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Subject: File extensions are ugly

Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.

I know who you are.

You are Destiny.

As of late, I've been noticing a growing trend that many websites over the Internet are doing: removing file extensions. Not only does the inclusion of file extensions bulk up the length of the URL, but they're also not as very attractive. See the difference:

With extension:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=3
Without extension:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/topics?forumID=3

Now, of course this is purely my opinion, but I would like to see the next iteration of Bungie.net eliminate file extensions indefinitely. We'll see how this turns out.

Thoughts?

  • 08.09.2012 7:25 PM PDT

Spread the love...

I agree. The links look a lot nicer without the extensions.

[Edited on 08.09.2012 7:29 PM PDT]

  • 08.09.2012 7:27 PM PDT

"No, Hoobla. No."
~DeeJ


Posted by: HOOBLA 911
I agree. They look a lot nicer without the extensions.

Posted by: DeeJ
No, Hoobla. No.


OT: I agree.

  • 08.09.2012 7:28 PM PDT
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  • Exalted Legendary Member

Exalted Unexplainable Member

I don't really care, either way. But I guess every little thing helps.

  • 08.09.2012 7:28 PM PDT

I ♥ Bungie!

I know, I really don't see the point in them.

  • 08.09.2012 7:28 PM PDT

URL routing isn't really a trend. It's been around for a while.

  • 08.09.2012 7:54 PM PDT

Like the idea and I hope it gets implemented, but i won't cry if it doesn't make it.

  • 08.09.2012 8:06 PM PDT

Join Mythic Photographers We are amazing at taking screenshots.

"I'm toight like a toiger "
-Urk

The Great Pretenders choice of Internet tabs and themes.

Don't really ever go to places using the url, I just navigate. So it wouldn't be a huge deal for me.

  • 08.09.2012 8:26 PM PDT

Posted by: xianoa
how happy is a midget likely to be once you start melting cheese on them?


(O : o)=GTI=W====(o : O)

The issue is so miniscule I doubt it would get attention. Especially since 99% of people just use the nav tabs.


  • 08.09.2012 8:46 PM PDT

Posted by: camo m0nkey
Don't really ever go to places using the url, I just navigate. So it wouldn't be a huge deal for me.


I do this as well, but I'm still for removing the extensions. On rare occasion I will type the forum ID number into the URL if I'm on a different one (for example going from =3 to =10, Community to Flood forum).

What do file extensions do in URLs anyways? If you can remove them, do they have any purpose?

  • 08.09.2012 8:57 PM PDT

Subject: If you saw a meteor coming toward Earth, what would you do?Posted by: juniorbandit96
Butter my ass, turn around, spread open my butt cheeks, and say "Right here mutha-blam!-a!!"

Join Planetary Annihilation and Speed Haven

Does it matter that much? Unless you type in the URL every time, it shouldn't be an issue.

  • 08.09.2012 9:19 PM PDT

He's right on top of us! I wonder if he is using the same wind we are using...

Ockeghem
Missa Prolationum


Posted by: catman6
Does it matter that much? Unless you type in the URL every time, it shouldn't be an issue.


Please...

everyone knows that websites are judged PURELY by the attractiveness of their URL. And nothing else.

  • 08.09.2012 10:26 PM PDT

Rain, and Jazz.
Halo: Tactical

I'm either a fool or an inteligent man, depending on how sleepy or angry I am.

I originaly made an account on 07.27.2007 but I wanted to link my GT and made this account. Don't forget your passwords!


Posted by: acnboy34
As of late, I've been noticing a growing trend that many websites over the Internet are doing: removing file extensions. Not only does the inclusion of file extensions bulk up the length of the URL, but they're also not as very attractive. See the difference:

With extension:
[*url]http://www.bungie.net/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=3[/url ]
Without extension:
[*url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=3]http ://www.bungie.net/Forums/topics?forumID=3[/url]

Now, of course this is purely my opinion, but I would like to see the next iteration of Bungie.net eliminate file extensions indefinitely. We'll see how this turns out.

Thoughts?


For a minute I thought you were pulling a fast one becasue I checked the link destination. http://www.bungie.net/Forums/topics?forumID=3
I mistakenly thought you were talking about the current one and were badly trying to grief links.

Anyway I don't care all that much becasue I can type out both easily. It would have a much bigger impact when every single character counted, but due to the 10,000 limit we have here it does not come up. When sharing a link to the site though, I suppose it might.

  • 08.09.2012 10:52 PM PDT

Please stop complaining about the 'death of a loved one' it's my job. They probably deserved it anyways. Here's a warning, if you keep making pentagrams out of the neighbors livestock I will personally come to your house and kill everyone you love. Now leave me alone, I got to get back to work.
~M.D~

Good idea. I like it.

  • 08.09.2012 11:07 PM PDT

Gamertag: regime change
Steam name should be something similar

I never pay attention to URL's being bothersome unless it's really that long.

I don't know if it's worth the effort to change it.

  • 08.09.2012 11:15 PM PDT

Posted by: LordOfBlah51
What do file extensions do in URLs anyways? If you can remove them, do they have any purpose?
Technically nothing since it's just a line of text, but it depends on how the server decides to interpret it.

For most web servers, the default action is to map the URL* to the file system from a special directory created for the requested host. In Apache, this is the "htdocs" folder by default, and, IIRC, is the www folder for IIS. When this mapping occurs, the URL is checked against the file system path. For instance, if the URL was "/test/somefile.html", you could assume there may be a directory in the root directory named "test" and within that there may be file named "somefile.html".

So from that perspective, the file extension in the URL does nothing functional, but just attempts to be matched against a file in a directory that really does exist with that path, name, and extension.

However, because they do nothing functional (except for any parameters, but that's a different story), they can be manipulated and mapped to different internal directories on the server. So a URL like "/games/halo" (which is what you would see) could potentially be mapped internally to another file like "/gamepages/halo.html". They could even be mapped outside of the root folder (which becomes a security issue).

Without knowledge of this, it's possible to reach a false conclusion about what software the server uses too. For example, on just about every bungie.net page, the URL is usually pointing to a file with a ".aspx" extension. By seeing these, you could come to the conclusion that bungie.net uses ASP.NET (because .aspx is the extension used by ASP.NET web forms). But then, if you look at a website like http://mobile.bungie.co/ which also ".aspx" in the URL, you could reach the same conclusion, even though it doesn't use ASP.NET at all. It's tricking you.

So in that sense, it's pretty much impossible to know what's actually happening on the server-side. It could also be impersonating another server type altogether...

It's a complicated world.


*This is a regular URL minus the protocol, host, and the hash and anything past it (if it exists). For instance, a URL like "http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=74080344 &viewreplies=true#end" gets sent as "/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=74080344&viewreplies=true " in the request line. The http portion disappears and gets mapped to port 80 (well-known port for HTTP), the host gets removed and put in the host header (this is also how multiple domains can exist on the same address), and the hash fragment is only relevant to the client-side.

  • 08.10.2012 2:17 AM PDT

"No, Hoobla. No."
~DeeJ


Posted by: dazarobbo
Posted by: LordOfBlah51
What do file extensions do in URLs anyways? If you can remove them, do they have any purpose?
Technically nothing since it's just a line of text, but it depends on how the server decides to interpret it.

For most web servers, the default action is to map the URL* to the file system from a special directory created for the requested host. In Apache, this is the "htdocs" folder by default, and, IIRC, is the www folder for IIS. When this mapping occurs, the URL is checked against the file system path. For instance, if the URL was "/test/somefile.html", you could assume there may be a directory in the root directory named "test" and within that there may be file named "somefile.html".

So from that perspective, the file extension in the URL does nothing functional, but just attempts to be matched against a file in a directory that really does exist with that path, name, and extension.

However, because they do nothing functional (except for any parameters, but that's a different story), they can be manipulated and mapped to different internal directories on the server. So a URL like "/games/halo" (which is what you would see) could potentially be mapped internally to another file like "/gamepages/halo.html". They could even be mapped outside of the root folder (which becomes a security issue).

Without knowledge of this, it's possible to reach a false conclusion about what software the server uses too. For example, on just about every bungie.net page, the URL is usually pointing to a file with a ".aspx" extension. By seeing these, you could come to the conclusion that bungie.net uses ASP.NET (because .aspx is the extension used by ASP.NET web forms). But then, if you look at a website like http://mobile.bungie.co/ which also ".aspx" in the URL, you could reach the same conclusion, even though it doesn't use ASP.NET at all. It's tricking you.

So in that sense, it's pretty much impossible to know what's actually happening on the server-side. It could also be impersonating another server type altogether...

It's a complicated world.


*This is a regular URL minus the protocol, host, and the hash and anything past it (if it exists). For instance, a URL like "http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=74080344 &viewreplies=true#end" gets sent as "/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=74080344&viewreplies=true " in the request line. The http portion disappears and gets mapped to port 80 (well-known port for HTTP), the host gets removed and put in the host header (this is also how multiple domains can exist on the same address), and the hash fragment is only relevant to the client-side.
Well I learned something today!

  • 08.10.2012 2:24 AM PDT
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  • Veteran Legendary Member
  • gamertag: jyrine
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I was the first Spartan. And I will be the last. Mythic on 9/1/2012 never forget
PAX 08, Third Team against Luke and Shishka, AR dual to
the Death, won by one point... Assembly hasn't changed.

urk: "This is a bad idea."
DeeJ: "Hold still..."


Posted by: dazarobbo

He will learn you some interwebz 1337 speak knowledge quicker then you can say URL extension.

  • 08.10.2012 2:39 AM PDT
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  • Exalted Legendary Member

Posted by: acnboy34
With extension:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=3
Without extension:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/topics?forumID=3


Why stop there? Why not:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/Community/Topics

  • 08.10.2012 9:21 AM PDT
  • gamertag: [none]
  • user homepage:

Destinypedia - The Wiki for Bungie's Destiny
Posted by: DEATHPIMP72
Anyone but Foman. He smells like cheese.

Holy balls! Thank you for finally saying this!

If I see one more file extension I might PUKE. Or RAGE! In fact, I'm going to break a table with my head right now!

Just kidding :-)

[Edited on 08.10.2012 10:37 AM PDT]

  • 08.10.2012 10:35 AM PDT

Twitter | Nothing

I spend very little time looking at URLs anyway and file extensions are the least annyoing thing I can think of at the moment so I don't think this needs to be changed all that much.

  • 08.10.2012 10:38 AM PDT

"There's daggers in men's smiles." - Donalbain, Macbeth, Act II, scene iii

Posted by: CAVX
Posted by: acnboy34
With extension:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=3
Without extension:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/topics?forumID=3


Why stop there? Why not:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/Community/Topics


We must go deeper.

With some reworking of the HTML, the urls could easily be shortened to:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/Community/
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/Offtopic/
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/Destiny/
etc.

Then, imagine how easy it would be to link individual threads or posts.

http://www.bungie.net/Forums/Community/topic=7, for instance.

[Edited on 08.10.2012 10:42 AM PDT]

  • 08.10.2012 10:41 AM PDT

*´¨)---––•(-• Dutchy •-)•–--–-(¨´*
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)••(¨*•.¸ (¨´*•.¸´•.¸
(¸.•´ (¸.•Everything fails•.¸) ´•.¸)

What's wrong with a slightly longer URL? Unless you manually type URLs each time there's nothing wrong with it. And since when are URLs attractive? Unless the URL was coincidentally a line from 50 Shades of Gray, you shouldn't be getting excited from the "attractiveness" of a URL.

  • 08.10.2012 10:45 AM PDT

Swag punks, fu­­ck off!


Posted by: ODSTFADE
I know, I really don't see the point in them.
I agree.

  • 08.10.2012 10:53 AM PDT

No, ExcessiveFaun6 is not my real gamertag.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cortana: The message just repeats. "Regret, Regret, Regret."
Miranda: Any idea what it means?
Sgt. Johnson: Dear Humanity... we regret being alien bastards. We regret coming to Earth. And we most definitely regret that the Corps just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet!
Marines: Hoo-rah!

From a programmer's point of view, I hate the removal of file extensions.

Any attempt to obfuscate and therefore limit my carnal knowledge of your website is an act of war.

  • 08.10.2012 10:56 AM PDT

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