The Solution to Screwed Up Pages on MyLot - URL Shrinkers!
By craftcatcher
@craftcatcher (3699)
United States
March 12, 2009 5:27pm CST
When someone posts a very long-named link to another website (I've seen links to news articles that are 100+ characters long) in their discussion, it REALLY screws up the pages! If that discussion comes up in the "similar discussions" column on the right side of the page, that column becomes as wide as the link posted, then the discussion you are trying to reply to suddenly becomes an inch wide and extremely long.
There are websites where you can get your link shortened for free and don't have to sign up for anything. My two personal favorites are: http://is.gd/ and http://tinyurl.com/ Both of these sites are reliable, easy to use and will compress a long link down to a manageable and non-interfering size. And no I'm not paid to advertise or endorse those websites. They are just handy suggestions, there are several others available.
Same thing happens when someone is trying to make a point and uses a ridiculous number of letters or question marks or exclamation points. If you want to make a point 20 exclamation points is not going to get anyone to answer you any faster. Two or three is enough to draw attention and not screw up pages. Show some restraint! 
I admit I am guilty of having posted extremely long links, until I noticed that so many pages were completely screwy and that every time it happened there was a very long link or excessive letters/punctuation involved. From now on I will use a URL shrinker.. I promise! 
To make this a discussion, has anyone else noticed this problem?
I admit I am guilty of having posted extremely long links, until I noticed that so many pages were completely screwy and that every time it happened there was a very long link or excessive letters/punctuation involved. From now on I will use a URL shrinker.. I promise!
To make this a discussion, has anyone else noticed this problem?3 people like this
8 responses
@moonlitmagikchild (22181)
• United States
13 Mar 09
are you talking about my posts? cause i know my stupid local news website always has long links but i never noticed it messing up the page or i wouldnt have posted them.. i use firefox so maybe thats why i dont see it funky? if you could explain to me what its doing i will try to remember to shorten that sites links (when i can remember lol.) i feel bad if its been messing up other peoples stuff 
@craftcatcher (3699)
• United States
13 Mar 09
One of the examples actually was one of yours, though I didn't realize it when I wrote the discussion! But you are by no means the only person who does it. Let's see if I can explain this and try to make some sense of it.
Go to your own profile page and hit your "discussions I've started". Then pull up page #2, I found a few there with long URLs. See if the URLs are still abbreviated. Let me know if they are or are not.
But you are by no means the only person who does it. Let's see if I can explain this and try to make some sense of it.
Go to your own profile page and hit your "discussions I've started". Then pull up page #2, I found a few there with long URLs. See if the URLs are still abbreviated. Let me know if they are or are not.1 person likes this
@craftcatcher (3699)
• United States
13 Mar 09
I just used my old Maxthon browser and the long URL wraps and doesn't change the page. I didn't think of trying a different browser. Well sh*t, it's gotta be Firefox then. I had to download the old version since my computer is so old. It must have been a bug that they fixed with the new version. I wondered why I only started noticing lately, I've only been using Firefox for about 2 months now. I love all the add-ons but this old version is very buggy. I can't watch videos with it either. I'm glad I kept the other browser on here! Oh well I guess me and my old decrepit computer and browser will just have to deal with it.
1 person likes this
@moonlitmagikchild (22181)
• United States
13 Mar 09
ok so im not crazy?? well i am but on this one thing lol.. i have never heard of maxthon before
@moonlitmagikchild (22181)
• United States
13 Mar 09
yeah it does! because i know on my posts the one place i get news from has insanely long links and when i hit post it shortens it at least on my end of viewing..
1 person likes this
@craftcatcher (3699)
• United States
13 Mar 09
They do abbreviate on the discussion page itself. But when they show up in the "similar discussion" column or in a profile page, suddenly they are no longer abbreviated and the page columns move or double in width. At least on my computer.
I haven't had or heard of any problems with tinyurl but if you hear about one, let us know. Thanks EB
1 person likes this
@craftcatcher (3699)
• United States
13 Mar 09
Seems that there's only a few of us having this problem. It all depends on the browser we're using, which means myLot isn't writing code properly for those browsers. Hopefully they fix that sometime soon!
Hugs
@Darkwing (21583)
•
17 Mar 09
Thank you for the heads up, my friend. The URL shrinker could be a great way of stopping what happened to me the other day. My discussion became about an inch and a half wide, down the left side of the page, whilst the similar discussions took over the right side, instead of being underneath. Moreover, I couldn't respond to certain respondents' comments. So, I left it for a day or so, and it came back to as it should be, and all was fine again. I shall certainly bear your suggestions in mind in the future, and I hope others do too.
Brightest Blessings, my friend.
@tamarafireheart (15384)
•
13 Mar 09
Hi Jo,
I do notice that sometimes when it happens to my page but now I don't really like going into links that much so I just keep safe because I don't really understand what is going on. Thanks for tellg us that. Love and hugs.
Tamara
xxxx
@craftcatcher (3699)
• United States
13 Mar 09
I'm glad I'm not alone, it seems it's either the browsers fault or myLot isn't writing their code properly for all browsers. I'm thinking it's the second one!
Love & Hugs
Love & Hugs
@jazzsue58 (2666)
•
12 Mar 09
I've seen posts with loads of dots, Ems etc - it turns a few words into a 5 line post and is a lazy way to try and up their earnings. Does it work? Funny enough, these tend to be the same people who start a discussion with: "I've posted 5000 discussions this week and still only made $0.47!!!!!!!!!"
@craftcatcher (3699)
• United States
13 Mar 09
It always amazes me when people think they're going to get paid for posting dots. You're right, they have the nerve to wonder why!
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
13 Mar 09
Hi craft, thanks for the link. It can be handy for future use. Yes, some people are fond of writing long discussions which might not be of any interest to others. When a discussion is extremely long it can strain the eyes to read it line by line and I can only sometimes manage half way before it take a toll on my eyes. The present length of this discussion now is just nice and anything longer will only make others abandon the discussion for some shorter ones.
@scarlet_woman (23463)
• United States
14 Mar 09
that's a darn good idea..i hadn't thought of that.
it would certainly help to shrink down the url size.
