Frequently Asked Questions

What is FLQ?

FLQ is a "URL shortening service" that, as the name suggests, takes a long URL and turns it into a very short one.

Why use FLQ?

When using services like Twitter, email, SMS, instant messaging, or other similar forms of communication, long URLs can be very distracting, may get truncated, or might get split across multiple lines making them hard to use. FLQ will take any URL up to 2048 characters and returns a really short one (about 20 characters, including the https:// prefix).

What does FLQ cost?

FLQ is offered as a free public service to anybody who would like to transform a long URL into a short one.

What information is tracked?

We store the submitter's IP address and timestamp for each URL as is is created. We store no other information whatsoever about the submitter of the URL and we do not record the IP addresses of those who click on URLs. We do count how many times a given URL is clicked. We use this information as a means to prevent abuse and do not share it with others unless required by law.

Can I get statistics for my URLs?

Unlike other URL shortening services, FLQ does not have user accounts. As such, nobody really owns a given URL. If 1000 people submit the same long URL, the FLQ service will return the same short URL to all 1000 of those individuals. As such, there really are no statistics to return, except for the number of clicks a given URL has received. We do not publish click counts, though.

Will you expand the service to have user accounts and statistics?

There are presently no plans to do that. We created FLQ for our own use and decided to open it to the public. We had only a very simple objective: to shorten URLs. Since other URL shortening services already exist that provide a wealth of information to their users, we felt no urge to do the same thing.

So why not just use those other services?

The reason we decided to not use other services and to create our own was because we wanted to ensure that our URLs lasted indefinitely. While other services try to make a profit from a URL shortening service, we are not and have no need. We do have ads on the front page to help with costs, but we are not dependent on that revenue.

Can I get a "vanity" URL, like https://flq.us/go/computers?

No, this is outside the scope of what we aimed to do with FLQ. We just want to offer a very simple URL shortening service.

Are there any rules related to this service?

We only ask that you not abuse the system and not post links to illegal content. By "illegal", we mean any link that would be considered illegal under the laws of the United States, such as links to child pornography or pirated movies. By "abuse", we mean, as one example, creating short URLs that are used in spam that is sent out to millions of people. Abuse is very problematic when it happens, as users get confused as to what FLQ is (thus this FAQ), we get hit with tons of traffic, and nobody is happy.

Will you ever remove my URL?

We never remove a URL, but we will block URLs if and only if the link violates the aforementioned rules. For example, URLs that point to illegal phishing sites may get blocked if reported to us. Pornography is not illegal, no matter how ugly the participants might be. However, links to child pornography are illegal and will get blocked if they are brought to our attention.

You do not actively monitor what URLs are created?

We have some level of automated monitoring, but the site is largely unmonitored. It would be a complete waste of our time to monitor every single URL presented to the site. We only get involved in the URL creation and redirection when we discover that a URL points to illegal content or is part of some massive spam campaign. In those cases, we block the URL. If we see the same IP address as a "repeat offender", we will block the IP address. If we see the target domain is part of some spam campaign we will block the target domain.

Will you unblock a good URL that was previously blocked?

Absolutely. Since domain ownership changes from time to time, it's entirely possible that somebody used a domain for illegal activities and now you own it and are operating something entirely legal. In that case, we will unblock any blocked URLs for your domain.