subscriber links suggestion

[kgraeme]

Ever since the subscription accounts went into place, I've noticed that a lot of the links in threads are to the subscription URL. I'd like to suggest that the postaction page do a grep replace on insert when someone makes a post to swap the "subscriptions" for "forums" in the links.

 

[Rainguy]

Wouldn't it be easier if you all just subscribed???

 

[Russ]

It already does that for subscribers when a freeloader posts a link.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Hossenfeffer]

I "think" someone had a makeshift fix for this a while back, but I'm not sure.

I'd be all for it, except the extra load it puts on the servers. If there are any perks, logically they would go to the subscribers.

 

[BigFatCow]

its good for making money though, you click on a link a subscriber made and it goes to the page to sign up for a subscriber account (i think) so after a while you get pissed at changing subscriber to forums and subscribe, Anand gets $30.

 

[Scootin159]

Couldn't they just make it switch to forums.anandtech.com like how it works the other way?

 

[Evadman]

<< Couldn't they just make it switch to forums.anandtech.com like how it works the other way? >>



Subscribers have a cookie that sets all data to Subscribers.anandtech.com. Not too sure if it would work the other way, as that would leave a rather large security hole open for peeps who want to get free speed.

 

[jfunk]

Heh, I intentionally make all my links to the subscriber version just for this purpose.




j

 

[rbV5]

<< It already does that for subscribers when a freeloader posts a link >>



Nice, so if we are not subscribers we are freeloaders?

 

[Mitzi]

<< Nice, so if we are not subscribers we are freeloaders? >>



Yes, but its fun being a freeloader

 

[kgraeme]

<< It already does that for subscribers when a freeloader posts a link.

Russ, NCNE >>



Actually, my suggestion was slightly different I think, and it's complementary. I'm going to guess that for subscribers, the link is changed on the fly as the post is pulled from the database. This puts a little extra load on the server, but since the subscribers have their own box and there are relatively few subscribers, I can see the overhead being acceptable.

My suggestion is to change the links as the post is submitted to the database, thus it's a one-time change. It would effectively be a "physical" change to the data, and the processing overhead would be significantly lower.

To accomodate the subscribers wanting subscriber links, the dynamic replacement of "forums.anandtech.com" with subscribers.anandtech.com" can still happen as it apparently does now.

 

[Jason Clark]

Actually, we don't do a replace on anything as that is what I like to call a server killer when done in real time. What we do is something different that has no effect on server performance. We won't be making any changes to this, if people post a link to subscribers.anandtech.com there isn't anything we can do about it. Sorry

 

[kgraeme]

Thanks Zuni. I had originally guessed that you didn't have any dynamic replacement going on for the very reason you mentioned. Russ, et al., mislead me on that. My original suggestion was just on the insert, not dynamically on every output.

May I ask what you are doing that you alluded to? Some form of trigger in the db? I do CF dev, so I'm just curious.

Another variation that might work for the replace on insert is instead of swapping forums for subscribers, just remove the fully delared url part of the link and make it root relative. Obviously that would only be for the anandtech.com links, but I'd guess that the structures of the two servers are identical, so root relative would work on either one and keep people on their own servers.

Just throwing out ideas here.

 

[Scootin159]

<< Thanks Zuni. I had originally guessed that you didn't have any dynamic replacement going on for the very reason you mentioned. Russ, et al., mislead me on that. My original suggestion was just on the insert, not dynamically on every output.

May I ask what you are doing that you alluded to? Some form of trigger in the db? I do CF dev, so I'm just curious.

Another variation that might work for the replace on insert is instead of swapping forums for subscribers, just remove the fully delared url part of the link and make it root relative. Obviously that would only be for the anandtech.com links, but I'd guess that the structures of the two servers are identical, so root relative would work on either one and keep people on their own servers.

Just throwing out ideas here. >>



My guess is that he is keeping it a seceret because it could become a security flaw if made public (i.e. the cookie idea).