No, it's public and has been run for 11 years already and will continue to do so in foreseeable future. I would say it is the most popular one in my home country and it has good reputation among users.
From my experience most linkrot issues comes from the fact that sites and documents URL shorteners link to go down before URL shorteners themselves. Many websites from 11 years ago doesn't exist anymore.
Please don't post in the flamewar style to HN or cross into personal attack. Those things aren't compatible with curious conversation, which is what we're going for here. We're also trying to avoid the online callout/shaming culture [1].
Even if you're right, beating people with a stick will neither improve their behavior nor the quality of conversation for anybody else. The endgame of this is a ghost town inhabited by a few nasty diehards, abandoned by users one would actually want to have a conversation with. That seems to be the default fate of internet forums but the goal of this one has always been to stave it off a little longer [2].
> [Unnecessary crude remark]. He made the mess, so if he has any integrity he'll foot the bill for cleaning it up.
He [set up a server with a link shortening service pro bono, eating the cost of server maintenance for 11 years], so if he has any integrity he'll [do more free work].
I'd argue it's the user's fault if they decide to trust a small hobby site to last until the end of time. How many link shortening services have you used which promptly died, causing you to find this ridiculous hill to die on?
The person who uploads the link is not the only affected party. This affects every unrelated person who might ever want to follow those links long after the shortener is dead and gone.
Any link on the internet - shortened or not - can after some time die. Domain registration expire, websites get shut down. Domain changes ownership and new site goes up. Relax. It's just a lifecycle of Internet resources.
Let us end this conversation. You obviously see things differently.
