b i t. l y forbidden on GH?

[Jamoo]

hi Staff,

is this url shortener service no longer allowed here? all my

b i t. l y links changed to ***********

example: http://www.gayheaven.org/showthread.php?t=82284

greetings,

J.

 

[LuiM]

Hmm I haven't noticed b i t. l y would be a forbidden anonymizer. And I doubt any changes to the board would be made without prior notice from the stuff. So this really is weird. :worried:

 

[smallsleepyrascalcat]

I wouldn't be so sure about the part with the prior notice ^^

 

[Squallmuzza]

Well we recently updated our censored words list from a pre-determined set, so it's possible this is one that got snagged in.

We've also received many reports of members that address shortening sites lead to phishing sites. While I don't believe bit is one of these, this might be part of the issue here. I'll make sure the powers that be take a look here and give you an answer ASAP .

 

[Jamoo]

I use this service more than a year now and its a serious one, not like this direction crab like lix . in , protector. to or linkbucks or some other click for cash services, maybe some criminal elements hide there phishing adresses with b i t. l y,but this is also possible with all other of these link-shortener services like tiny url or is . get or some. Bit . ly is trying to protect their users for this, if they have knowledge about a phishing site, they will not allow to shorten this adress. for some reasons it was not possible to shorten your HF - ref-link because they presumed its one of those, but its updated now.

 

[BadBoy]

I can confirm, that redirect service is now banned because it was used for one of the last phishing attacks we had here in the forum.

The sad thing about this is whenever any of the redirect or shortening services are used in connection with phishing or redirect to sites with malware they will be banned at once. The result of that is that all members who have used any of the banned services get broken links in their posts.

It's complete impossible for the moderators to sift the wheat from the chaff all the time so of that reason we have chosen to bann them if they are abused.

 

[Jamoo]

 

[BurntOut]

I'm very sorry for that Jamoo, I hope you don't have too many threads where you used their service. There is currently a stubborn phisher on this forum who wouldn't give up. To eliminate all threats and to protect the members from getting their accounts abused, we banned his ip range and had to censor the shortening services he was using.
If you want to protect your links I would either suggest hiding them or using lix.in which also appears in the rules. lix.in will show the user the website he is going to be redirected to which makes it easier to notice phishing sites like rapidslare or w/e they come up with.

 

[Jamoo]

ok so i have to deal with...
thx for your efforts & taking time to explain this.

 

[Gordon]

Jamoo, your "tiny" blog is good!