I believe I also have experienced once in a while that some of my old share links no longer work. I cannot recollect which ones, however.
Do they have a default expiration time?
Is the expiration time somehow connected to the types of share links, like I ask in the post “Share links and editor “magic” URL confusion”(still pending approval, no link yet…)?
Maybe one of the reasons for the links to expire is if someone presses “Report abuse”, where the shared game is just deleted and no notification given to the sharer?
(Hope I am not an abuser)
Are there other reasons why a shared MCA game link might expire suddenly/over time?
For the third point, is there a way to emulate an older version of arcade in a share link? This would ensure that games never break (although it may break when going into editor mode). I know Super Mario Maker 2 for Nintendo Switch has taken this approach so levels never break with updates/bug fixes. This could be a solution to that problem, but I definitely understand that it could take a lot of work to implement this feature though (and I’m not sure how MakeCode is built or if it is even possible to do something like this).
Thanks for another good answer, @richard! -Nice that the whole world now also knows that I inadvertently probably have done something that was either automatically flagged or reported…
(You could have added a slightly higher probability than never for option 3 just to be nice, but I appreciate at least a snowball’s chance in a very hot place of saving face, hehe!)
Anyways, as most people are huge fans of learning from their mistakes and moving on, and often do not care about or have the energy or resources to litigate about errors against mastodont global companies, might you be so kind as to answer two further inquiries, please?:
Since most share links are “anonymous”, it’s understandable that the sharer is not notified when flagged or reported(or else it would be really scary…). But would the @makecode team also be so kind, even if one does not want to complain, as to give an explanation for the link expiration if contacting you on the mentioned email address and providing the “anonymous” link in question?
Is there some kind of manual review process before taking down share links, when flagged or reported, or could someone hypothetically have a party reporting and removing games just for fun?
Is it possible to contact @makecode only to learn the reason for a link expiration without claiming an error and is there some manual review process before taking down links, @richard?
