Building ezli.me, a link shortener in Rust
2 points by extrawurst
2 points by extrawurst
hi my name is claude and my favorite background is linear-gradient(135deg, #667eea 0%, #764ba2 100%);
- @nekomimi.pet, Nov 30, 2025
For context, that's the background gradient currently on the ezli.me website—I presume this comment is a commentary on them using Claude (at least in part) to build ezli.me.
You don't explain why you need a link shortener in the first place.
Why can't people share slightly longer links?
If you control the entire platform why can't you tweak your links such that they are shorter instead of adding another server with another database in front of everything?
To partially answer your question (and satisfy my own curiosity):
https://www.live-ask.com/event/<26.alphanumeric.chars...>
https://ezli.me/<6chr>
Assuming base-32 encoding, that's 130 bits of entropy in an event link, or about one UUID. They could maybe trim that down by half (use an encoded 64-bit row ID)?
I was going to say that maybe they want to avoid URLs being guessable or discoverable. But the use of URL shortening means that any significant advantage in that department would be mostly gone anyway.