I launched a few URL shortening sites that ended up being abused by spammers and this got me into trouble with my web host. I am new to this sort of site so could those NPers who have experience with running URL shortening sites give me some tips as to how to ensure that my sites don't get abused by spammers?
Also do you provide contact info so that people who have complaints about your site can reach you?
Use a captcha and limit creation of the shortened url's to 1 per ip per hour or something like that. That will generally make spammers go somewhere else, it's just too much hassle for them.
well I have not had a problem yet, I run a LongerURL™ service.. not too many spammers use that
you really should try like captcha and or a human question.. like "what is 5x9" or what ever.. and make it different every time someone refreshes the page.. might slow it down
Thanks for tips everyone. I have one idea myself. As you may know tinyurl has this preview feature for those wanting to know what site they'll end up on. I am going to make it so that my script would automatically force preview for links that get a high rate of traffic. This should both increase my site's page views and deter spammers.
works a treat
