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1. Embed this notice
   FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 05:24:44 JST FediTips has moved!

   In case you missed it, all links on Mastodon count as 23 characters towards your limit, no matter how many characters the link really is.

   So, you don't need to use link shorteners on Mastodon as they won't actually affect the link's length.

   Mastodon does this because it's better for everyone's privacy to avoid link shortener services, it means people can see what they're clicking on, and the link won't stop working if the shortener service shuts down.

   More info at:

   ➡️ https://fedi.tips/you-dont-need-link-shorteners-on-mastodon/

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:07:43 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Lynette
     • Bruce Toews

     @bruce_toews @Lynessence

     It's answered in the link :)

   • Embed this notice
     Bruce Toews (bruce_toews@tweesecake.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:07:44 JST Bruce Toews

     in reply to

     • Lynette

     @Lynessence @feditips Where'd they come up with 23?

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:08:46 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • fabeltjeskrant

     @fabeltjeskrant

     I think there is a limit on how long a link can actually be to prevent technical problems, but I can't remember how long it is.

     I've never heard of anyone having problems with the link length limit though.

   • Embed this notice
     fabeltjeskrant (fabeltjeskrant@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:08:47 JST fabeltjeskrant

     in reply to

     @feditips Can a link be more than 500 characters long?

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:10:12 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Cru Jones

     @AudraTran

     Yeah, a lot of people don't realise that all links on Twitter, Reddit etc automatically flow through shorteners so that they can track who is clicking on what.

     Twitter even disguise this by making a link seem original, but it's actually going through a shortener. (If you're on a desktop browser, hover your mouse over a link on Twitter and look in the bottom left corner, you'll see it's always a t.co address.)

   • Embed this notice
     Cru Jones (audratran@fosstodon.org)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:10:13 JST Cru Jones

     in reply to

     @feditips It's infuriating that Meta and Reddit hijack your links now to insert their own trackers. Fuckin' scumbags.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:11:06 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • John Harden

     @giantspecks

     I think this depends on the server, and when you look at the link. It can take some time for a preview to appear as your server has to prepare it, and if a server is very busy this process can take longer.

     Are you seeing some previews never appearing, even days later?

   • Embed this notice
     John Harden (giantspecks@sfba.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:11:07 JST John Harden

     in reply to

     @feditips what I really want to know, why is Mastodon so inconsistent about providing preview images for linked content? Sometimes I get them, sometimes not. It seems random.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:14:30 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • fabeltjeskrant

     @fabeltjeskrant

     You can try it yourself by replying to me, but usually Mastodon will not show the full link if it is beyond a certain length.

     For example, the link here should appear abbreviated on most interfaces and apps: https://thisisaverylongsubdomaintogiveanexampleofalinkthatisnotdoingtoappearinfull.example.com

     If the link is abbreviated, you can preview the whole link by hovering the mouse over it or long-pressing it on a touchscreen.

   • Embed this notice
     fabeltjeskrant (fabeltjeskrant@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:14:32 JST fabeltjeskrant

     in reply to

     @feditips let me rephrase that question: Would I be able to write a full article starting with https:// and separate words using underscores?

   • Embed this notice
     fabeltjeskrant (fabeltjeskrant@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:23:22 JST fabeltjeskrant

     in reply to

     @feditips I see. That’s a shame. I guess I want to use Mastodon as a blogging platform instead of a microblogging platform. I had an account on qoto.org because they support 64k characters, but I cannot find a client, not counting their own web client, that supports messages this size. It used to be that clients honor the servers capabilities, so I would expect a client to support longer than 500 character messages, but AFAIU there is a recent but that has broken this behaviour?

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:23:22 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • fabeltjeskrant

     @fabeltjeskrant

     You don't have to use Mastodon to publish on Mastodon.

     Mastodon is part of the Fediverse, and there are lots of other Fediverse platforms you can use instead.

     For example, you can turn any independently hosted WordPress blog into a Fediverse server, and authors on that blog can be followed from Mastodon.

     You can choose to display blog articles either in full, or as excerpts with a link, or just as links.

     More info here:

     https://fedi.tips/wordpress-turning-your-blog-into-a-fediverse-server/

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:24:14 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • fabeltjeskrant

     @fabeltjeskrant

     Another option is Friendica, where there's effectively no character limit on posts. It is also part of the Fediverse, and Friendica servers federate with Mastodon servers:

     https://fedi.tips/friendica-a-flexible-fediverse-server-type-with-long-posts/

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:26:43 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Mecha Code 👺

     @LibertyBeta

     Yes, but all I see at my end is "HTTPS://www.dragon.gay/this-do..."

     I can see the full link if I hover over it though.

   • Embed this notice
     Mecha Code 👺 (libertybeta@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:26:44 JST Mecha Code 👺

     in reply to

     @feditips so https://www.dragon.lgbt/this-doesnt-count-as-more-than-just-twenty-four-characters-which-means-i-can-totally-fuck-with-this-thing-and-make-my-posts-just-one-really-anoying-run-one-link?so-this-is=24-characters

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:27:26 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • OctoFloofy :squidorange:
     • fabeltjeskrant

     @octofloofy @fabeltjeskrant

     It depends what you're using to view the Fediverse. Bear in mind people may not see it even if you can.

   • Embed this notice
     OctoFloofy :squidorange: (octofloofy@ck.octofloofy.ink)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 06:27:29 JST OctoFloofy :squidorange:

     in reply to

     • fabeltjeskrant

     @feditips@mstdn.social @fabeltjeskrant@mastodon.social i see it fully

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 07:38:35 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Juicy Cake Of Figs

     @datadivajf

     The Mastodon web interface at least does abbreviate links if they're very long, but they're still clickable and you can read the full link by hovering over them or longpressing.

   • Embed this notice
     Juicy Cake Of Figs (datadivajf@babka.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 07:38:40 JST Juicy Cake Of Figs

     in reply to

     @feditips Although REALLY long links can be unsightly.

   • Embed this notice
     John Harden (giantspecks@sfba.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 07:39:32 JST John Harden

     in reply to

     @feditips Thanks for the reply! Yes, I just checked back to some June posts that included YouTube links—still nothing there.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 07:39:32 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • John Harden

     @giantspecks

     I think there was an issue at some point with YouTube's preview format, Google changed it and broke it on here, I think?

     Is this still not working for new posts?

   • Embed this notice
     Nik0 :coolified: (ashiisbest@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 10:45:23 JST Nik0 :coolified:

     in reply to

     @feditips Amazing tip!!!!

   • Embed this notice
     William (phenidone@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 14:16:45 JST William

     in reply to

     • fabeltjeskrant

     @feditips @fabeltjeskrant well that sounds fun in conjunction with data:// URLs :)

     I might have to do some experimenting...

   • Embed this notice
     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: (lanodan@queer.hacktivis.me)'s status on Thursday, 13-Jul-2023 15:59:47 JST Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell:

     in reply to
     @feditips Meanwhile on Pleroma you'd have to somehow find URLs longer than thousands of characters.
     :blobcathug: likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Ryan Welsh (ryanwelsh@mstdn.social)'s status on Friday, 14-Jul-2023 01:46:29 JST Ryan Welsh

     in reply to

     @feditips My random thought on this:

     How did the decision land on using 23 characters of the limit for URLs?

     Or for that matter, why does any standard emoji (not instance emojis) – like ⁉️ – eat TWO characters from the limit instead of just one?

     These are the things that live rent-free in my brain, apparently.

   • Embed this notice
     Kevin Karhan :verified: (kkarhan@mstdn.social)'s status on Friday, 14-Jul-2023 02:43:56 JST Kevin Karhan :verified:

     in reply to

     @feditips also #LinkShorteners are extremely susceptible to #LinkRot and are easy to abuse for #malware, #scams and other bad actions!

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Saturday, 15-Jul-2023 04:18:36 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Thorwegian ❄️

     @thor

     As noted in the link I posted, official iPhone/iPad Mastodon app has a bug that means it doesn't implement the 23 character thing.

     I'd advise people to switch to a third party app like Toot!, Ice Cubes, Ivory etc as they are better than the official app anyway.

   • Embed this notice
     Thorwegian ❄️ (thor@berserker.town)'s status on Saturday, 15-Jul-2023 04:18:37 JST Thorwegian ❄️

     in reply to

     @feditips something tells me not all clients implement this.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jul-2023 09:20:52 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • FeralRobots
     • Aswath Rao
     • IamAcand

     @aswath @FeralRobots @IamAcand

     There are lots of servers where the character limit is higher, for example my account on tech.lgbt has a limit of 1000 characters.

   • Embed this notice
     Aswath Rao (aswath@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jul-2023 09:20:53 JST Aswath Rao

     in reply to

     • FeralRobots
     • IamAcand

     @FeralRobots
     (Only half jokingly) Since the character count is only "approximately & roughly", why restrict the length of the post to 500 for posting; instead allow poster to exceed 500 to "finish" the sentence. Also there is no need to use things like "a11y", but spell it out fully.
     @IamAcand @feditips

   • Embed this notice
     FeralRobots (feralrobots@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jul-2023 09:20:53 JST FeralRobots

     in reply to

     • Aswath Rao
     • IamAcand

     @aswath
     Where's the 'approximate' & 'rough' language coming from? If that's actually written into documentation, it should be struck - the limit is deterministic. It could *appear* rough or approximate because things don't take up the same number of characters they appear to (e.g. all URLs being 23 chars*), but AFAIK it's a hard limit.
     _
     *also I've been told but haven't verified that each emoji eats 2 chars?

     @IamAcand @feditips

   • Embed this notice
     Aswath Rao (aswath@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jul-2023 09:20:53 JST Aswath Rao

     in reply to

     • FeralRobots
     • IamAcand

     @FeralRobots
     That is my editorial add-on. Empirically it seems to me that my Mastodon server delivers posts longer than 500 chars. From this thread I understand that if the text is say 472 chars, but the linked URL is however long, the post will be accepted, even though the actual char count is > 500 chars. So am suggesting why not a bit more permissive and allow a few grace chars ssi the author can finish the sentence. That was my point.
     @IamAcand @feditips

   • Embed this notice
     FeralRobots (feralrobots@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jul-2023 09:20:54 JST FeralRobots

     in reply to

     • IamAcand

     @IamAcand @feditips
     If you follow the tag you'll find posts about digital accessibility. 'a11y' is a #numeronym for 'accessibility'. It dates back to 140 character Twitter & it's how most folks posting about accessibility tag their posts.

     Numeronyms use the first & last characters of a term to bookend a numeral representing the number of characters in between. E.g. 'accessibility' reduced to 'a11y', which is a big deal if your trying to communicate in coherent 140 or 280 char chunks.

   • Embed this notice
     IamAcand (iamacand@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jul-2023 09:20:55 JST IamAcand

     in reply to

     • FeralRobots

     @FeralRobots @feditips whats a11y?

   • Embed this notice
     FeralRobots (feralrobots@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jul-2023 09:20:56 JST FeralRobots

     in reply to

     @feditips This was a good design decision for accessibility & usability. We do complain sometimes about Mastodon's support for #a11y, but there are many small decisions like this that demonstrate people did *want* to do the right think.