[Sigia-l] Alternatives to long string URLs for e-mail linking

[Beau Lebens]

Stephen,
you could do something similar to your first suggestion using mod_rewrite
with Apache (or Virtual Directories under IIS). This just allows you to
create a "pretend" URL, which when requested from the webserver, actually
resolves to somewhere else (in your case, your ugly, butchered,
non-user-friendly CMS-URL :P)

Other than that (or a custom solution somewhere along similar lines), I
can't really see there being any option but to get a new CMS that doesn't
make URLs like that! (good luck on that one tho!)

Let me know if you come up with anything good - I'd be interested for my own
purposes as well :)

Cheers,

Beau (from Perth, WA!)

//  -----Original Message-----
//  From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org]On Behalf Of
//  Stephen Holmes
//  Sent: Wednesday, 11 December 2002 7:58 AM
//  To: sigia-l at asis.org
//  Subject: [Sigia-l] Alternatives to long string URLs for e-mail linking
//
//
//  Hi all,
//
//  You know it is Thanksgiving in the USA when all of the mailing
//  lists get
//  so short! (Here in Oz it is Christmas / New Year)
//
//  So I hope there are enough of you back on-board to possibly answer this
//  question.
//
//  PROBLEM SYNOPSIS
//
//  One problem I'm having was recently mentioned in a TidBITS
//  article about
//    a product report where they complained about very long URL strings
//  generated by CMS databases. It makes adding a URL link in an e-mail a
//  problem.
//
//  Long strings mean that the traditional 70 or 80 character e-mail width
//  was not big enough to hold a URL, so only the first line would be
//  converted to an active link by a user's e-mail client. I use N7, for
//  instance which handles an e-mail according to the settings of
//  the client
//  that sent the message - some wrap, some don't.
//
//  Often users didn't know that they could manually copy and paste a URL
//  from an e-mail and so when they click on that first line link they get
//  an error message or - if the webmaster is on the ball - a redirect to a
//  help page.
//
//  EFFECT
//
//  Now e-mail newsletters like TidBITS and this sigia-l list even have the
//  problem when referring on links for others to check out and this in a
//  very effective form of viral marketing (sosumi!), but it also pisses
//  people off if the link is long and broken and the user hasn't figured
//  out how to copy and paste a long URL string; they like to point and
//  click only. (It happens, I do some work in Mac support as well
//  and you'd
//  be surprised at how many people are even confused by a Mac!)
//
//  QUESTION
//
//  OK. That's the problem. Are there any solutions or workarounds that
//  anyone knows of? I have listed some possibles, with the drawbacks of
//  each in (brackets).
//
//  A database item and directory numbering construction method? (short
//  number codes and look-up tables don't give much intuitive feedback to a
//  reader for back navigation)
//
//  An added ghost page with a short URL made just for a campaign that
//  re-directs to a longer string? (This kind of defeats the
//  purpose in some
//  cases and is of no use for true viral marketing rather than seeded push
//  marketing.)
//
//  Any others?
//  --
//
//       _________________________________________________________
//      *                                                         *
//     *  Stephen Holmes               sholmes at topladder.com.au    *
//    *   Information Architect        http://www.topladder.com.au  *
//  *                                                               *
//    *   Top O' The Ladder Design     Kew, Victoria,               *
//     *  "new times, new solutions"   Australia 3122              *
//      *_________________________________________________________*
//
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