The itty-bittiest publishing platform on the web.
July 4, 2018 2:49 PM Subscribe
My comment broke all sorts of site functionality! Ok, maybe just my recent activity and my recently favorited activity.
posted by cichlid ceilidh at 3:12 PM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by cichlid ceilidh at 3:12 PM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
Once the link is sent and opened, a small piece of code is downloaded from itty.bitty.site.I liked it better before I read that.
posted by doubtfulpalace at 3:13 PM on July 4, 2018 [14 favorites]
> Size Limits - While most sites support 2000 bytes, some can handle more.
Uh no. That's not "sites", that's "browsers". An URL over 2KB will be truncated on IE and Edge, so you can't copy and paste it. Urls over 4KB will break in all Microsoft browsers and possibly Android browsers.
Developers tend to go "uh huh, sure but those browsers SUUUUUUUCK" when facing things like this, but tough shit. If you want people to use your site, you don't get to choose which user-agents they're going to bring.
posted by ardgedee at 3:40 PM on July 4, 2018 [3 favorites]
Uh no. That's not "sites", that's "browsers". An URL over 2KB will be truncated on IE and Edge, so you can't copy and paste it. Urls over 4KB will break in all Microsoft browsers and possibly Android browsers.
Developers tend to go "uh huh, sure but those browsers SUUUUUUUCK" when facing things like this, but tough shit. If you want people to use your site, you don't get to choose which user-agents they're going to bring.
posted by ardgedee at 3:40 PM on July 4, 2018 [3 favorites]
qr code for 2000 digits of pi and link thanks Eve Andersson
posted by otherchaz at 3:51 PM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by otherchaz at 3:51 PM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
I liked it better before I read that.
Yeah, why isn't it just done server-side?
posted by kenko at 4:38 PM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
Yeah, why isn't it just done server-side?
posted by kenko at 4:38 PM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
Does malware get detected using this approach?
posted by Brian B. at 4:47 PM on July 4, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by Brian B. at 4:47 PM on July 4, 2018 [3 favorites]
1700 character URL for a (visible) 400 character web page and a pretty huge blob of obfuscated and compressed javascript.
posted by sammyo at 5:06 PM on July 4, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by sammyo at 5:06 PM on July 4, 2018 [3 favorites]
Yeah, why isn't it just done server-side?
because then the server would know the content of the pages. This way only the people who have the link have the content. In theory, it is better for privacy, if you trust the code that is being run.
posted by bonaldi at 5:23 PM on July 4, 2018 [2 favorites]
because then the server would know the content of the pages. This way only the people who have the link have the content. In theory, it is better for privacy, if you trust the code that is being run.
posted by bonaldi at 5:23 PM on July 4, 2018 [2 favorites]
Was going to show how to do this without a server via a data: url, but it seems firefox has blocked them, and metafilter's editor also filters them out.
posted by joeyh at 5:26 PM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by joeyh at 5:26 PM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
because then the server would know the content of the pages. This way only the people who have the link have the content.
So yes, in principle the fragment part of the URL is not sent to the server. However, unless you actually audit the JS on the page yourself every time you visit (because of course it could change the JS it serves), there's no guarantee that the JS isn't sending the decompressed page content back to the server. So I think the privacy advantage is dubious, at best.
posted by Pyry at 5:31 PM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
So yes, in principle the fragment part of the URL is not sent to the server. However, unless you actually audit the JS on the page yourself every time you visit (because of course it could change the JS it serves), there's no guarantee that the JS isn't sending the decompressed page content back to the server. So I think the privacy advantage is dubious, at best.
posted by Pyry at 5:31 PM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
Self-hosting something like this would be the only way to guarantee privacy.
posted by eustacescrubb at 6:35 PM on July 4, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by eustacescrubb at 6:35 PM on July 4, 2018 [2 favorites]
Who cares about privacy, it's cute and fun! Now instead of linking to reaction gifs, I can post links to my custom ASCII snarks without having to host anything or exert anything other than minimal effort.
So, win-win-win in my book :D
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:42 PM on July 4, 2018 [3 favorites]
So, win-win-win in my book :D
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:42 PM on July 4, 2018 [3 favorites]
Lol at everyone saying this should be implemented a different way. The entire point of this demo is that you can host a whole website in the anchor tag of the URL for a single static page. It's clever! Not even limited to static sites; with LocalStorage and the like you can do some pretty complex things.
posted by Nelson at 6:50 PM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Nelson at 6:50 PM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
Really cool idea, but soon my paranoia will kick in and these will rate with url shorteners in the Do not click category.
posted by calamari kid at 6:51 PM on July 4, 2018
posted by calamari kid at 6:51 PM on July 4, 2018
cichlid ceilidh: neat
Flagged as does not work, and possible identity theft. I tried to post a comment, but it didn't work. Also, I was apparently logged in as someone named "cichlid ceilidh."
posted by filthy light thief at 7:28 PM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
Flagged as does not work, and possible identity theft. I tried to post a comment, but it didn't work. Also, I was apparently logged in as someone named "cichlid ceilidh."
posted by filthy light thief at 7:28 PM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
This seems like a logical extension of online REPLs that update the URL as you type code into a textbox. Some examples:
Ramda: Ramda's REPL is pretty simplistic, as it doesn't compress the text you input before writing it to the URL.
Partial Lenses / Calmm.js: The Partial Lenses Playground (I had a little input into how this was implemented) is slightly more sophisticated, compressing the text before writing it to the URL (itty.bitty.site uses compression, as well, to increase the amount of content you can fit into a finite space).
flems.io: This one is more advanced. It uses compression, allows you to import scripts from the web and has separate text areas for entering HTML, JavaScript and CSS.
All three of the REPL links require JavaScript and may not work well on some mobile devices.
posted by syzygy at 12:54 AM on July 5, 2018
Ramda: Ramda's REPL is pretty simplistic, as it doesn't compress the text you input before writing it to the URL.
Partial Lenses / Calmm.js: The Partial Lenses Playground (I had a little input into how this was implemented) is slightly more sophisticated, compressing the text before writing it to the URL (itty.bitty.site uses compression, as well, to increase the amount of content you can fit into a finite space).
flems.io: This one is more advanced. It uses compression, allows you to import scripts from the web and has separate text areas for entering HTML, JavaScript and CSS.
All three of the REPL links require JavaScript and may not work well on some mobile devices.
posted by syzygy at 12:54 AM on July 5, 2018
Yeah, aside from the example in the main link all the user ones are broken for me. Cool idea in theory but seems to suck in execution.
posted by Meatbomb at 4:15 AM on July 5, 2018
posted by Meatbomb at 4:15 AM on July 5, 2018
This could be a good way of sharing static 'art' websites without having to pay for hosting or upkeep. Just upload to Imgur for your pictures. Seems pretty great for web beginners. You'll never have to worry about maintaining it, and it will be online as long as itty.bitty.site and Imgur are up.
Here's a little collage I created, based on Paud's Pins, which I found out about through this FPP. I wonder how long it'll function.
posted by Nossidge at 12:49 PM on July 5, 2018 [4 favorites]
Here's a little collage I created, based on Paud's Pins, which I found out about through this FPP. I wonder how long it'll function.
posted by Nossidge at 12:49 PM on July 5, 2018 [4 favorites]
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posted by cichlid ceilidh at 3:02 PM on July 4, 2018 [17 favorites]