TONT 38463 留心那些示例URL们

原文链接：https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040713-00/?p=38463

When writing documentation, one often has need to come up with a sample URL to illustrate some point or other. When you do, make sure the sample URL is under your control.

撰写文档时，有时需要一个示例 URL 来描述一些论点之类的东西，遇到这种情况时，留心让那些示例 URL 在你的掌控之下。

I remember a Windows beta that used the sample URL http://www.xxxxx.com/ in a dialog box. You can imagine where that actually goes.

我记得有一个 Beta 版的 Windows 在某个对话框中使用了 http://www.xxxxx.com/ 作为示例URL，可想而知这个网址指向的是什么地方。

This web site uses www.wallyworld.com as a sample URL. Perhaps they didn’t realize that it’s a gay porn site.

这个网站（译注：链接已失效）使用了 www.wallyworld.com 作为示例 URL，估计他们没想到这个网址是一个同性恋色情网站。

(Raymond’s strange dream story: One night I dreamt that I found a web site that had a complete Dilbert archive, and for some reason the name of the site was “Wally World”. In the morning, I checked out the site and was in for a big surprise…)

（Raymond 的怪梦小故事：某晚我做了一个梦，梦见有个网站上有 Dilbert 漫画的全集存档，并且不知为何网站的名字叫 Wally World。第二天早上，我搜了一下这个网站，结果非常令人“惊喜”。）

So play it safe. When you need a sample URL, don’t just make something up. If you do, odds are good that somebody is going to rush in and register it. Make your sample URLs point back to your company’s home page, or use http://www.example.com, which the IANA has reserved for use in sample URLs. If that’s too dorky, you can always go out and register the domain you want to use as your sample, so that nobody else can sneak in and steal it. (This does have the problem of incurring renewal fees.)

所以还是小心为妙。当需要用到示例 URL 时，不要随手编一个就算了，总有人会立马跑去把这个域名注册下来。你可以让这个示例 URL 跳转回贵公司的主页，或者直接用 http://www.example.com ，这是 IANA 为示例 URL 保留的一个域名。如果你觉得这样太傻了，你当然也可以选择（先）特意注册一个域名，然后将它用在你的示例 URL 之中，这样就不会有人悄悄地将其据为己有了。（不过这样也会有为其续费的问题存在。）