by adding:

search/?search=levothyroxine&page=1

To become (this will get truncated on the forum, but if you click on it, you will see it all):

products.mhra.gov.uk/search...

If you truncate it from the question mark onwards, it reverts to just being a link to the site with "search/" tacked on- not to a specific group of documents. As here:

products.mhra.gov.uk/search/

But in this case, at least, you can see why it is necessary. That isn't always the case.

[SarahJane1471]

🤯😂 I think I’ll just never attempt a link again !!!

[helvella in reply to SarahJane1471]

You did fine!

It is much more awkward on phones than laptops/desktops or even tablets.