# Autolinking here on meta
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/autolinking-here-on-meta/309820
**Category:** Site feedback
**Tags:** feedback
**Created:** [May 29, 2024, 10:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/autolinking-here-on-meta/309820 "2024-05-29T10:25:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2024, 10:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/autolinking-here-on-meta/309820/1 "2024-05-29T10:25:21Z")
Hello :blob_wave:
Quick question about what your thoughts are around our autolinking - do you find it useful, or do any of them get on your nerves? Are there any you’d wish to add, or even some you’d like to remove?
We currently have:
- [data explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true)
- [DiscourseConnect](https://meta.discourse.org/t/13045?silent=true) (and a couple of variations)
- [official install](https://meta.discourse.org/t/142537?silent=true) and [standard install](https://meta.discourse.org/t/142537?silent=true)
- [safe mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/53504?silent=true)
Let me know what you think. 🙂
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### Author:  [@dax](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dax)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2024, 10:50am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/autolinking-here-on-meta/309820/2 "2024-05-29T10:50:12Z")
For obvious reasons, I would like to add:
- official plugin(s)
- official theme(s)
- official theme component(s)
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### Author:  [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2024, 11:06am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/autolinking-here-on-meta/309820/3 "2024-05-29T11:06:46Z")
Where would they link? To pages like [https://meta.discourse.org/tags/c/plugin/22/official](https://meta.discourse.org/tags/c/plugin/22/official) ?
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2024, 11:55am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/autolinking-here-on-meta/309820/4 "2024-05-29T11:55:43Z")
> [@JammyDodger](#):
>
> do you find it useful, or do any of them get on your nerves
Both.
I find it useful when I use them in posts. For example, I can easily ask “Have you tried [safe mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/53504?silent=true)?” and there is no need to manually add the link which explains what safe-mode is and how to use it. Though I would sometimes prefer a template, because I tend to write “safe-mode” and at the moment I have to use the preview to check whether I used the correct spelling. So I could suggest adding safe-mode but I like that I can reduce the number of links by using a different spelling.
This leads me to:
It gets on my nerves when I read documentation, like:
It distracts me while reading. There are a lot of links which were probably all added because of autolinking. But I still feel the need to check whether they really are. It could be that some of them were added intentionally, linking to something else.
That’s why it sometimes disturbs my reading flow. But this could be solved by [limiting the number of times a watched word is linked](https://meta.discourse.org/t/limit-of-times-a-watched-word-is-linked/246166) or restricting auto-linking to e.g. “[data explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) plugin”.
---
### Author:  [@Arkshine](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Arkshine)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2024, 2:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/autolinking-here-on-meta/309820/5 "2024-05-29T14:30:25Z")
I have a similar feedback as Moin.
Super useful. It saves a lot of time and energy.
There are, for sure, edgy cases where the same word is auto-linked too many times in guides.
Possible suggestions:
- Limit the number of times the word is linked – at least once per paragraph or ideally once per section if feasible).
- Exclude self-auto-linking in the topic that the link is referring to.
- Exclude auto-linking in headings
- If it still doesn’t help for some guide, we can see how to improve the text.
Overall, it’s really good and convenient. I would be careful about what words to add, though. \[1\]
* * *
About what to add, let’s see,
- A few _reference_ guides for users, moderators, admins, and developers (and potentially the index ones; maybe it’s too early for that, though).
I wonder what the statistics are. Based on how often a link is referred to, it could be a good idea to add a keyword for that link. 🤔
* * *
1. For example, `trust level` would be likely overwhelming without any control.
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### Author:  [@dax](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dax)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2024, 6:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/autolinking-here-on-meta/309820/6 "2024-05-29T18:02:27Z")
Yep,
- [https://meta.discourse.org/tags/c/plugin/22/official](https://meta.discourse.org/tags/c/plugin/22/official)
- [https://meta.discourse.org/tags/c/theme/61/all/official](https://meta.discourse.org/tags/c/theme/61/all/official)
- [https://meta.discourse.org/tags/c/theme-component/120/all/official](https://meta.discourse.org/tags/c/theme-component/120/all/official)
I agree, however, we should limit auto-linking in posts. If I write [Data Explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) 5 times in a single post, I don’t need 5 links in that post. Only the first instance should be linked, and the others ignored.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2024, 7:32am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/autolinking-here-on-meta/309820/7 "2024-08-22T07:32:29Z")
I think the additional links in the index topics are very confusing
> [@Administrators Index](https://meta.discourse.org/t/administrators-index/322712/1):
>
> - Create topics from Telegram: [Create topics from a posts to Telegram group](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-topics-from-a-posts-to-telegram-group/54319)
> - [Discourse SSO](https://meta.discourse.org/t/13045?silent=true) with Mantis: [Use Discourse SSO with Mantis Bug Tracker](https://meta.discourse.org/t/use-discourse-sso-with-mantis-bug-tracker/69236)
> - [WP Discourse](https://github.com/discourse/wp-discourse) filters and actions: [WP Discourse Filters and Actions](https://meta.discourse.org/t/wp-discourse-filters-and-actions/307211)
> - Display [Data Explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) in WordPress: [Display Data Explorer query results in WordPress (with TwigAnything)](https://meta.discourse.org/t/display-data-explorer-query-results-in-wordpress-with-twiganything/40956)
> - [Discourse SSO](https://meta.discourse.org/t/13045?silent=true) with Mediawiki: [Use Discourse SSO with Mediawiki](https://meta.discourse.org/t/use-discourse-sso-with-mediawiki/69218)
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### Author:  [@Jagster](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jagster)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2024, 7:35am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/autolinking-here-on-meta/309820/8 "2024-08-22T07:35:08Z")
Plus repeating same thing looks… odd.
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### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2024, 7:51am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/autolinking-here-on-meta/309820/9 "2024-08-22T07:51:19Z")
Those index topics are the base for the doc sidebar indexes themselves so the formatting is what helps makes the magic happen (display title: link). 🪄
Though I think there’s a case for unlisting the index topics now we have the actual sidebars in place and making them more a background thing.
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### Author:  [@Jagster](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jagster)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2024, 7:57am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/autolinking-here-on-meta/309820/10 "2024-08-22T07:57:09Z")
> [@JammyDodger](#):
>
> makes the magic happen
I know that. And yet it looks odd. And in some cases a row will be so long that there isn’t enough room to show all the text — or that was situation earlier when I tested it on my forum \[1\]
* * *
1. and that is one reason, with a lot of manual work, why it is on hold and I’m trying to figure out do I need that option; but that is only my headache, but layout issues are not 😏
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### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2024, 8:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/autolinking-here-on-meta/309820/11 "2024-08-22T08:25:23Z")
I think the short titles are definitely important to get right as the space is limited for them. Bert did the first pass, but I do plan on having a second go to smooth out any weird ones.
For the auto-linking, I’m not sure if one of the usual tricks of breaking up the watched word with `` would work for these ones. I think hiding the base index topic would be less of a faff. 🤔
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2025, 6:32am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/autolinking-here-on-meta/309820/12 "2025-07-16T06:32:39Z")
> [@Moin](#):
>
> I find it useful when I use them in posts. For example, I can easily ask “Have you tried [safe mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/53504?silent=true)?” and there is no need to manually add the link which explains what safe-mode is and how to use it
I changed my mind. Since I don’t know which language the user is reading the topic in, I can no longer rely on the autolinking. It works only in English. So when I ask
I don’t know if the user will see the link or just something like
So, for important links, autolinking is now only helpful while writing, as I can copy the link from the preview instead of searching. But that is something a template would provide too.
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### Author:  [@satonotdead](https://meta.discourse.org/u/satonotdead)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2026, 2:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/autolinking-here-on-meta/309820/13 "2026-08-21T14:07:15Z")
> [@Arkshine](#):
>
> - Limit the number of times the word is linked – at least once per paragraph or ideally once per section if feasible).
I’m with this and it will allow me to link a lot more of words, without ruining the visual aesthetics or adding the discussed distractions.