# International domain name link is not clickable

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/international-domain-name-link-is-not-clickable/63493
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [28 במאי,‏ 2017,‏ 8:20am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/international-domain-name-link-is-not-clickable/63493 "2017-05-28T08:20:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![nikoxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9e8a1a/32.png) [@nikoxx](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nikoxx)
#### Post date: [28 במאי,‏ 2017,‏ 8:20am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/international-domain-name-link-is-not-clickable/63493/1 "2017-05-28T08:20:07Z")

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Hello. Just noticed that if I am using international domain name in link, this link does not work properly, unless you convert it to punycode. For example:

**not clickable!**

`http://межречье.com/t/kak-zagruzhat-foto/135`  
[http://межречье.com/t/kak-zagruzhat-foto/135](http://xn--e1aaac2a0a4czb.com/t/kak-zagruzhat-foto/135)

**clickable** , with preview

`http://xn--e1aaac2a0a4czb.com/t/kak-zagruzhat-foto/135 `  
[http://межречье.com/t/kak-zagruzhat-foto/135](http://xn--e1aaac2a0a4czb.com/t/kak-zagruzhat-foto/135)

This becomes a real headache if you running this kind of domain ☹ Can you please help me to use international domain links?

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### Author: ![mpalmer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/mpalmer/32/45740_2.png) [@mpalmer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mpalmer)
#### Post date: [29 במאי,‏ 2017,‏ 12:12am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/international-domain-name-link-is-not-clickable/63493/2 "2017-05-29T00:12:55Z")

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Correct, it isn’t clickable – because it isn’t a URL. The URL is the one with the punycode domain. User agents can, if they choose, make it more palatable to humans by interpreting the punycode into unicode code points, but as everyone keeps finding, that is a process fraught with security peril. Detecting homograph attacks is far from a solved problem, and I’m not entirely sure it _can_ be solved, properly. My entirely personal opinion is that, absent a paying customer requesting this, it’s unlikely that this will make it into core any time soon. It’s also not a great candidate for `pr-welcome`, IMO, because of the ongoing security maintenance burden. Every time someone comes up with a new homograph attack, we’d immediately get another round of H1 reports to pay out on and fix.

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### Author: ![nikoxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9e8a1a/32.png) [@nikoxx](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nikoxx)
#### Post date: [29 במאי,‏ 2017,‏ 7:34am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/international-domain-name-link-is-not-clickable/63493/3 "2017-05-29T07:34:34Z")

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@mpalmer thanks a lot for your answer! Definitely you got more technical skills.

I read about homograph attacks and it sounds to me a serious problem. But, I still can’t understand your point.

> [@mpalmer](#):
>
> it isn’t clickable – because it isn’t a URL

If this is not URL, than why, when I press `share` button, discourse gives me this _non url_ link? And why, when I put this _non url_ into my browser it works completely fine (checked firefox and chrome)?

Maybe there is a way to disable preview for this kind of links, and enable clickable feature? Maybe some related options in admin panel exists?

Btw: _found some workaround_. When I post link inside the same discourse site, then I can simply remove domain name and use relative link. It works fine, but still does not satisfies many users.

Regards 😉

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### Author: ![pfaffman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pfaffman/32/120154_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [29 במאי,‏ 2017,‏ 12:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/international-domain-name-link-is-not-clickable/63493/4 "2017-05-29T12:21:32Z")

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Are there many such URLs that you need to work, or just a few? If it’s not many, then you might create a plugin that fixes that url.

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### Author: ![nikoxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9e8a1a/32.png) [@nikoxx](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nikoxx)
#### Post date: [29 במאי,‏ 2017,‏ 12:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/international-domain-name-link-is-not-clickable/63493/5 "2017-05-29T12:35:47Z")

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It is not so many yet

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### Author: ![pfaffman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pfaffman/32/120154_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [29 במאי,‏ 2017,‏ 12:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/international-domain-name-link-is-not-clickable/63493/6 "2017-05-29T12:53:43Z")

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There is a talk like a pirate plugin that you might modify to replace the domain names you most care about. I don’t understand the security implications,so this could be a bad idea.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![nikoxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9e8a1a/32.png) [@nikoxx](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nikoxx)
#### Post date: [29 במאי,‏ 2017,‏ 1:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/international-domain-name-link-is-not-clickable/63493/7 "2017-05-29T13:00:14Z")

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What in particular you propose to fix? Automatically convert to punycode when posting message? And what plugin you talking about? I need some starting point…

Regards

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![pfaffman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pfaffman/32/120154_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [29 במאי,‏ 2017,‏ 1:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/international-domain-name-link-is-not-clickable/63493/8 "2017-05-29T13:11:37Z")

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I think that you could have a plugin replace the URLs that don’t work with the ones that do.

[https://github.com/discourse/discourse-pirate-speak](https://github.com/discourse/discourse-pirate-speak)

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![system](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/system/32/443519_2.png) [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [22 באוגוסט,‏ 2019,‏ 7:22am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/international-domain-name-link-is-not-clickable/63493/9 "2019-08-22T07:22:05Z")

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [22 באוגוסט,‏ 2019,‏ 9:55am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/international-domain-name-link-is-not-clickable/63493/10 "2019-08-22T09:55:49Z")

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These both seem rather clickable to me now?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![nikoxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9e8a1a/32.png) [@nikoxx](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nikoxx)
#### Post date: [22 באוגוסט,‏ 2019,‏ 10:33am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/international-domain-name-link-is-not-clickable/63493/11 "2019-08-22T10:33:47Z")

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yep, huge thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [22 באוגוסט,‏ 2019,‏ 10:57am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/international-domain-name-link-is-not-clickable/63493/12 "2019-08-22T10:57:57Z")

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