[color=#cc0099]Based on player feedback and tech observations from our last change to the Profile URL structure, we’ve made some additional improvements, which have gone live today.
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Previously, we changed and added new symbols into Profile URLs. For example, tilde (~) was being used to replace spaces in character profiles, which caused issues for players with actual tildes in their name. This was also generally unsafe to use, so we replaced it with ‘TILDESYMBOL,’ and carried this through for other symbols as well.
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This change caused a few people to be surprised when copying and pasting Profile URLs didn’t work for the 2% of Fallen London players who had these symbols in their URL. After watching people’s reactions and looking into the issue more from a functionality perspective, we decided this was not the best implementation of character encoding.
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And so, we’ve added proper URL encoding and decoding, as well as adding more symbols to the ban list for creating and changing the name of characters. The banlist previously included < > ’ | . , & and we will be adding * / ? : " % \ +
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These changes will add improved security, will allow users to more easily copy and past Profiles, and also add more uniformity with web standards.[/color]
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[color=#cc0099]Important Things to Note[/color]
[color=#cc0099]Due to previous iterations, some people may think their profile URL’s are fine, but this is not the case due to the new changes. Please check the above list of symbols that are now on the ban list, to make sure that you will still be able to view your profile properly.[/color][/li][li][color=#cc0099]Players with symbols in their profile URL can email support@failbettergames.com and we will fix the URL for them.[/color]
[quote=Absintheuse][color=#cc0099]Based on player feedback and tech observations from our last change to the Profile URL structure, we’ve made some additional improvements, which have gone live today.
[/color][color=rgb(204, 0, 153)]
Previously, we changed and added new symbols into Profile URLs. For example, tilde (~) was being used to replace spaces in character profiles, which caused issues for players with actual tildes in their name. This was also generally unsafe to use, so we replaced it with ‘TILDESYMBOL,’ and carried this through for other symbols as well.
[/color][color=rgb(204, 0, 153)]
This change caused a few people to be surprised when copying and pasting Profile URLs didn’t work for the 2% of Fallen London players who had these symbols in their URL. After watching people’s reactions and looking into the issue more from a functionality perspective, we decided this was not the best implementation of character encoding.
[/color][color=rgb(204, 0, 153)]
And so, we’ve added proper URL encoding and decoding, as well as adding more symbols to the ban list for creating and changing the name of characters. The banlist previously included < > ’ | . , & and we will be adding * / ? : " % \ +
[/color][color=rgb(204, 0, 153)]
These changes will add improved security, will allow users to more easily copy and past Profiles, and also add more uniformity with web standards.[/color]
[color=#cc0099]
[/color]
[color=#cc0099]Important Things to Note[/color]
[color=#cc0099]Due to previous iterations, some people may think their profile URL’s are fine, but this is not the case due to the new changes. Please check the above list of symbols that are now on the ban list, to make sure that you will still be able to view your profile properly.[/color][/li][li][color=#cc0099]Players with symbols in their profile URL can email support@failbettergames.com and we will fix the URL for them.[/color]
If your name is two or more words with spaces in between them, how should it be rendered in the profile URL? I changed my alt’s profile URL to
" CatherineSPACESYMBOLRaymond ", but I just tested that and it does not seem to work any more.
For those who are curious, here is a basic web tool you can use to experiment with URL encoding.
Basically, they added additional characters to the list of those not allowed to appear in character names. You will still see the % symbol appear in actual URLs though because it’s one of the characters used by URL encoding to encode otherwise invalid characters. In the case of %20, it’s used to replace the actual space symbol.
If the % gets added to the banlist, does this mean only the spaced url will work in future? :-S edited by Robin Alexander on 11/14/2016[/quote]
That’s got to do with URL-encoding works. When a string is encoded as a URL, certain "special" characters are replaced with %XY, where XY are hex digits (i.e. 0-9 or A-F). Space becomes %20, the equal sign becomes %3D, and so forth.
The % character itself is one of the "special" characters (%25), which is what makes this scheme works. In an encoded string, the % symbol always means "there was a special character here, read the next two numbers to find out which one."
So the URL with the space is the "unencoded" URL, and the one with %20 is the "encoded" URL. Your browser should automatically encode the URL if it detects a special character–both URLs should always work, because the one is converted to the other before it’s even sent to FBG’s servers. If there is a special character, the encoded URL will always contain a % symbol.
FBG is banning % from appearing in the unencoded URL. This is good, because it prevents ambiguity. If you could name your character "Bob%3D," it wouldn’t be possible to tell whether that was the unencoded name, or the encoded version of the name "Bob=."
I’d suggest that you use %20 instead of ’ ', as people cannot go to your profile directly if they click the link, but to another profile just named Catherine.
[quote=Vavakx Nonexus][quote=Catherine Raymond][quote=Absintheuse][color=#cc0099]Spaces are indeed fine and will not cause any problems. As Nigel mentioned, you could put either of these into your browser for the profile to show up (most modern browsers should accept both).
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[color=#ffffff]http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Catherine%20Raymond
[/color][color=#ffffff] http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Catherine Raymond[/color][/quote]
Thanks! I’ll try that[/quote]
I’d suggest that you use %20 instead of ’ ', as people cannot go to your profile directly if they click the link, but to another profile just named Catherine.[/quote]
You are indeed correct, Vavakx, as I just found out; with the space, my URL pulls up "Catherine"’s profile, not my alt’s. Thanks.
EDIT: Fixed; my alt’s Profile URL now works correctly. Thanks again. edited by cathyr19355 on 11/14/2016
Worth nothing: the code you can create by highlighting text and hitting the "hyperlink" button in the usual post interface can be copied-and-pasted into your signature, and that will work even if your link has a space in it.