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Comments on Can we please stop linkifying random strings that happen to look like domain names?
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Can we please stop linkifying random strings that happen to look like domain names?
Currently, strings that look like some subset of fully qualified domain names are automatically turned into links to the corresponding http:// resource. So, for example, example.com becomes a link to http://example.com, and something.example.com becomes a link to http://something.example.com, but something.example doesn't become a link even though it technically is just as valid as a domain name. Similarly, something.test doesn't become a link, but something.info does. (.example and .test are both valid, reserved TLDs.)
Short of using code elements, which has other undesirable consequences, there appears to be no way to override this behavior. For example, quoting the . with a \ doesn't change anything: example\.com still becomes a link to http://example.com. example.com in backticks does not become a link.
Can we please stop doing this, or at the very least, add an obvious way to override the behavior without having to resort to code elements? Markdown already has a syntax for inline links, so I don't see the value of bastardizing things that just happen to look like some subset of FQDNs.
I've seen it multiple times before across Codidact, and just recently, came across Inductance vs frequency on Electrical Engineering where OP happened to write load.Is instead of load. Is, and it became a link even though it clearly was never intended as a domain name, let alone as a link.
(Reposting here for visibility) For the time being, there is a relatively simple workaround. It appears that Mark …
3y ago
I agree. This is a great example of over-reaching with trying to be "helpful" automatically. Only links explicitly dec …
3y ago
I have experienced a similar issue in VS Code, and here is an issue report that describes the problem, and proposes a so …
9mo ago
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I agree. This is a great example of over-reaching with trying to be "helpful" automatically. Only links explicitly declared so by the author should be shown as links. The site otherwise has no business guessing author intent.
If a post author forgets or otherwise doesn't properly declare a link as a link, then that's on them and they will be judged accordingly, not the site.
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