How to use the "Go Script"
What it is exactly
"Go" allows visitors to arrive at your site using a URL starting with go.tufts.edu. For example, the (hypothetical) Department of Bird Studies might have a web site at: www.tufts.edu/as/departments/birdstudies. The Bird Studies webmaster could request go.tufts.edu/bird and that it point to www.tufts.edu/as/departments/birdstudies. Site visitors who enter go.tufts.edu/bird will be redirected to www.tufts.edu/as/departments/birdstudies. Please note that this is not the same thing as a virtual domain or DNS name. The script simply directs visitors to the appropriate site. Once they get there, the URL in the site visitor's browser will change to the actual site address. "Go" is best used as a site marketing tool or as a way to avoid visitors having to type in a long URL to get to your site. It does not replace the actual site address - visitors can always use either address.
This document refers to the word that appears after go.tufts.edu/ as a nickname. In the above example, bird is a nickname.
Please read the following policies and considerations carefully before proceeding to the "Go" request form below.
Policies and Considerations:
- Nicknames are provided strictly on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Only permanent Tufts staff members or students with UTLNs may request and maintain go script nicknames.
- Nicknames will only be assigned to sites with "tufts.edu" in the URL/DNS name.
- Nicknames will only be assigned to "institutional" sites belonging to recognized departments and organizations. No assignments will be made to personal pages.
- Only one nickname may be assigned to a site. However, a particular webmaster may be responsible for more than one nickname (more than one site).
- A nickname should point to a site's home or "main" page.
- Sites must be live when the go script entry is activated (no 404 or "under construction" pages).
- Within reason, nicknames can be anything, even acronyms. It is recommended that they be as short as possible and appropriate to the name or purpose of the site.
- Web Communications has full discretion over granting nickname requests, including the right to veto inappropriate names.
- Web Communications will periodically query (every 6 months or at our discretion) nickname holders as to whether their nicknames should be maintained. The query will be to the email supplied at the time of the request. If Web Communications receives no response within two weeks, the nickname will be removed.
- Nickname holders are responsible for notifying Web Communications when contact information changes, when the location where the nickname points to changes, or when the nickname is no longer needed.
- Web Communications may recycle retired nicknames for use by other sites if requested.
- It is permissible (though not necessarily encouraged) to have both a virtual domain name and a "Go" nickname. In that case, the "Go" nickname would simply point to the virtual domain name.
- The go.tufts.edu/... URL should never be used in internal links within a site.
