October 9, 2007 at 5:28 am
I have to say that I'm not a big fan of how you've hidden the URL to which I will be redirected in your external links (they all say basically the same think now sqlservercentral.com/links). I don't like not knowing where you will be taking me. This has really impacted the usefulness, for me, of the database daily letter.
October 9, 2007 at 8:13 am
We have these set up as redirects for tracking purposes. It helps us to go back and see which links are popular.
We've included the source from which the link comes, so I'm not sure what exactly you are looking for. Are you trying to somehow determine if you've read the article? Or do you decode the URL somehow?
October 10, 2007 at 5:54 am
I figured that was the reason for the redirects, and I understand. However, take today's editorial for example. You link to an article about telecommuting. Before, I would hover my mouse pointer over the link to see where the link was about to take me and that would help me decide if I wanted to follow the link. Now, I have no idea where it is going to take me. It might take me to a someone's blog that I would have known that I have no interest in reading. It may take me to a domain that I know is blocked by our filtering software. Or it may have shown that it was a link to somewhere I definitely would have liked to go. Either way, I could make up my mind. Now, I'm just left to click and see where it takes me, which is not a fun way to get around on the web.
Where you say "we've included the source from which the link comes from" that makes me wonder if I'm missing something. Where can I see the source?
I'm not looking to see if I've read the link before or otherwise decode the URL, I just want to know where I am about to be redirected.
October 10, 2007 at 8:03 am
Ah, forgot about the editorials. The articles have a "source" (sqlteam, database journal, etc), but those don't. I can try to include a note about the domain in there, which may help.
Steve
October 10, 2007 at 8:15 am
Cool - I misspoke in my original post. The Database Weekly email, which I'm a huge fan of, really suffers from this issue (in my opinion). If there was a way to preserve your ability to track the links and still let me know where I am about to be redirected, I (for one) would greatly appreciate it.
October 11, 2007 at 6:35 am
I'll add that to the list. I don't track a source there, but maybe the programmers can add in a "domain" item.
You can also check the website and that has the links you can hover over.
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