Ray said:
> I notice that many who place ebay links to point to a bike on this forum
> unknowingly create an invalid link. Somehow just before the item number
> inside that link there appears the number and letter 3D which renders it
> invalid.
That's the infamous "quoted-printable" feature of MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions). In short, by requiring that certain characters be expressed in HEX, the MIME system can avoid various convusing situations.
http://www.freesoft.org/
In this case, "=" is the encoding for an equals sign.
Most mail senders can turn this feature on or off. Most mail readers can also opt to display the raw data (where you'd see "=") or to decode it (where you wouldn't, and where links would just work).
The list software is supposed to leave it alone.
(Forgive me for the broad generalizations -- the details are quite OT
here...)
> Once I click on the link and get the ebay invalid item message I
> then go to the URL and remove the 3D and hit enter and the bike now shows
> up. Does anyone have an idea what is happening to cause this. It is more
> an annoyance then anything else but I'll bet some of you give up on the
> link and move on missing some great bikes.
I thought that giving just the item number was the preferred method. Anyway...
I recommend URL shortening services, like:
It takes a long URL like an eBay listing and assigns it a unique link ID (my terminology). A link ID is short enough that it can fit on a single line in an email message.
Dave in DC
--
Dave Salovesh | depending, of course, | hsevolaS evaD
darsal@mindspring.com | on your perspective | moc.gnirpsdnim@lasrad