Users are discussing a new behavior in Discourse where pasting a link with selected text creates a formatted link instead of a one-box, which is causing issues for those who rely on the previous functionality. Slowhand reports that pasting a URL now includes brackets and parentheses, preventing the one-box from appearing and requiring manual cleanup. awesomerobot explains the change was intentional, allowing users to create links with custom text, referencing a related discussion. Slowhand opposes the change, noting it disrupts daily workflows, especially when updating links. Jagster suggests a logical solution: pasting a plain URL without selected text should retain the old one-box behavior, while pasting over selected text should create a standard link. gwwar proposes a fix to detect if the selected text is already a URL and default to plain pasting, with a PR submitted to address the issue gwwar.
There are several sites we use in my forum that we use a link to make a one-box. Starting this morning, this behavior has changed. I usually do a copy and then a “paste as plain text” to only paste the link.
This morning when I try to paste as plain text, it’s making this:
This does NOT make a one-box. I then have to remove all the brackets and parentheses in order for it to make the one-box.
Is this a new behavior for Discourse? Or does this have something to do with the sites I’m using?
EDIT: and I’m just now reading the new release notes. So does this mean I will ALWAYS have to remove brackets/parentheses in order to get the one-box back?
EDIT 2: Just tried to change links in a different post, and all I wanted was to replace the link, but again it defaulted to < screenshot above > and I was forced to delete all that extra.
So the idea is that you highlight some text, and then pasting a URL turns the highlighted text into the label for the link.
I’m not sure if it would make sense to disable the functionality if the highlighted text is already a URL (would the inconsistency be confusing)? or maybe this is a useful feature as-is and we just need to get used to the change?
Interested to hear if this becomes a common point of confusion.