# Link replies without replying

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/link-replies-without-replying/38009
**Category:** UX
**Created:** [January 15, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/link-replies-without-replying/38009 "2016-01-15T17:06:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Aarskin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/aarskin/32/122027_2.png) [@Aarskin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Aarskin)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/link-replies-without-replying/38009/1 "2016-01-15T17:06:25Z")

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There are situations where it would be beneficial to link an existing topic to a new one _without replying_, however, I don’t know how to do this.The result is that people are linking topics together by replying with a link to the topic, only then does the topic appear on the sidebar.

In other words:

I posted a topic - New Dev Required Reading - and want to have related links show up to the right of the topic.

A fellow dev wanted to link an existing topic, so he replied with  
 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/optimized/3X/4/2/4249636f4e6d545e265a06c7dbd8d3cdf350cf3a_2_690x59.png)

But this only brings the related link in on the reply itself, and not the original topic.

**Is there a way to add the link on the right without adding an entire reply to the topic?**

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### 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: [January 16, 2016, 12:05am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/link-replies-without-replying/38009/2 "2016-01-16T00:05:22Z")

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No, the only way to link two topics is to include a link in a reply.

Links are **bidirectional** , though, which means on the other side (the receiving side) it will look like there is a magical link since the link is coming “from” the other topic. So you can _kind of_ do this by putting the link in the other topic, but it’d still be .. wait for it .. a link in a reply to a topic, somewhere.

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### Author: ![erlend\_sh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/erlend_sh/32/119475_2.png) [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2016, 1:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/link-replies-without-replying/38009/3 "2016-01-17T13:25:30Z")

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If I follow a a linkback to a post, I feel disoriented if I can’t find the outgoing link in the body of the post that I was just directed to. How is this post linking to that other one if there’s no link? 😕

Recommended workaround: If you don’t want to add a reply just to link to some post, I’d recommend editing something like `"related: [link]"` into the topic or appropriate post (if you’re not a moderator then use the flag to notify one).