Why NYC's Zohran Mamdani Uses Short Links Like nyc.gov/initiative
Zohran and the Short Link
In a blog post, Will W. praises New York City Council Member Zohran Mamdani's use of short, top-level links like nyc.gov/{initiative} in his social media videos. The author argues that these human-readable URLs make government more accessible, funnel social media traffic to an official city-owned domain, establish a consistent pattern for online civic engagement, and ensure that announcements lead to real, participatory experiences.
It’s a human-readable URL that I can easily follow through on.
- arionhardison
I have been working on something for NYC. Its not ready yet but its basically an AI-native DOHMH.
I took all of these https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics.page
and turned them into guided protocols, staffed w/ the required agents and HITL.
Here are the "Programs" - https://dohmh.codify.nyc/programs
example protocol: https://dohmh.codify.nyc/protocol/71776
I was hoping it would be enough to stand out and get an interview w/ the "PIT Crew" but no such luck, reach out if you want to chat or hack on some NYC/Civic stuff.
- cosmic_cheese
This makes a lot of sense if public participation is actually desired. Links need to be short, snappy, and memorable so they're easy to either type into a smartphone on the spot or be recalled at some point later when one has a spare moment. This kind of link is also more likely to spread via word of mouth.
Traditional link shorteners only meet one of those requirements. Random strings aren't going to be remembered and the chances that they'll be mistyped is substantially higher.
- lzy
This is similar to Singapore’s https://go.gov.sg links.
Functions exactly like tinyurl, generally used by public officers for the various programmes/initiatives from the ministries and agencies.
- gravypod
People are discovering go links from first principles.
- WarmWash
I'm not a huge fan of Zohran, but man, I will admit that it is so refreshing to have a leader that isn't senile and is actually in touch.
- kmfrk
What format would people generally prefer for shorturls if they were designing a website for readability, maintenance, and SEO?
foo.website.com/{initiative} or website.com/foo/{initiative}? And are there any optimal names for foo that also make the scheme more intelligible to the average person?
- thoughtpeddler
The meta on this post is that the minimalist blog design by iamwillwang.com is itself really cool. Great work!
- ewwe
Mamdani+ his team are genius at PR