The daft bit at the top

August 8, 2008 3:19 PM

Hello - is there no way to link to sites on our profiles or am I just not clever enough ?

Is it stopped now ? was there a reason for not letting people link to sites on their profiles or is it just a case of me not knowing any html whatsoever ?

Anyway, you're all looking wonderful this evening.

posted by sgt.serenity to bugs at 3:19 PM (21 comments total)

I think this is a case of daftness, yes, but it's probably curable.

If you want to throw a link into your profile (looks like you managed to make a blank one, so you're halfway there), it should look like this:

<a href="http://website.tld/whateverthefuck">link text is awesome</a>

Which would yield:

link text is awesome.

You probably ended up with an empty string between your quotes, judging by the current state of your page.
posted by cortex at 3:23 PM on August 8, 2008

Examine my userpage for a ridiculously overloaded example of this in action. "View Source" is a good way to ferret out any remaining secrets, just be sure to scroll past all the mefi header code stuff.

Looks like you already figured out the top-of-profile "(website)" link, so I'm guessing you're good to go on that front.
posted by cortex at 3:25 PM on August 8, 2008

was there a reason for not letting people link to sites on their profiles or is it just a case of me not knowing any html whatsoever ?

I think choice B. Paste this into your blurb and see if it works (I already tried on my profile and it did, but maybe the cabal is just targeting you):

<a href="http://www.google.com">test for sgt. serenity</a>
posted by juv3nal at 3:25 PM on August 8, 2008

grrr. jinx on you cortex.
posted by juv3nal at 3:26 PM on August 8, 2008

ok i will try this after i have a wee sleep in order to rest my brain for its gruelling forthcoming html ordeal - thanks for the help : )
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:26 PM on August 8, 2008

cortex, you moron. that site doesn't load for me.
posted by quonsar at 9:16 PM on August 8, 2008

Probably a DNS issue, q. Works fine for me with OpenDNS (I get a helpful search page about websites).
posted by flabdablet at 10:05 PM on August 8, 2008

flabadablet: I can't tell if you're an idiot or if you're just jerking our chain

cortex's link points to a non-existent top-level domain. By default, OpenDNS takes how DNS is supposed to work and punches it in the dick — If you query for a non-existent domain, instead of telling you that it points you to a server full of web advertisements.

Your DNS is broken, not quonsar's.
posted by blasdelf at 12:38 AM on August 9, 2008

If you're so smart, maybe you can explain how that link to a so-called "non-existent" domain gets me an error-free web page. Jerk.
posted by flabdablet at 1:39 AM on August 9, 2008

Because when your computer asked OpenDNS about where to find "domain.tld", instead of answering NXDOMAIN (RCODE=3), because there is no such domain, they lie.

Here's the answer you should get (10.0.0.1 is my personal DNS server):

$ nslookup domain.tldServer:		10.0.0.1Address:	10.0.0.1#53** server can't find domain.tld: NXDOMAIN

Here's what OpenDNS tells you (208.67.222.222 is one of their DNS servers):

$ nslookup domain.tldServer:		208.67.222.222Address:	208.67.222.222#53Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    domain.tld
Address: 208.67.216.132

The "non-authoritative answer" part means that the DNS server giving the response is not run by the people who own the domain name, it has nothing to do with the spoofing (it would also return a non-authoritative answer for google.com, etc.)

208.67.216.132 is an server run by OpenDNS that serves up advertisements and search results over HTTP. It looks at the full URL your web client is requesting, and redirects you to http://guide.opendns.com/?url=domain.tld. This is insanely problematic, not only because it means that software will never find out that a domain doesn't exist, but also because the internet is more than the web.

OpenDNS provides a way to disable this 'feature', but it works by adding your IP to a blacklist. If your IP is dynamic, or you use your laptop on new connections, etc. you'll have to re-disable it every time.

They brag about how their DNS is faster than Comcast's, but so is everyone else's. Verizon & Level3 run equivalently fast public DNS at [4.2.2.1, 4.2.2.2, 4.2.2.3]

OpenDNS is not 'open' in any sense, nor is it standards-compliant DNS. Fuck them and the PR they rode in on.
posted by blasdelf at 2:30 AM on August 9, 2008

AAAAAHH, it stole my <br>s!

Here's the answer you should get (10.0.0.1 is my personal DNS server):

$ nslookup domain.tldServer:		10.0.0.1Address:	10.0.0.1#53
** server can't find domain.tld: NXDOMAIN

Here's what OpenDNS tells you (208.67.222.222 is one of their DNS servers):

$ nslookup domain.tldServer:		208.67.222.222Address:	208.67.222.222#53
Non-authoritative answer:Name:    domain.tldAddress: 208.67.216.132

posted by blasdelf at 2:36 AM on August 9, 2008

Here's the answer you should get (10.0.0.1 is my personal DNS server):

$ nslookup domain.tld
Server:		10.0.0.1
Address:	10.0.0.1#53

** server can't find domain.tld: NXDOMAIN

Here's what OpenDNS tells you (208.67.222.222 is one of their DNS servers):

$ nslookup domain.tld
Server:		208.67.222.222
Address:	208.67.222.222#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    domain.tld
Address: 208.67.216.132

posted by blasdelf at 2:39 AM on August 9, 2008

Huh. Next you'll be trying to tell me that yhbt.hand.hth isn't a real domain either.
posted by flabdablet at 3:03 AM on August 9, 2008 [1 favorite]

When you troll that close to realistic ignorance, it's hard to distinguish between bait and honest stupidity.

And seriously, fuck OpenDNS.
posted by blasdelf at 3:12 AM on August 9, 2008

When you snap up an apparently obvious bait so eagerly, it's hard to resist working the hook in a little deeper :-)
posted by flabdablet at 3:51 AM on August 9, 2008

For what it's worth, I use OpenDNS because my ISP started using the same technique but their advertisement page was far more invasive and annoying. I always thought it was considered bad etiquette to use, say, Verizon's DNS servers as your primaries. Is this not in fact the case? I'd gladly use something besides OpenDNS.
posted by odinsdream at 6:38 AM on August 9, 2008

Public DNS servers
posted by flabdablet at 6:48 AM on August 9, 2008

I use the Level3 servers as my upstream almost always, but I hadn't realized that there were six of them, had only used the first three — thanks for the link. Super easy to memorize, what's not to like about 4.2.2.2?

The only time I've had lower upstream latency was with Washington State's K-20 fiber network, when my upstream DNS was colocated with GigaPOP's. Even then Level3's was more likely to have warm caches.
posted by blasdelf at 9:28 AM on August 9, 2008

flabdablet: That settles it then, I've just switched to Level3. Thanks!
posted by odinsdream at 12:07 PM on August 9, 2008

English, motherfucker! Do you speak it?
posted by friendlyjuan at 11:43 PM on August 9, 2008

*adds blasdelf to "low hanging fruit" list in case the desire to troll ever becomes impossible to resist*
posted by dg at 2:01 PM on August 10, 2008