# Why are Discourse forum URLs so long? Possible to shortern?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-discourse-forum-urls-so-long-possible-to-shortern/147418
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [9 april 2020 om 14:13 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-discourse-forum-urls-so-long-possible-to-shortern/147418 "2020-04-09T14:13:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@VoskCoin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/VoskCoin)
#### Post date: [9 april 2020 om 14:13 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-discourse-forum-urls-so-long-possible-to-shortern/147418/1 "2020-04-09T14:13:50Z")
For example I recently created a new topic on my forum, and it takes the entirety of the topic title rolling it into the URL
> **[Initial Impressions of the Bitmain Antminer K5 Nervos CKB Eaglesong ASIC...](https://voskcointalk.com/t/initial-impressions-of-the-bitmain-antminer-k5-nervos-ckb-eaglesong-asic-miner-mining-22-a-day/172)**
>
> The Bitmain Antminer K5 has landed thanks to Coin Mining Central. For those that have not been following all of the Nervos CKB Eaglesong ASIC mining development, the Bitmain Antminer K5 is one of two confirmed eaglesong asic miners. The Bitmain...
Does this have any SEO benefits? If there are no benefits to such a lengthy URL is it possible to have the forum just create a URL like this?
> **[Initial Impressions of the Bitmain Antminer K5 Nervos CKB Eaglesong ASIC miner](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5239032)**
>
> Initial Impressions of the Bitmain Antminer K5 Nervos CKB Eaglesong ASIC miner
For reference, this is basically the same thread and similar title, but two different forum types and thus URL generating.
Also to be clear, I’m well aware of general URL link shortening, but I mean as a general feature/practice of the forum.
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### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [9 april 2020 om 14:19 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-discourse-forum-urls-so-long-possible-to-shortern/147418/2 "2020-04-09T14:19:28Z")
To be fair that’s not a title, it’s a sentence. I would look to reduce it’s length, even the onebox in your post above trims it.
Yes, urls have some SEO benefit, and no, titles don’t need to be that long.
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### Author:  [@justin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/justin)
#### Post date: [9 april 2020 om 14:22 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-discourse-forum-urls-so-long-possible-to-shortern/147418/3 "2020-04-09T14:22:57Z")
The title isn’t required to browse when you create a link, either.
You can share: `https://forum.example.com/t/-/1999` where `1999` is the topic id and it’ll take you there.
This default isn’t changeable in Discourse, however.
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### Author:  [@VoskCoin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/VoskCoin)
#### Post date: [9 april 2020 om 14:26 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-discourse-forum-urls-so-long-possible-to-shortern/147418/4 "2020-04-09T14:26:30Z")
I’m using it as an extreme example, but I’m asking if there are different ways to configure how Discourse generates these URLs
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### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [9 april 2020 om 14:27 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-discourse-forum-urls-so-long-possible-to-shortern/147418/5 "2020-04-09T14:27:46Z")
No, there isn’t. As Justin mentioned above you can shorten that part of the URL whilst sharing, it as long as the number afterwards isn’t affected. URLs can’t be edited, nor can the means in which they are generated.
Looking by that title, First Impressions could be a tag, or a category.
There just needs to be something between the /t/ and the /999.
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### Author:  [@VoskCoin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/VoskCoin)
#### Post date: [9 april 2020 om 14:30 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-discourse-forum-urls-so-long-possible-to-shortern/147418/6 "2020-04-09T14:30:05Z")
Thanks for this information, any other tips or tricks relevant to this?
> Blockquote [Initial Impressions of the Bitmain Antminer K5 Nervos CKB Eaglesong ASIC miner - Mining $22 a day - ASIC Mining - VoskCoinTalk](https://voskcointalk.com/t/172)
> **[Initial Impressions of the Bitmain Antminer K5 Nervos CKB Eaglesong ASIC...](https://voskcointalk.com/t/initial-impressions-of-the-bitmain-antminer-k5-nervos-ckb-eaglesong-asic-miner-mining-22-a-day/172)**
>
> The Bitmain Antminer K5 has landed thanks to Coin Mining Central. For those that have not been following all of the Nervos CKB Eaglesong ASIC mining development, the Bitmain Antminer K5 is one of two confirmed eaglesong asic miners. The Bitmain...
Just testing, and thanks for that, that’s very helpful when sharing the link, especially on things like twitter etc
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [9 april 2020 om 14:55 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-discourse-forum-urls-so-long-possible-to-shortern/147418/7 "2020-04-09T14:55:59Z")
> [@VoskCoin](#):
>
> I’m asking if there are different ways to configure how Discourse generates these URLs
Yes, there is. You can disable slugs using the ‘slug generation method’ in the site settings.
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### Author:  [@blake](https://meta.discourse.org/u/blake)
#### Post date: [9 april 2020 om 15:57 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-discourse-forum-urls-so-long-possible-to-shortern/147418/10 "2020-04-09T15:57:50Z")
> [@VoskCoin](#):
>
> that’s very helpful when sharing the link
I agree!
Perhaps we should omit the slug automatically in the share link pop-up thing, or have an option for it at least. As a comparison YouTube share links are very short as well and don’t include any slug info. This way only the share links are short, but the default urls in the browser address bar still have the title info and is probably good for seo.
> [@Stephen](#):
>
> There just needs to be something between the /t/ and the /999.
~~I swear this used to be the case, but not longer seems necessary:~~
~~[Why are Discourse forum URLs so long? Possible to shortern?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/147418)~~
Edit: apparently for the same site it is necessary! If you click on it now it will just show a blank page! But for external links it works just fine. So probably best to just include a `-` in between
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/-/147418](https://meta.discourse.org/t/-/147418)
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [9 april 2020 om 16:16 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-discourse-forum-urls-so-long-possible-to-shortern/147418/11 "2020-04-09T16:16:38Z")
> [@VoskCoin](#):
>
> Thanks for this information, any other tips or tricks relevant to this?
You seem to be unhappy that long titles are . . . long. You could stop people from making titles that are so long. See site setting `max topic title length`.
> [@blake](#):
>
> Perhaps we should omit the slug automatically in the share link pop-up thing, or have an option for it at least.
An option, maybe, but the slug is really useful for someone who sees the URL and is deciding whether to click it. That’s why it’s there!
This seems like a self-inflicted problem to me.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [9 april 2020 om 22:15 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-discourse-forum-urls-so-long-possible-to-shortern/147418/12 "2020-04-09T22:15:02Z")
Careful, this is risky, isn’t it? As I recall, we do some kind of hacky “best guess” to see if the slug is a number but the _correct_ short form is always
`https://forum.example.com/t/-/1999`
and _not_
`https://forum.example.com/t/1999`
This is mostly a defense against bad linking when URLs get arbitrarily truncated, I don’t think it should be actively promoted as a feature to people? 🤔