Pretty URLs

[damned_colonial]

Title:
Pretty URLs

Area:
entries

Summary:
Generate a pretty URL for each entry in a journal, so that instead of:

http://some-journal.dreamwidth.org/12345.html

you see:

http://some-journal.dreamwidth.org/2010/07/15/five-things-make-a-post

Description:
The generated URL should include the date in YYYY/MM/DD format, and a simplified version of the post's subject line. If two posts with the same subject happen in one day, just add "2" to the end of the second one (and increment as necessary).

The original numeric URLs should keep working so that links don't break, but should rewrite to the pretty ones.

This will provide context in all kinds of handy situations, eg. when someone pastes a URL to you or when you hover over a link, you can see what's likely to be at the other end of it.

Poll #3836 Pretty URLs

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 90

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
29 (32.2%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
22 (24.4%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
31 (34.4%)

(I have no opinion)
8 (8.9%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[ratcreature]

How would edited subject lines work? Are these all going to be redirected?

[damned_colonial]

I replied above to 900degrees who asked a similar question.

[matgb]

Wordpress and Blogger now work that the original URL is set on first post and future edits don't change it, and WP now allows you to edit it (and even set it originally) separately.

Which I think works well.

[ratcreature]

I'm not fond of the URL text remaining even though the content changed. I mean, you could have said something wrong, be corrected, edit that in your subject, and the wrong statement remains in the URL. Or you are careless, title a post with a spoiler, feel the wrath of the spoiled, hurriedly edit the post, yet your URL still spoils everyone when they see it.

[matgb]

All true, but I'm also not a fan of broken links, especially given I use automated services to aggregate my posts in many places, some of which don't update much subsequently (unfortunately).

If edits can be redirected, brilliant, if not, make sure they're editable separately, not on every edit of subject line (and I'm incredibly prone to typoes, even when I proofread, so it'll really matter for me).

And yes, you're thinking spoiler, I'm actually thinking of UK libel law, but same principle, you do need to be able to change URLs, but not automatically per typo.

[ratcreature]

Well, after the clarifications in the comments, I changed my mind from "no opinion" to against. I've always been happy to have the simple numerical URLs anyway, so I don't need this, but if these prettified URLs became the default it seems like there'd be a lot of trouble for me, in that my links could break if I didn't want the wrong subject represented (or look stupid with typos remaining), not to mention the hassle of having to edit another thing manually.

Maybe if you could disable them for your journal and just have the regular URLs, with no prettified URLs at all.

[matgb]

Ah, reread, I see it's presented as a default always on, I want it as an option on a per-journal basis, so I'm changing my vote to with changes.

I really want this, until we've got proper domain mapping and this, DW isn't a platform I can actively promote as being better than Blogger and Wordpress for the people I want to promote it to (ie my friends within party politics blogging).

You need pretty links for policy blogging because it works a lot better with search engines, and that's really important for this sort of thing, at the moment DW scores lowly for search, whcih for many users is an unthought of benefit, but for me it's a known about disadvantage, and I want to have the option to make it an advantage.

[jazzfish]

I want it as an option on a per-journal basis

+1. Possibly 'per-post' as well.

[kyrielle]

I could accept this on a per-journal basis but am strongly against it being across-the-board.

[damned_colonial]

What if it redirected automatically? (my option 3, up-thread)

[ratcreature]

That would be better, but I'd still rather have this as option, with the default remaining what it is. Another thing I wonder about is how this would work if the subject line was in a non-latin language.

Are these URLs possible for subject lines in all languages? And how does linking then work? I know I sometimes have trouble with the c&p of characters for which I didn't configure my system. Could I still link to a post in a language I haven't set up on my system, because I like the images posted in it?