[Mediawiki-l] allow tinyurl.com

[Gordon Mohr]

Sterling D. Allan wrote:
> The spam protection filter kicked in today because one of the urls was "tinyurl.com"
> 
> I don't want that blocked.  It is a very helpful too for shortening long URLs.
> 
> How do I disable that block?

Perhaps you are using the SpamBlacklist extension, and tinyurl is on
one of the blacklists it is configured to consult? These docs could
help:

  http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/SpamBlacklist_Documentation

I personally think TinyURLs are awful for usability/stability/safety,
in wiki/email/anywere, because TinyURLs...

  (1) are opaque, hiding their ultimate destination from users.
  (2) send people unaware to any untrustworthy site, including
      transient sites designed to exploit browser vulnerability
      to install malware. So if allowed, they make a gaping hole
      in any blacklist.
  (3) introduce a dependency on a third-party service that could
      go away or be completely compromised in the future. Not
      only could that one TinyURL you see today go to a porn spam
      site, but someday in the future, EVERY TinyURL could be
      retroactively changed to go to a porn spam site.

- Gordon