[thelist] long urls in email

[Bruce Heerssen]

noah wrote:

> I've written a simple mailing list program. The subscription / 
> unsubscription process involves users getting emails like this:
> 
> **********
> To confirm your subscription please visit:
> 
> http://www.domain.com/newsletter/index.php?type=subscribe&execute=true&action=finalconfirmation&id=473&key=1977645638 
> 
> 
> **********
> 
> I'm concerned about the link wrapping.
> 
> I read somewhere that surrounding the link in "<" and ">" will keep it 
> from wrapping (or at least, even if it appears to wrap, clicking on it 
> will transfer the entire url to the browser).
> 
> Google isn't helping me to confirm this. I presume that different email 
> clients handle this differently.

Yes that is correct. Some don't handle that at all. I suggest shortening your urls.

For instance, instead of "type=subscribe", why can't you use "t=s" instead? You could cut out a lot of characters that way. Perhaps you could do without some of those variables altogether. You could also place the file in the root level of your server, or redirect to it via virtual directory.

You may find some useful tips here:

http://www.evolt.org/article/comment/17/15049/

The article is geared toward optimizing urls for search engines, but some of it's tips could be used for your purposes.


HTH,

Bruce