35 replies

1. Tom Sherman 10 min later

   How would you solve it?

   Worth noting a link like this is not possible to create in bsky.app

   1. Keith J. Grant 15 min later

      This was solved in 1993 with the invention of the html hyperlink. That’s still how I’d solve it

      1. Tom Sherman 20 min later

         That was the introduction of the problem of <a href=evil.com>example.com</a>

         The solution is much more nuanced with many trade offs

   2. Zach Leatherman 27 min later

      should at least involve a risk profile of the URL before popping this.

2. Private reply 11 min later
   1. Private reply 13 min later
3. Private reply 11 min later
   1. the fool (cachinnatory) 6 hr later

      Why won’t you stay and play with us

      Forever

      And ever

      And ever

4. Nicholas C. Zakas 12 min later

   Totally agree. I think the ability to hyperlink any text in a post is a bug, not a feature, of Bluesky. Too easy to get people to click on things, thus we need a modal to explain where you're really going.

   1. Wes 26 min later

      Seems reasonable to keep that feature but also display the full URL in a less disruptive way. The web is *full* of linked text, so this is not "a bluesky problem" right?

      1. dan 4 hr later

         i think it's tricky, if 99.9% links in this context are completely predictable about where they're going, it can be easy to trust it too much. i don't think it's about being anti-web, just tricky design area unless they're completely forbidden

         1. dan 4 hr later

            this is the current logic, i think the warning only shows if the link text actually looks like a domain — to catch cases where it could be confusing. it doesn't activate for all external links afaik

            1. dan 4 hr later

               so if the link goes to foo.com but this function extracts bar.com from the text of the link, then it would show a warning. i don't think it would warn if it's just an external link with "bar" as text.

               1. xan 5 hr later

                  bar

                  1. xan 5 hr later

                     it's any link on text that isn't the same as the link. I used markdown syntax for that masked link on witchsky.app, but you can also see the prompt in action on that site with the Feedback and other right navbar links.

                     1. dan 5 hr later

                        hm okay but it doesn't seem like the intent of the code, according to the comment and the function name. is this just a bug? i guess bar is valid but why is it. browser wouldn't open it

                        1. dan 5 hr later

                           maybe worth digging into git blame

                           1. Private reply 20 hr later
                        2. dan 20 hr later

                           cc @samuel.fm do you know if this is working correctly?

                           1. Samuel 20 hr later

                              hmm saving this to look at next week. should probably show the warning

                  2. dan 5 hr later

                     hmm interesting, that's not how i thought the code works

   2. Private reply 21 hr later
5. sunil 6 hr later

   How about we replace "Leaving Bluesky" with "Abandoning Bluesky"?

6. Ducky 🦆 14 hr later

   I mean, this is to mitigate the usual hack of people doing this:

   google.com

   The modal only pops up if the domain in the hyperlink facet doesn't match the text its decorating. Its a fairly usual mitigation against such an attack, and I've seen it in a few other apps (Telegram springs to mind too)

   1. Luke 2 days later

      The mobile popup feels like a better UI, it at least explains it's because the link text is misleading.

      1. Zach Leatherman 2 days later

         for disclosure, here is the original post (which has a truncated link): bsky.app/profile/huma...

         1. Luke 2 days later

            Oh interesting, there's two types of modal one is "Leaving Bluesky" one is the misleading link one. I think a popup when the URL is mismatched is fair. I think more generic one is odd, maybe it's because it's truncated?

            1. Ducky 🦆 2 days later

               Yeah, it's because of the truncation. The code tries to find the domain in the text and see if it matches the domain in the link facet.

            2. Thomas Broyer 2 days later

               because humanwhocodes.co is a registrable domain on its own, so indeed the truncation makes the link misleading.

               And I suppose the truncation is due to github.com/humanwhocode..., so Bluesky likely is not to blame here.
               (can't check, github's having troubles 😅)

               1. Thomas Broyer 2 days later

                  And here it is: github.com/humanwhocode...

                  All links to humanwhocodes.com/%E2%80%A6 will be turned into humanwhocodes.co...

                  1. Zach Leatherman 2 days later

                     oh dang, nice sleuthing! the truncation happened upstream!

7. Daniel Feichtinger 14 hr later

   The go.bsky.app link shortener is also hostile, they need to get rid of it asap. Honestly, with the recent changes X is the better hyperlink handler which is a real shame.

8. Patrick Tehubijuluw 22 hr later

   You should be able to set the disclosure method.

9. Zach Leatherman 2 days later

   Follow up here: thankful to folks educating in the replies, I’ve learned that the hyperlink text *shown* on Bluesky (similar to Fedi, too) can differ from the target URL and this modal is only shown when they differ.

   (for even more nuance: the post I encountered was a truncated link 🫣)

   1. Zach Leatherman 2 days later

      Another follow up here: @tbroyer.ltgt.net found the offending truncation code and it is not on @bsky.app’s part here. I’m sorry folks — I was far too harsh in my original post!

      bsky.app/profile/tbro...