don't say I didn't warn you
(testing something)
I'm sure we all have a lot of unlove for the URLs that CSSposts (among other things) receive; things like "/post/1434178-h3-title-bobby" always feel a little awkward to IM to someone. It's by no means a high priority issue, but it does feel messy, and that weird text (the "slug") sure doesn't help someone predict what they're about to click on!
Bad news: I doubt this can ever be fully "fixed."
Good news: It doesn't need to be!
Background details:
The number in the URL is the actual ID of the post, and the text after it is called a "slug." It's automatically generated from the post contents. This is a very common feature of webapps that allow Posting (including e.g. wordpress) so it's something people have been working on for eons, and unfortunately, slug generation is a miserable, thorny problem.
They're basically a mid-2000s-style solution to hinting at the contents of a link before you click it, and if link previews worked reliably, we wouldn't need them at all. But they don't, so we do, and they're always going to be shitty.
I'm sure staff is using a very simple implementation right now; maybe they have plans to improve it, but any solution will have problems, because slugs are bad! There is no reasonable programmatic solution for, "figure out what part of this blob of code and text is the bit that someone wants in the URL" - it simply has to be done manually, or it will generate garbagey links sometimes.
There's an open request to add slug editing, but from my experience I'd guess that's a pretty expensive ask (adding a database column 🙁) and frankly - how many people are ever going to use it?
You whip off some shitposts - are you gonna check what the slug looks like? Even if you realize it's bad, do you really want to come up with a new one? That sucks! Ugh! Most posts probably never get linked anywhere; why spend the effort? It's just one more field to get intimidated and discouraged by.
It's maybe worth it on real effortposts, but let's be honest: this is only a problem for the person sending a link, not the person making the post, and thus, the person most interested in fixing the slug would rarely have permission to edit it!
Fortunately: as the person linking a post: you have control over the slug! Because slugs don't matter!
That's right! Cohost doesn't care what comes after the number! For instance, if I copy the link for my bobby hill csspost, it looks like this:
https://cohost.org/cathoderaydude/post/1434178-h3-title-bobby-hil
But try this: https://cohost.org/cathoderaydude/post/1434178-bobby
Or this: https://cohost.org/cathoderaydude/post/1434178-bee-movie
Yep! Those work too!
So: if you're sending someone a link to a post and it doesn't fit your tastes, feel free to edit that bastard! It (the slug) is free real estate!
And: It turns out that "-" is a valid slug. So: https://cohost.org/cathoderaydude/post/1434178-- works! That's a one-button fix! (thanks, @plumpan!)
Also: If you're making a post, and the post has no title, you can force a slug by putting an HTML comment at the beginning of the post body, like this: <!-- ohhh sluggy time -->
I have updated the bug report with a request to make it possible to send no slug at all, which I think would make this even better, since you could just lop off the end of the URL - https://cohost.org/cathoderaydude/post/1434178, done. That'd be a nice stopgap, but I ain't the guy who makes promises about someone else's work, so all I can say is I hope it's as easy a change as I think!
You fucked up bad. You fucked up really bad, and the king is personally coming to kill you.
He's ten feet tall, and eight feet wide
and it's said no edge can harm him
Woe be they who disturb his peace
For certain death befalls them.
The king feels not for man nor beast
His spirit's not within him.
He gave his soul to save his lands
From the things buried beneath them.
Powder roars, blades snicker-snack
But the king's sword sings Life Eternal
Its voice keens dozens of miles
Teaching fear to the infernal
His poison light burns children's eyes
Air splits apart around him
All places where the king sets foot
Are cursed for an age beyond him.
Should you impel our regent rise
Woe and weeping most befit you
For his quarry always falls,
And no afterlife awaits you.
You have ten minutes to prepare and start running. He's on foot; you'll need a horse just to match his pace. He knows where you are. Go now. Go NOW.
I've been writing little character bio pieces senses for my fursonas and I ended up writing a Stand for each one. Here they are:
Itzu's Stand is "the Alice's Restaurant Massacree" (Arlo Guthrie). It is a punch-ghost type stand with a range of 3 meters. It allows Itzu to shove objects, living and nonliving, through other objects with minimal damage. Imagine something between Space Trucking, Oasis, and Kiss. Itzu can use this Stand to escape situations, but if he misjudges the thickness of a wall, he's likely to simply smack into it at a full sprint. He can also use it to hide or steal objects he has an interest in.
Sura's Stand is OK GO (OK GO). It is an aura type stand, like Wonder of You, with an indeterminate range. OK GO causes meta-stable states to collapse spontaneously. Imagine a ball balancing on a cone-- it's temporarily stable, but even the slightest push will get it going. This is a meta-stable condition, and most things we use in our daily lives are full of meta-stable elements. Sura has no control over OK GO, but things tend to activate in her favor. OK GO is fickle and very rarely activates, but is more likely to do so in a crisis. Examples of OK GO activating are cars spontaneously starting, bookcases falling down, wooden beams snapping, and spontaneous combustion.
Warranty's Stand is Birdhouse in Your Soul (TMBG). It is an extremely close range armor-type stand, looking like the glowing golden pelt of a Protogen draped on Warranty's head, shoulders, back, and hips. On touch, it swaps a sense (taste, touch, smell, etc) between Warranty and whoever touched their Stand. Warranty has extremely sensitive senses and can use this stand to communicate what they're seeing or feeling even when it's incomprehensible to organic senses.
Garudina is a Stand.
But if she had a stand name it would be Straight Shooter.