You’re right that for many HN folks the interesting part is not just “make the URL shorter”, but understanding what is being removed and being able to keep / edit specific bits. Right now SafeShare is deliberately “dumb & small”: it only sees the URL string in the address bar and strips parameters that match a simple list/heuristic (UTM, gclid, fbclid, some obvious redirect params etc.). It doesn’t look at the request method – so it’s really working on query strings, not HTTP POST bodies.
I like your idea of an attribution / explanation layer, e.g.: • parse the URL and list detected tracking params, • show a short label for each (utm_source → source, campaign attribution, etc.), • let the user tick which ones to keep/remove, maybe even edit values, • then regenerate the final URL.
That would probably live as an “advanced” or “details” view so that the default flow stays as simple as: paste → clean → copy/open.
I’ll experiment with a prototype of that – even just a “show what was removed and why” panel would already be a useful first step. Thanks again for pushing me in that direction.