The discussion revolves around inbound gutter post-links in Discourse. ryantm suggests that these links should be relative URLs instead of absolute URLs, citing the benefits of flexibility in development and load balancing. zogstrip questions the advantage of relative links over absolute links. ryantm explains that relative links allow for different host names, ports, and protocols, making it easier to troubleshoot and develop. However, codinghorror dismisses these concerns as not being credible for a production site.
Relative links let you use different host names, ports, and protocols (https/http) for the same server. This is helpful when using a load balancer and wanting to see the individual servers behind it. For example, maybe the SSL connection is terminated at the load balancer and you want to name your servers behind the load balancer for easier troubleshooting. Being able to use different host/port/protocols is also helpful in development because you can use different parameters than the production site. Absolute links that are internal to the forum are fine if they respect the hostname, port, and protocol.
I’m not sure if you think absolute links are better, but if you do, then there are a lot more links with the opposite problem.