Please stop the encoding of URLs in community posts!
For whatever reason, when you add a FS URL to a community post and press enter, the URL has encoding (i.e., percent encoding) added to it, and it renders the URL unfollowable. For example, if someone is asking for help on a FS record with the URL "https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9W5-1ZSH?i=1587", it becomes:
Note that every colon symbol after the initial scheme and double slash gets changed into the percent encoded "&3A", and if someone tries to click through the URL, FS responds with an error:
Tech-savvy users know how to drop the bad link into a URL decoder to get a usable URL but most do not.
As a side not, I don't understand why only the colons are being encoded and not the slashes, the question mark, and the equal sign as well; all are considered "reserved characters" in RFC 3986.
Hopefully it's easy to fix.
Comments
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Just make sure to put the URL in a sentence, not on a line by itself. Or use the link feature.
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I find if you don't hit enter after the URL it doesn't create that boxed link which results in the error.
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Many long-time users of this forum have figured out multiple ways around its URL-mangler, and we've also learned how to rescue URLs that have been subjected to it. (It's not just FS links it does it to, by the way; those are just the most common ones that use colons around here.)
Basically, there are two rules: don't hit "enter" after a bare link, and don't use the mystery button at the bottom of the comment box. If there is text before and/or after a URL (i.e., in the same paragraph with it), then the mangler is not invoked, and you avoid a whole bunch of problems: colons don't turn into %3A, there aren't annoying previews obscuring the actual link, and your link doesn't get deleted in favor of a pink error banner if the site blocks robots in any way.
Note that you can actually put a URL on a line by itself: you just have to create the paragraph (hit enter) first, and then paste or type the URL into it. For example:
https://dspace.oszk.hu/handle/20.500.12346/508288#
I realize that the mangler is meant as a feature, not a bug, but I consider the previews that it generates (or tries to generate) to be primarily an annoyance, so I would not miss it in the least if it went away.
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I suspect that the "mangler" is not under the control of anyone at FamilySearch. The Community Forum is 3rd-party software.
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I suspect there are plenty of customizable features for the forum software available to FamilySearch, including URL preview boxes.
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And every customization has a cost, both in money and in manpower. I would rather FS devote their limited resources to the function of the database of records than to make the community prettier.
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I wonder if one of the "regulars" could advise the best way to add a link that contains a prohibited word?
I recently responded to a query regarding illegitimacy and the URL contained the completely acceptable legal / genealogical term - relating to a book with the title "My Ancestor Was a B-----d". As the word in question has been tuned into "*******" , I find the link does not work. Any workaround?
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I usually add spaces between letters. For example, b a s t a r d would probably pass the nanny bot. (We'll find out!) And I wonder if using the link feature would make the URL work. I know the photo nanny bot has removed links to WorldCat from some of my comments because that bot thinks I'm trying to add a prohibited image. The book in question (the title is hidden by calling it something else.)
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This is the exact example / censored post to which I am referring:
"Not a subject I am too familiar with, either. There is a guide "My Ancestor Was A ****", published by the Society of Genealogists, but I would be surprised if it explained circumstances relating to this unusual example. (See https://societyofgenealogists-shop.myshopify.com/products/my-ancestor-was-a-****)."
Here's where the censored link takes me:
Is there any way of pasting the URL, so it provides the intended link to the page containing the "B" word?
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@Paul W Even my hidden link trick didn't work on that one. We might have to use a broken link trick.
Or - use a link to one level up, the general shop at the SOG https://societyofgenealogists-shop.myshopify.com/ and direct the user to use the search box for the book.
The URL to the book in question may be causing problems on 2 fronts: it contains a forbidden word AND it is to a shop to buy that book. I believe the algorithm looks for/prohibits references considered to be commercial/selling.
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@Paul W FYI - if you click on the link I hid under the "book in question," you'll be taken almost to the right place. It goes to the shop, but the last word in the title has been changed to ****. Just edit, in the browser address bar of the new window, those **** to the B word. I used the TNA site on that one, but the same should work on the SOG site.
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Oy, that nanny-bot needs to be taken aside for supplemental education....
I'll try two ways: pasting into a pre-made paragraph, and using the mystery button.
https://societyofgenealogists-shop.myshopify.com/products/my-ancestor-was-a-****
Well, the preview appears to be correct right now; we'll see what happens when I post.
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OK, so the URL-mangler is invoked immediately, during text entry, while the nanny-bot only applies after you click the Post button. It's quite thorough and stubborn, and completely blind to context, suggesting that it's actually very dumb: it just searches for certain strings and replaces them with asterisks, period.
One more try: what happens if I use URL encoding on one of the letters?
https://societyofgenealogists-shop.myshopify.com/products/my-ancestor-was-a-%62astard
(I used the chain-link button to add the link to the text, because my editing appeared to have broken it.)
Edited to add: hah! That worked! Granted, it's a bit too much neep-neepery to expect of the average user....
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I agree the nanny-bot needs remedial work. There are words or acronyms it allows through that should never appear on a board where we have 4 ways to like/agree with no option to disagree.
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Just so you know, we have asked to have the "mangler" fixed. We have been told that the error was fixed each time. I make sure that stays on the radar. I also try to fix any links I find in posts.
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