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

[Gerry McGovern]

>--__--__--
>
>Message: 17
>Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 10:58:19 +1100
>From: Stephen Holmes <sholmes at labyrinth.net.au>
>Reply-To: sholmes at labyrinth.net.au
>To: sigia-l at asis.org
>Subject: [Sigia-l] Alternatives to long string URLs for e-mail linking

Stephen,
If you put angle brackets before and after the url (no spaces), it usually 
keeps the entire url as a link, regardless of how long it is.

Example:

<http://www.mycompany.com>

Best

Gerry


>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?
>--


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