A shortlink is a short, easy to remember link you can give to people. When they visit the link they will be automatically redirected to the actual url of your group. All cuny.is shortlinks start with cuny.is. For example the shortlink for your group site might be http://cuny.is/groupname while the actual url would be something like: http://commons.gc.cuny.edu/groups/groupname
To get a custom shortlink send us an email at commons@gc.cuny.edu containing the actual url of your group and the proposed shortlink.
There are two ways you can customize the URL for your Group's Blog. They can be used separately or together.
In the same way you can get a shortlink for your group's page, you can also get a shortlink for your group's blog. For example the shortlink for your group's blog might be http://cuny.is/blogname while the actual url (the Address you chose above) would be something like: http://blogname.commons.gc.cuny.edu.
To get a custom shortlink send us an email at commons@gc.cuny.edu containing the actual Address of your group's blog and the proposed shortlink.
To fully customize the URL for your group's blog you can go out and buy a domain name. The Commons team can then assist you with mapping that domain name to your group blog. For example The CUNY Games Network purchased http://cunygames.org and then had that domain map to their group blog which is at http://gamesfest.commons.gc.cuny.edu/. If you follow the cunygames.org link you will see you end up at the gamesfest.commons.gc.cuny.edu site.
If you're interested in this, visit the Domain Mapping Codex page where you can find out more about it and fill out a request form if you have a domain to map.