Did something change recently with links? When you write example.com in a post it automatically works as a link in a post. (meaning it looks like a link and clicking on it takes you to that site). However when you write [link](example.com) link It looks like a link but there is in fact no link…

[image] one1: However when you write [link](example.com) link It looks like a link but there is in fact no link (meaning clicking on it does nothing). Pedantically speaking, I think this the behaviour is acceptable. There’s not enough information by itself to distinguish between relative o…

Are you sure that e.g. [link](example.com) ever worked? I know markdown containing relative links, e.g. [link](/u) to link to the user list on a site, does work.

[image] tobiaseigen: Are you sure I am not! The only clue I have, if you can call it that, is that I have been frequently posting links like that to a site in that way (i.e. without the https://) and this is the first time anyone has ever mentioned it. Maybe no one was ever clicking on my lin…

[image] one1: Would you agree that one should not have to include the https:// in a markdown link? I don’t see anything in the common mark standard that mentions it: CommonMark Spec I don’t know? Honestly it has never bothered me before. Are you aware of any other markdown system that does …

[image] tobiaseigen: Are you aware of any other markdown system that does what you suggest? Well, I just tried it in a github issue and it treated my link as a relative path, which honestly is worse than doing nothing at all. In Joplin it treats my https-less link as a real link and goes to …

[image] supermathie: even though if you type example.com by itself it’ll get turned into a link. Yeah, that was my (hopeful!) justification for why the markdown links should also do that. But I’m slowly accepting the fact this isn’t going to happen (and that it never did). I just tried on Re…

[image] one1: I guess the only thing I would still have to suggest is that it not look like a link if it isn’t going to be a link I like this idea; perhaps we should unlinkify it entirely in the final baked post and put a warning in the composer preview. @product-managers ?

Hmm… Not that it’s a huge deal, but I’ve also gotten used to using something like[foo]() for illustration purposes which renders as foo . I feel like the problem here is the mismatch in expectations given the “linkify” site setting. Not sure how best to untangle this one, but I’ll share it with folk…

[image] mcwumbly: I feel like the problem here is the mismatch in expectations given the “linkify” site setting. I wouldn’t have that mismatch, but I understand it. I expect markdown to do exactly what I’m saying: [link] means render the following as a link; it’s up to me to put a valid URL …

[image] mcwumbly: I’ve also gotten used to using something like[foo]() for illustration purposes which renders as foo. If one wants a link purely for demonstration purposes, one could use an anchor [foo](#nowhere) foo (still a relative link, but an anchor link relative to the current page) …

[image] ToddZ: I expect markdown to do exactly what I’m saying Sure. But I think that most users would expect [link](example.com) to create a link to example.com. Putting example.com in the browser url bar works. And just typing it into a post also works. [image] ToddZ: Maybe similar mag…

Markdown links not working without https://?

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supermathie (Michael Brown) October 19, 2025, 3:14am 10

I like this idea; perhaps we should unlinkify it entirely in the final baked post and put a warning in the composer preview.

@product-managers ?

Topic		Replies	Views
Markdown link not parsed when prepended with `[Text] ` Bug markdown-it-review	6	1710	June 26, 2017
Links with underbars surrounded by hyphens render incorrectly Bug	2	765	September 24, 2018
URL auto-linking doesn't hyperlink if open paren precedes the protocol Feature markdown-it-review	6	2189	June 26, 2017
Relative links input into the Link tool during editing, don't work in final post display Bug	2	226	October 25, 2025
Links with multiple dots aren’t linking right Bug	15	1050	June 20, 2022

Markdown links not working without https://?

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