Users are discussing an issue where <br> tags fail to render properly in Discourse posts unless followed by an empty line, which affects spacing and layout—particularly in examples involving HTML elements like <kbd>. Jagster first reports the bug, noting that adding a blank line after <br> fixes it, and that this breaks existing content using <br> for spacing. Moin confirms encountering the same issue in a different context and resolves it by removing <br> until learning the empty-line workaround. Sam clarifies this isn’t a bug but a result of CommonMark’s parsing rules, which treat <br> as a multi-line HTML element, altering how surrounding Markdown is processed. Lilly offers a workaround using a backslash (\) to force line breaks. Jagster counters that this behavior is new and disruptive, and Jagster further demonstrates that even self-closing <br /> fails unless preceded by an empty line, suggesting the issue is more systemic than just CommonMark quirks. The thread highlights a UX impact on forums relying on HTML for formatting, especially where spacing is critical, and implies that recent changes to Markdown parsing may have introduced this regression.
This doesn’t work
<br>
<kbd>[wrap=icon id=fa-share][/wrap] Reply</kbd>
But this works:
<br>
<kbd>[wrap=icon id=fa-share][/wrap] Reply</kbd>
Reply
This can be a UX/UI-question too, but because it worked earlier, I count it as a bug.
Not a biggie, though. But it can affect every situation when a HTML-tag is used. In my forum it broke almost every helps where an example-button is used or I’ve needed extra space after an image.
I also had that problem yesterday at User Card Directory: message button should not show on mobile - #5 by Moin. I wasn’t able to figure out why the link did not work:
So, in the end, I removed the <br>. And now I was able to add it again because you told me that all I needed to fix it was an empty line. Thanks.
This is not really a bug, it is just commonmark spec which makes mixing html and markdown somewhat quirky.
When you do <br> it thinks it is a multi line html element, so certain rules do not kick in.
this works:
\
<kbd>[wrap=icon id=fa-share][/wrap] Reply</kbd>
Reply
Before kicked in, so those certain rules are only few days old 
No can do then and I have to start fix posts manually.
I still claim there is something more, because that quirky thing stops totally <br>.
<br>
<kbd>[wrap=icon id=fa-share][/wrap] Vastaa</kbd>
<br />
<kbd>[wrap=icon id=fa-share][/wrap] Vastaa</kbd>
<kbd>[wrap=icon id=fa-share][/wrap] Vastaa</kbd>
Vastaa