Big Problem With Links

1. 96

   EricDockettposted 6 years ago

   I've noticed a problem with Amazon text links this morning on two separate Hubs on two of my accounts. The HP link checker is identifying them as bad links, but they are not, at least in the sense that the pages they are pointing to still exist. The problem with the Hub on this account seems to have resolved itself somehow, but the problem on my other account persists.
   
   This is clearly a technical issue. Even though the link is still good, we can't just ignore the warning. It is a problem for two reasons:
   
   1. The affiliate ID is stripped from the link.
   
   2. When you click on the link, HP puts up a message that says something like "We identify this link as dead. Do you still want to go there?". Nobody is going to want to go there after reading that message.
   
   As of right now this is a minor annoyance, but if the problem expands or if there are more widespread outages it could result in a major loss of revenue for HP and writers.
   
   Please look into this, HubPages!
   
   Edit: Clicking "Ignore" on the broken links page does seem to present at least a short-term solution. Though it doesn't explain why the links are identified as broken to begin with.

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2. 96

   EricDockettposted 6 years ago

   Update: The links on my other account seem to have corrected themselves now as well. ? ?

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3. 92

   Alison Grahamposted 6 years ago

   I am still getting this problem - a couple seem to have resolved themselves, one I tried to correct/edit this morning was in a text capsule however, it would not give me the option to insert an Amazon link. I therefore changed it to an Amazon capsule and it appears to be working now. Two more are still giving 503 errors but I am leaving them to see if they resolve.

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4. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 6 years ago

   Post a url please to the specific article and we will take a look.

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   1. 96

      EricDockettposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      This is the one that I had trouble with this morning, but as I said it has corrected itself:
      
      https://pethelpful.com/fish-aquariums/B … plies-List

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      1. 92

         Bedbugabscondposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Erik, me too. I just removed them for now. Looking forward to putting them back.

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   2. 95

      wildernessposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I've got a hub, too, Paul - https://hubpages.com/living/Refinishing … ood-Veneer has two links, both of which are saying the same thing, but when the warning is ignored and clicked anyway they work fine.
      
      *edit*  using the check for broken links tab on the stats page, and then the "recheck" tab, one of the warnings went away.  The other is still there, but even when I click the link in the "broken links" section it works fine but says it is bad.

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      1. STAFF

         Paul Edmondsonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, please don't have the link rechecked.  We will file a bug and have an engineer take a look.

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         1. 95

            wildernessposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            Hands off it is!

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   3. 92

      Alison Grahamposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Paul, this is the one I left alone so you should see what I see  - I am seeing a number of Amazon links in my hubs showing as 'broken' returning a 503 error. However, the products are there and the links should be good. I have done a screenshot of one of the articles in question on Dengarden. This shows that the page is reporting the link as broken - as I was hovering over the link when I took the screenshot, at the bottom of the page, is what the page says the link is going to - however, when I am asked if I want to click on the link anyway, I am taken to the product page. Here is the screenshot and my article is the one on how to get rid of fruit flies - this is the specific link http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EW1 … ges-vig-20
      
      https://usercontent2.hubstatic.com/13779363_f248.jpg

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5. 81

   Wesman Todd Shawposted 6 years ago

   Yeah. I've got a handful of articles with the issue. All amazon links, and all the products I've checked were still there. So the broken link thing is definitely a bug.

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6. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 6 years ago

   We've found the issue with links returning 503 error codes and getting the broken link treatment.  We are working on a fix.

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   1. 92

      Alison Grahamposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you so much, Paul.

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   2. 96

      EricDockettposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, Paul and Team!

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7. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 6 years ago

   We deployed a fix, but still need to process links that were marked broken. I hope we can do this today.

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8. 81

   Wesman Todd Shawposted 6 years ago

   Mine are all fixed now.

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9. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 6 years ago

   Tim (HubPages Engineer) is reporting that the links have been processed.  Let us know if you still see an issue with Amazon links.
   
   EricDockett, Thanks for reporting this!

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   1. 95

      wildernessposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, Paul!  Mine are fine now.

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10. 92

    Alison Grahamposted 6 years ago

    Paul, I have had a new link show up with the 503 error. This one is on Pethelpful and is on my article how to protect your dog from tooth and gum disease. This one has showed up after the others were fixed.

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