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When a post includes a link to the Japan website of Amazon (www.amazon.co.jp; for example http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4140111127), the Stack Exchange server automatically rewrites it to a link to the US website (www.amazon.com) and breaks the link as a result.

Example: The link http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4140111127 is automatically rewritten to a link to http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/4140111127, which redirects to http://www.amazon.com/dp/4140111127/?tag=stackoverfl08-20, which is 404 not found.

I noticed this when trying to fix the link in this post.

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  • I don't know this is same case, but just FYI - meta.stackexchange.com/questions/75594/…
    – YOU
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 14:18
  • @YOU: Thanks for the link. I noticed that too.
    – Tsuyoshi Ito
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 14:21
  • meta.stackexchange.com/questions/89228/…
    – Rebecca Chernoff
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 19:02
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    @Rebecca: I had posted on Meta Stack Overflow because I thought that this issue might be of wider interest (in other words, I did not do it for you, the Stack Exchange admins). But if you disagree, I am fine with it. The more important thing is to get the bug fixed.
    – Tsuyoshi Ito
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 19:29

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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We have removed any links from the amazon redirect that end in .jp or .uk - we have no affiliate in these countries so they were being rewritten in error.

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A better workaround,

put a dot after the domain name (which bypass regex but yet valid domain)

http://www.amazon.co.jp./dp/4140111127

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  • Wow. This is amazing. :) Thanks!
    – Tsuyoshi Ito
    Commented Jun 17, 2011 at 1:23
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    This workaround does not seem to work any longer.
    – Tsuyoshi Ito
    Commented Oct 3, 2011 at 13:06
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You might be able to cheat it by using a URL shortener.

For example:

If you want to learn a pitch, you can afford pitch dictionaries like this.

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  • 3
    Thanks. This has another drawback: personally I do not like URL shortening services because I would like to see the URL before I access the page. But indeed that is a possible workaround.
    – Tsuyoshi Ito
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 19:35
  • @Tsuyoshi I'm not fond of them either, but from the Meta Stack Exchange comments it sounds like this link rewriting might be here to stay, and I'd rather have a clickable link than one I have to copy and paste. I don't know if there's an HTML or script tag that can give you a tooltip or something, which you could use around shortened links. At any rate, this would only be necessary for amazon.co.jp links.
    – Troyen
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 19:47
  • At least in the older discussion on Meta Stack Overflow, people did not know the possibility that this rewriting would break some links. Yes, the rewriting might stay as it is now, and in that case it is true that we have to choose between two poor workarounds (nonclickable URL and shortened URL).
    – Tsuyoshi Ito
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 19:58
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The clever workaround which YOU suggested does not work any longer. Currently we can write a link to www.amazon.co.jp in a comment as a workaround, because the server does not rewrite links in comments.

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    A recent example showing that the solution does not work anymore: japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/3357. See how the link is typed in Andrew's question and how it does not work.
    – user458
    Commented Oct 8, 2011 at 22:46

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