# Slug is required in topic URL?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/slug-is-required-in-topic-url/45207
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [June 3, 2016, 3:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/slug-is-required-in-topic-url/45207 "2016-06-03T15:47:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jhands](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jhands)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2016, 3:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/slug-is-required-in-topic-url/45207/1 "2016-06-03T15:47:25Z")
I went to link a topic from another topic and noticed that `[link](/t/45202)` [produces the error](https://meta.discourse.org/t/45202)
`Access Denied while trying to load /t/id_for/14`
However `[link](/t/blah/45202)` [works fine](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blah/45202). I believe this is a bug.
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2016, 3:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/slug-is-required-in-topic-url/45207/2 "2016-06-03T15:50:24Z")
> [@jhands](#):
>
> However [link](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blah/45202) works fine. I believe this is a bug.
actually this is intended behavior. you have to have something in the `blah` spot in the URL. You can put whatever you want in there.
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### Author:  [@jhands](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jhands)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/slug-is-required-in-topic-url/45207/3 "2016-06-03T16:17:05Z")
But why don’t you have to put something in blah when linking the full address? [https://meta.discourse.org/t/45202](https://meta.discourse.org/t/45202) when you link on anything other than discourse. (Put that up in the address field of browser and it will work.)
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/slug-is-required-in-topic-url/45207/4 "2016-06-03T16:28:39Z")
I see what you are saying now. It also works if you open in new tab vs click directly.
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### Author:  [@jhands](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jhands)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2016, 4:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/slug-is-required-in-topic-url/45207/5 "2016-06-03T16:33:17Z")
Yes exactly. It can’t exactly be removed now since it’d break a lot of links to discourse sites. So I think it should be fixed to allow t/1234 within the same Discourse site for consistency.
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### Author:  [@johnmuhl](https://meta.discourse.org/u/johnmuhl)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2016, 4:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/slug-is-required-in-topic-url/45207/6 "2016-06-03T16:45:34Z")
Seems similar to:
> [@Title links only work if the slug is present](https://meta.discourse.org/t/title-links-only-work-if-the-slug-is-present/32165):
>
> Links like this [https://meta.discourse.org/t/site-being-phished-on-third-party-domain/32112](https://meta.discourse.org/t/site-being-phished-on-third-party-domain/32112) work but when you only use the /t/:id part like this [https://meta.discourse.org/t/32112](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32112) you get an error instead. Reloading the error page causes the correct page to load.
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### Author:  [@jhands](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jhands)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/slug-is-required-in-topic-url/45207/7 "2016-06-03T18:23:52Z")
Yeah that’s the same issue (I couldn’t find that when searching.)
@codinghorror says there that a slug of at least 1 character is required. If that’s the case, how did it end up that slugs aren’t required for fully qualified links?
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2016, 6:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/slug-is-required-in-topic-url/45207/8 "2016-06-03T18:29:17Z")
> [@jhands](#):
>
> If that’s the case, how did it end up that slugs aren’t required for fully qualified links?
that’s a good point and I wasn’t aware of it. I don’t think this used to work and I’m not sure why it does.
nice URL hacking! 😉