Check out the URL

[Moderator1]

Got to love the Tennessean for not mincing words

Tennessee GOP leader: Round up Syrian refugees, remove from state

 

[playthrough]

That's sort of like the modern-day dummy copy. You think no one's ever going to see it, or that it could be changed in a flash and no one would ever know. Not so much.

I worked for a league website and we once had an iffy URL (not as bad as the above) that we needed to make disappear. Was a huge hassle that involved calls to our back-end guys, webhosts, etc. We were a lot more careful after that.

 

[SFIND]

That's sort of like the modern-day dummy copy. You think no one's ever going to see it, or that it could be changed in a flash and no one would ever know. Not so much.

I worked for a league website and we once had an iffy URL (not as bad as the above) that we needed to make disappear. Was a huge hassle that involved calls to our back-end guys, webhosts, etc. We were a lot more careful after that.

Really? For our site it's a simple as deleting the post.

 

[wicked]

It's an issue with Gannett's web platform, which is Presto. They also had the same issue with Saxotech.

Basically ... the URL can be tweaked by anyone. Whenever a web headline is changed, it spits out a new URL -- everything is the same except the web head. This allows stories to get some benefit from SEO by also including the current headline, at least that's how I understand it, while also allowing the old headline to drift back to that same story. What it means is the portion of the URL that contains the head can be changed to anything your heart desires, and still work.

I read somewhere that the Tennessean said someone -- a reader, not a staffer -- played with the URL and then sent it out on social media where it picked up steam.

 

[wicked]

Really? For our site it's a simple as deleting the post.

Do you use WordPress? Because that's their default, I think.

 

[SFIND]

Do you use WordPress? Because that's their default, I think.

Yes. And now that I think of it (as I'm sure you know), you can also change the url at anytime on the top of the post page, which I've done.

 

[PaperDoll]

It's an issue with Gannett's web platform, which is Presto. They also had the same issue with Saxotech.

Basically ... the URL can be tweaked by anyone. Whenever a web headline is changed, it spits out a new URL -- everything is the same except the web head. This allows stories to get some benefit from SEO by also including the current headline, at least that's how I understand it, while also allowing the old headline to drift back to that same story. What it means is the portion of the URL that contains the head can be changed to anything your heart desires, and still work.

I read somewhere that the Tennessean said someone -- a reader, not a staffer -- played with the URL and then sent it out on social media where it picked up steam.

That is no longer the case. Once a story is published, the URL stays as is. Before the story is live online, however, it's open season to anyone in-house who wants to fool with the file. The outside world can't change it... as far as I know.

 

[wicked]

I just did it five minutes ago, so I know it's still an issue.

 

[RickStain]

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2015/11/17/rickstainisthecoolest/75936660/

 

[Doc Holliday]

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2015/11/17/rickstainisthecoolest/75936660/

Dude that's awesome. You really are the coolest.

So what did the original URL say? Mine seems to be generic, so I'm thinking they changed it once they realized the error of their ways.

 

[HejiraHenry]

I look forward to the day when 1100 Broadway is burned to the ground. | Figuratively speaking, of course.

 

[Riptide]

Dude that's awesome. You really are the coolest.

So what did the original URL say? Mine seems to be generic, so I'm thinking they changed it once they realized the error of their ways.

It said this:

tennessean.com/ story/news/politics/2015/11/17/can-you-believe-this-asshole/75936660/

 

[Doc Holliday]

Holy smokes. That gets you fired at my shoppe. Wonder if there were any casualties here.

 

[wicked]

It said this:

tennessean.com/ story/news/politics/2015/11/17/can-you-believe-this-asshole/75936660/

It did not say that when it was published out. Someone sent it out like that on some other medium.

 

[Matt Stephens]

The URL ending is a field meant to improve SEO. What's actually there (put in by the author, usually) cannot be changed after publishing. That being said, anyone can replace that text with whatever they want (assuming what's inputted is a character that's URL-friendly) because what really matters is the asset ID (75936660). You can have two URL endings that are identical, filed to the same SSTS location on the same date and it not be an issue because the post will auto generate a unique asset ID.

 

[wicked]

And Matt explained it much more simply, and much better, than I could. Thank you.

 

[Ace]

The URL ending is a field meant to improve SEO. What's actually there (put in by the author, usually) cannot be changed after publishing. That being said, anyone can replace that text with whatever they want (assuming what's inputted is a character that's URL-friendly) because what really matters is the asset ID (75936660). You can have two URL endings that are identical, filed to the same SSTS location on the same date and it not be an issue because the post will auto generate a unique asset ID.

So if anyone should be fired it should be a Gannett IT person or corporate manager who allowes URLs to be tinkered with by John Q. Public so that they still work as links as long as they keep the important bits.

 

[reformedhack]

About 15 years ago, some fellow editors and I sat in a half-day seminar with corporate lawyers who explained that even a derogatory story slug -- an internal thing, something that the public probably would never see -- can be grounds for libel. I cannot even imagine how much exposure you'd have with URLs that can be seen around the world and/or manipulated.

This is a bad thing.

 

[playthrough]

Really? For our site it's a simple as deleting the post.

Not for my old shop, if you're talking completely erasing it off the interwebs. And of course that doesn't take into account someone else preserving it.

 

[Doc Holliday]

About 15 years ago, some fellow editors and I sat in a half-day seminar with corporate lawyers who explained that even a derogatory story slug -- an internal thing, something that the public probably would never see -- can be grounds for libel. I cannot even imagine how much exposure you'd have with URLs that can be seen around the world and/or manipulated.

This is a bad thing.

I'm totally derailing and hijacking this thread but I noticed your profile pic and had to say this: I remember standing in the rain at a pay phone some 30 years ago sending in one of my very first high school football gamers with one of those Radio Shacks.

Those were the good old days, when technology began with a funky line of code at the start of your story, followed by a bunch of buzzing, hiccups and blips through a coupler. Talk about stone-age fun.

OK, back to the thread now.