[openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website] Replace Shortlink custom algorithm with a standard implementation (Issue #4205)

[Brooks Boyd]

@tomhughes It's good that "it works" and has required minimal maintenance, however I presume like many projects, you as maintainer strive to make it "work the best it can" rather than "just working"? If it's been untouched for years, it could stand to be at least re-evaluated to see if it's still the best solution for the user workflow trying to be supported?

Do you have metrics on how frequently that feature is used? I would assume the most common use for that feature is to share temporary links with people (Alice finds something on the map, copies the shortlink, and sends it to Bob. Bob, at some point in the near future will read Alice's message, follow the link and know what she was talking about. After a few days, that link will likely never be used/followed again). Another possible use-case is from other sites that want to cross-link to information and might have shortlink-formatted links embedded in their website. Can you tell from your metrics if people use that tool the first way (no "referrer" page and each link only visited a few times in a short time range and then never again), or the second (visit has a referring page, and has visits spread out over a long time). If it's primarily used in the first way, then changing the algorithm would have minimal impact.

Or do your metrics show that feature gets a lot of use at all? The non-shortlink URL format isn't _that_ long/verbose a format; do people mostly just use that?

-- 
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/issues/4205#issuecomment-1694514587
You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.

Message ID: <openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/issues/4205/1694514587 at github.com>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/rails-dev/attachments/20230826/f5c34fd8/attachment.htm>