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Kevin Russell

@feditips

fedhow do I block friendica? Friendica allows markup to hide urls, one of the most basic of online safty layers.

Not just an instance, but the branch friendica

@feditips

Allowing third parties to offer hidden urls to Mastodonians is a great crime. I can't be more clear.

@kevinrns

Umm... I'm not sure there is a way to block an entire type of server software.

By the way, do you mean there's a link behind a piece of text? The URL would still be visible if you hover though?

@feditips no hover on devices, and yes, its text, blue as a link, author says yes he can do it

@kevinrns

That's a very common link type on the internet though? Pretty much all links are like that.

You should be able to long-press on a link to see more details if you're on a touchscreen.

@feditips

This is full out, flat out, nonsense.

"Phishing Attacks: The #1 Reason We Say “Don’t Click Links” "

2018 marked the first year since phishing statistics were recorded that compromised accounts had a higher occurrence rate than malware infections. Malware infections generally occur when you download a file or click a link that’s infected. They can also come from a vulnerability in your network that isn’t related to a specific email message.
safetynet-inc.com/resources/bl

Safety NetPhishing Attacks: The #1 Reason We Say "Don't Click Links" - Safety NetPhishing happens. The easiest way to protect yourself from falling victim to a phishing attack is to avoid clicking links. Just don't do it.

@kevinrns

I might be missing something?

Can you explain the difference for me between these links and the ordinary links you see on most websites?

@kevinrns

I understand that, but there are already ways to see what a link's true URL is by hovering or long-pressing?

@feditips

Just like emails, the top and preferred method of ransomeware

@feditips @kevinrns The only difference is, that these links hide the millions of trackers put in a regular link. So, it makes it shorter. I don't see the problem, either. I don't understand this guy, honestly. I think whatever this person is trying to do, is to say that mastodon, friendica fedi etc the whole is unsafe. But then again, such extremism is funny, because the internet isn't safe, meta puts millions of trackers, to track you and steal your data, which a lot of people don't care about, it seems. I am sorry if this is coming out as rude, but as someone who's tried the tactic before and have stopped, I see exactly what the problem is here.
@feditips @kevinrns I gave the first example that gives trackers, but twitter does it too, and that, very obviously, nice analitics, by the way. The whole url is full of nonsense when you click on something like that from a close-sourced social media.

@feditips

I will be warning that Mastodon and friendica are ruining our safety.

On top of "what harm could the assholes who put trump in office with Cambridge Analytica do" on Meta, and starts looking like another step on the way to a real social media system.

And Not the destination.

@kevinrns

I'm sorry, I would love to help but I don't understand what the problem is?

Surely all websites and web links are using this same format?

@feditips

Phishing can be looked up, security professionals could be contacted, research is certainly needed. Automatically exposing any hidden urls in the text of the post, is a helpful protocol.

Doesnt wordpress do that in comments?

@kevinrns @feditips
Depends on if you're talking about blocking that branch for a whole server, or just for yourself.

If just yourself, use GreaseMonkey /TamperMonkey plugins to remove the links that have a missing or blank attribute.

Server side, it's more complicated. You would need to either block file names, or blacklist known freindica sites (set hosts file to 0.0.0.0 for that site name), or parse/filter any included content (but that gets CPU intensive / expensive).

@frith01 @feditips

Remove friendica from the API to mastodon. Exile, not block. Defenistrated, gone, outside.

@feditips @kevinrns That seems more than a bit OTT.

why don't you just use an app that doesn't hide the URL? no-one is forcing anyone to use the friendica web interface...

@spyro @feditips @kevinrns I think he means that if someone on Friendica sees content propagated from another instance it may hide the Url for them so isn't satisfied with fixing only his experience. I don't know if that actually is the case re. Friendica.

@kevinrns hello, I use Friendica. What do you mean by "hide URL"? Friendica can format the display of URLs, but this is a normal function on the Internet, every website does it. Or am I misunderstanding you?

I can format the link like this:
Here is the link to the [url=https://mstdn.social/@kevinrns/110664420029871643]post[/url]

And this is how the output will look like:
Here is the link to the post.

(Since I use Friendca, I don't know exactly how my comment is displayed on Mastodon.)

@feditips

@montag @feditips

On emails, websites I have no reason to trust i click no links.

What protection prevents any hidden link on social media publishing to be malware?

Letting randos hide the url is a crime.

It reduces the safety of mastodon to "trusting randos"

It is a huge degrading of Mastodon.

I more than hope this gets a response.

@kevinrns I still don't know exactly what the problem is. Since the internet exists, links are formatted this way, also by Mastodon. Every hashtag, every profile name is a formatted link. Have a look at this post:

friendica.xyz/display/4c926222…

@feditips

friendica.xyzKevin Russell@feditips fedhow do I block freindica? Freindica allows markup to hide urls, one of the most basic of online safty layers. Not just an instance, but the br...

@feditips @kevinrns @montag Well, good luck convincing the authors of activitypub software to add a feature that just cuts off huge swathes of the network.

Off you pop.

*plonk*

@montag @feditips @kevinrns
Isn't this just bbcode, which is used in webforums since forever?
I think I can use this too, not a friendica user here: #post

@django @montag @feditips

Do not click any link on Mastodon, like you don't click links in email.

@django @montag @feditips

Can you add a hashtag inside the link html on your branch? So the result looks like a hashtag link? ?

@kevinrns @montag @feditips
CC: @Gargron

Seems like it, i just updated my post.
Note: Friendica and most of the other fediverse software, which are not Mastodon, are not "branches" of Mastodon, as they do not share a common ancestry. They are just other kinds of software who support activitypub, the protocol which these servers use to communicate between each other.

For the anchor element in HTML it is recommended, that the text *should* indicate the target location, but is not mandatory.
Your client software could of course strip the link text i provided and replace it with the target location. If this is what you prefer, you could file a issue on the issue tracker of mastodon.
Please note, that bare urls (which is, what you prefer) are a nuisance for users of screen readers and thus reduce the accessibility, as is highlighted in another issue:
This is actually an accessibility issue. Blind people often request a list of links text on the page. If all they get are URLs, they won't be able to tell what following the URL is going to give them. Further, visible URLs may be read strangely by a screen reader.
Maybe your idea could be an additional feature, which users could enable/disable in their client.

As others have already explained before me: you can check the url, to which a hyperlink leads you, which could be used to make an informed decision, instead of the strange idea of "not clicking links". The web is full of hyperlinks, every website owner can write whatever text the want inside of the anchor tag. The foremost recommendation should be: update your browser regularly.
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@kevinrns @feditips I just saw such a post. And did not like it ...