Just missed the target

A wrecked car in front of a large sign for the Target department store.

Thanks.

Apparently, you need to be logged in to Facebook, something that I never do. I prohibit Facebook cookies in my browser. When I do want to open Facebook, I use an isolated profile.

The page doesn't even ask for a Facebook login. That's the baffling part.

It relies on you already having a fb cookie in your browser cookie jar.

That was my first thought - but somebody said that thay _never_ use _any_ social media .. and they opened the l links OK .. .. John T.

Could also try another browser. I have had a problem with Firefox connecting improperly where Chrome would work.

Maybe so, but it should provide you the opportunity to login and set that cookie. I don't have a Facebook account but my wife does. If the login page had been presented I could have used her login credentials to view the image rather than claim the link doesn't work.

On principles I seriously dislike opening a public page that demands I identify myself by using Facebook or similar.

Thus I created a separate FFx profile just for using Facebook separate from any other browsing activity, so that they can not track me more than absolutely necessary. And I use it only with some friends.

Thus I hesitate from opening a link found on Usenet that requires Facebook.

Chrome: no go.

Good to know as I have posted some Facebook links myself and now know it is mistake to assume all will see them if they are not signed into Facebook. Same may apply to Twitter.

I've never had a Facebook account. Sometimes links bring me to a Facebook page and I can see a few entries but then it wants a login to continue. It even comes up in Tor.

Yes, shorten them when possible, and it usually is possible.

For URLs from most commercial sites, you can *usually* delete the question mark and everything following it without harm, as users don't need s*it like tracking monitors (utm=), facebook click IDs (fbclid=), referrer IDs, and other cookie-like trackers. Sometimes though it specifies vital parameters for displaying the page.

(For what it's worth, I tried that with the fbcdn.net url upthread and it still didn't work.)

Example -- take this bloated amazon.com URL:

Now delete from the question mark on, per above:

Now for amazon URLs, and sometimes news sites too, you can shorten more. Edit out the title/description and the mystery ending, like this, keeping only the domain, dp, and item number:

That's always good practice, and on some newsreaders it works. Ancient ones like mine don't get it, newer apps usually will. Many newsreaders will mung the url with extra returns to enforce line length. I hate when that happens.

HTH.

The Copy Link function on that page shortens it even more. https://a.co/d/fqkbD51

We were referring to the use of TinyURLs, not manually trimming the excess verborrea of URLs.

I know.

However,