Mark Shewmaker wrote:
Is there any advantage in using a redirecting url such as
http://purl.net/net/spf over temporarily redirecting another
name outside of the perl.net system, such as using
http://really-cool-spf-site-name.com/ ?
purl.net exists for almost a decade and it's sponsored by the
OCLC (online computer library c.* IIRC). They support to have
more than one "maintainer" (= person allowed to change a PURL).
They also support bulk updates, but that's irrelevant in this
case. And they have a "PURL validator", but for one PURL that
is also irrelevant, because it's just another link checker.
They won't try stupid stuff like forcing ads on users. One of
the make-a-shorter-link-sites (go.to ?) tried this stunt IIRC.
They allow simple redirections (one PURL to one URL), and they
also allow "partial redirections" like purl.net/net/msgid/xxx
to groups.google.de/groups?selm=xxx for any xxx. In the case
of purl.net/net/spf I've not yet defined a "partial redirect",
because I don't know what and how why.html expects parameters.
(I could test it, but my browser doesn't grok the pobox pages)
The most important thing for a PURL is to have more than only
one maintainer, PURLs are supposed to work when we're all long
dead.
Bye, Frank