Request for long URLs also

["Ken Masters" <kmasters@ithealthed.com>]

Hi All

I hope this request is not out of line, but here goes:

Making use of short URL sites is very useful, but it is also has 
the (unintended?) consequence of hiding the identity of the true 
URL of the target website.  The are some websites that people do 
not wish to visit, for whatever reason.  There are also people 
who do not trust short urls, no mater where they come from 
(launching viruses, generating 'click' statistics, etc).

These are both legitimate reasons for people not clicking on 
short urls.

As a result, if authors DO use a short url service and write a 
note containing a short url, could you please include the long 
url in your text also?  It shouldn't be any extra work, be cause 
you would have had to copy-and-paste it into the short url 
generator anyway.

(I know there are sites that show the long url without going to 
it, but it's easier (and a courtesy) if the author simply 
displays the long url).

Thanks

Regards

Ken

Dr. Ken Masters
Asst. Professor: Medical Informatics
Medical Education Unit
College of Medicine & Health Sciences
Sultan Qaboos University
Sultanate of Oman
E-i-C: The Internet Journal of Medical Education