Fedi.TipsJul 28, 2025

You probably should not use link shorteners, here's why:

- All links on Mastodon count as 23 characters no matter how long they really are. There is no need to shorten links on Mastodon, it won't save you any space.

- Link shorteners endanger privacy by allowing click tracking, and by hiding what is actually being clicked.

- Shortener providers will shut down, breaking all their links. e.g. Google's shortened links will all show 404 errors from September: https://chaos.social/@root42/114929876895398208

#FediTips

root42 (@[email protected])

Another reminder that you should never ever use link shorteners: https://www.heise.de/en/news/Google-s-URL-shortener-goo-gl-will-only-show-404-errors-from-the-end-of-August-10501127.html

chaos.social
Show threadYazadJul 28, 2025
@FediTips thank you for the explainer. Interested in knowing how the team decided on the number 23 for all urls of any side shared on mastodon.
Show threadFedi.TipsJul 28, 2025

@yazad3

It was the number of characters in Twitter's old shortener service. The idea was to match the size but avoid all the privacy and link rot problems.

Show threadYazad
@FediTips Thank you, love the though behind it.
Jul 29, 2025 at 3:00amWeb