https://news.ycombinator.com/news

On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 10:47:35 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> https://news.ycombinator.com/news

I'm certain this is said every time you link to hackernews, but that front page link very quickly becomes stale for your intended purpose of illustrating what article is on top.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23005297

(Spoiler: It's another BetterC thing. Every time I see someone post news about BetterC, I wonder how much longer it'll take for the PAYG druntime thing to become reality)

On 4/28/2020 4:06 AM, Ethan wrote:
> On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 10:47:35 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>> https://news.ycombinator.com/news
> 
> I'm certain this is said every time you link to hackernews, but that front page link very quickly becomes stale for your intended purpose of illustrating what article is on top.
> 
> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23005297
> 
> (Spoiler: It's another BetterC thing. Every time I see someone post news about BetterC, I wonder how much longer it'll take for the PAYG druntime thing to become reality)

The reason for the non-specific link is your votes aren't counted if you access it with the specific one.

On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 11:43:28 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> The reason for the non-specific link is your votes aren't counted if you access it with the specific one.

We're an international community here. By the time a large amount of us click on the front page, it becomes a detective game to see what the article is. In fact, the article is already #3 on the page at the time this post was submitted.

This viewpoint also assumes the majority here will upvote the article. I don't have a HN account.

On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 11:43:28 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> The reason for the non-specific link is your votes aren't counted if you access it with the specific one.

How do you know that?

I mean this seems a bit awkward, because if you say is true, I'm pretty sure they would know this by setting something trough cookies, so if I access the direct link then go to main page and finally go back to the link it would work? This sound crazy!

Aren't you mistaken with Bandwagon Effect? Where clicks are computed only after sometime later?

Sasha.

On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 12:49:39 UTC, SashaGreat wrote:
> On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 11:43:28 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>> The reason for the non-specific link is your votes aren't counted if you access it with the specific one.
>
> How do you know that?
>
> I mean this seems a bit awkward, because if you say is true, I'm pretty sure they would know this by setting something trough cookies, so if I access the direct link then go to main page and finally go back to the link it would work? This sound crazy!

If they do it, they can just look if you came from the homepage because the browser sends where you came from (Referer header)

On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 12:52:54 UTC, WebFreak001 wrote:
> On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 12:49:39 UTC, SashaGreat wrote:
>> On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 11:43:28 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>>> The reason for the non-specific link is your votes aren't counted if you access it with the specific one.
>>
>> How do you know that?
>>
>> I mean this seems a bit awkward, because if you say is true, I'm pretty sure they would know this by setting something trough cookies, so if I access the direct link then go to main page and finally go back to the link it would work? This sound crazy!
>
> If they do it, they can just look if you came from the homepage because the browser sends where you came from (Referer header)

Will this work even if Not Tracking is enabled?

If it's the case then just refreshing or open the link in another page would clear the Referrer Header right?

S.

On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 12:58:15 UTC, SashaGreat wrote:
> On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 12:52:54 UTC, WebFreak001 wrote:
>> On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 12:49:39 UTC, SashaGreat wrote:
>>> On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 11:43:28 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>>>> The reason for the non-specific link is your votes aren't counted if you access it with the specific one.
>>>
>>> How do you know that?
>>>
>>> I mean this seems a bit awkward, because if you say is true, I'm pretty sure they would know this by setting something trough cookies, so if I access the direct link then go to main page and finally go back to the link it would work? This sound crazy!
>>
>> If they do it, they can just look if you came from the homepage because the browser sends where you came from (Referer header)
>
> Will this work even if Not Tracking is enabled?
>
> If it's the case then just refreshing or open the link in another page would clear the Referrer Header right?
>
> S.

Firefox 76 not tracking mode: The Referer header contains only the domain and not the complete URL.

You can disable the Referer header completely, but you probably shouldn't; Referer makes it possible to implement cookie-free csrf protection. At least sending the domain if you don't change the domain - is a good idea (so leave Referer empty if you are coming from another site, otherwise send the current domain or the complete URL).

Just refreshing the page, doesn't clear the Referer.

To make things more privacy-friendly the Origin header was introduced, which behaves similar to the Referer in "not tracking mode", but my Firefox doesn't seem to send it (not sure if the defaults are different nowadays).

On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 13:35:37 UTC, Eugene Wissner wrote:
> On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 12:58:15 UTC, SashaGreat wrote:
>> On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 12:52:54 UTC, WebFreak001 wrote:
>>> On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 12:49:39 UTC, SashaGreat wrote:
>>>> On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 11:43:28 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>>>>> The reason for the non-specific link is your votes aren't counted if you access it with the specific one.
>>>>
>>>> How do you know that?
>>>>
>>>> I mean this seems a bit awkward, because if you say is true, I'm pretty sure they would know this by setting something trough cookies, so if I access the direct link then go to main page and finally go back to the link it would work? This sound crazy!
>>>
>>> If they do it, they can just look if you came from the homepage because the browser sends where you came from (Referer header)
>>
>> Will this work even if Not Tracking is enabled?
>>
>> If it's the case then just refreshing or open the link in another page would clear the Referrer Header right?
>>
>> S.
>
> Firefox 76 not tracking mode: The Referer header contains only the domain and not the complete URL.
>
> You can disable the Referer header completely, but you probably shouldn't; Referer makes it possible to implement cookie-free csrf protection. At least sending the domain if you don't change the domain - is a good idea (so leave Referer empty if you are coming from another site, otherwise send the current domain or the complete URL).

Malicious sites can disable the Referer header on any requests, so it doesn't matter if the user has it on or off if the website supports it being off. I have found several security issues by people who thought checking the Referer header would work or was enough.


> Just refreshing the page, doesn't clear the Referer.
>
> To make things more privacy-friendly the Origin header was introduced, which behaves similar to the Referer in "not tracking mode", but my Firefox doesn't seem to send it (not sure if the defaults are different nowadays).

Origin is sent when you make requests to other origins or do a POST request on any origin. Especially when you are handling sensitive simple GET or POST requests you should check this header because the browser will just send them instead of checking with an OPTIONS request (preflight) before.

On 4/28/20 4:06 AM, Ethan wrote:
> On Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 10:47:35 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>> https://news.ycombinator.com/news
> 
> I'm certain this is said every time you link to hackernews, but that front page link very quickly becomes stale for your intended purpose of illustrating what article is on top.
> 
> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23005297

I'm with Ethan on this one and I have posted a specific link in the past as well.

If what we fear is true (and I doubt it because the site seems to attract smart people), then Hacker News is wrong. Internet works with specific links.

Ali