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Why doesn't #Firefox default to "Copy Clean Link" (mastodon.nz)
submitted 1 week ago by bananabob@mastodon.nz to c/firefox@fedia.io
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Why doesn't #Firefox default to "Copy Clean Link"

@firefox

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[-] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 14 points 1 week ago

Because using the GET parameters (everything after the questionmark) for tracking isn't their originally intended purpose. Which means that there are many sites that do not use them for tracking.

A classic is search engines having the search parameter and page number there. If you were then to copy such a link without the parameters you would just end up on the homepage.

Now, Firefox probably has a list of common tracking parameters and common "legitimate" parameters. But those cannot be guaranteed to be 100 % correct. Leading to the error of someone intending to link to a specific page but ending up linking to something more generic.

[-] bananabob@mastodon.nz 1 points 1 week ago

@bjoern_tantau Brilliant easy to understand explanation thank you 😃

[-] aligorith@mastodon.nz 7 points 1 week ago

@bananabob @firefox
I wouldn't be surprised if that breaks a bunch of weird stuff. But certainly, this is one of those things we shouldn't need to enable add-ons for IMO

[-] BobLefridge@mastodon.nz 4 points 1 week ago

I'm not sure if it's due to a plugin or not, but when I right click a URL in Firefox, one of the options is "Copy without site tracking".

@aligorith @bananabob @firefox

[-] bananabob@mastodon.nz 5 points 1 week ago

@BobLefridge @aligorith @firefox Yes but, there are two options. Why do you need the tracking on a link that you are going to share?

[-] Salty@mastodon.nz 5 points 1 week ago
[-] bananabob@mastodon.nz 2 points 1 week ago

@Salty @BobLefridge @aligorith @firefox I think that is a typo. Shold read "Built-in failure"

[-] Aeri@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I just wish that I could remove the option to copy text from the image because I've never once wanted to do that but I have hit the option a gazillion times

[-] zl2tod@mastodon.online 1 points 1 week ago

@bananabob

Because it's hard to know what is tracking stuff on the end of a URI and what is stuff needed to make The site work (on some sites).

@firefox

this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2025
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