# Some characters after URL mean topic link doesn't work
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-characters-after-url-mean-topic-link-doesnt-work/402371
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [May 7, 2026, 8:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-characters-after-url-mean-topic-link-doesnt-work/402371 "2026-05-07T08:25:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2026, 8:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-characters-after-url-mean-topic-link-doesnt-work/402371/1 "2026-05-07T08:25:12Z")
I think it’s because you can add things like `.rss`, so if you finish off a sentence in brackets with a link the full stop then Discourse thinks it’s all part of the URL.
`[Link: https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1.]`:
[Link: [https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1.](https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1.)]
`[Link: https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1]`:
[Link: [New to Discourse? Start here!](https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1)]
`[Link: https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1?u=jonathan5.]`:
[Link: [New to Discourse? Start here!](https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1)]
`(Link: https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1.)`:
(Link: [https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1.](https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1.))
---
### Author:  [@Lilly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Lilly)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2026, 1:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-characters-after-url-mean-topic-link-doesnt-work/402371/2 "2026-05-07T13:43:23Z")
i don’t understand why you are including periods and exclamation marks as part of the links. and why are you using the square brackets like that? what is the use case you are doing?
[Link: [https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1](https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1).]
---
### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2026, 1:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-characters-after-url-mean-topic-link-doesnt-work/402371/3 "2026-05-07T13:45:46Z")
(Sometimes sentences appear within round or square brackets.)
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### Author:  [@Lilly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Lilly)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2026, 1:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-characters-after-url-mean-topic-link-doesnt-work/402371/4 "2026-05-07T13:53:36Z")
i was probably overthinking what you are trying to do. you are just talking about random use of square brackets i assume. yea they can break stuff occasionally in markdown links.
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### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2026, 4:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-characters-after-url-mean-topic-link-doesnt-work/402371/5 "2026-05-07T16:44:01Z")
It’s not entirely a markdown thing, or at least it doesn’t seem to be based on what [https://markdownviewer.org/](https://markdownviewer.org/) does. There, `.)` at the end is _not_ treated as part of the URL though `.]` is.
Also, rather than “random use of square brackets” it’s the use of a URL at the end of a sentence which is in brackets.
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### Author:  [@Lilly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Lilly)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2026, 5:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-characters-after-url-mean-topic-link-doesnt-work/402371/6 "2026-05-07T17:26:02Z")
yea welcome to square bracket fun in markdown. there is a reason i never use them unless fenced by code. i guess discourse could escape those?
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2026, 5:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-characters-after-url-mean-topic-link-doesnt-work/402371/7 "2026-05-07T17:34:15Z")
This is the default behavior of [GitHub - markdown-it/linkify-it: Links recognition library with full unicode support · GitHub](https://github.com/markdown-it/linkify-it).
You can test it at [linkify-it demo](https://markdown-it.github.io/linkify-it/)
---
### Author:  [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2026, 5:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-characters-after-url-mean-topic-link-doesnt-work/402371/8 "2026-05-07T17:35:30Z")
To explictly choose where the link starts/ends, you can use angle brackets like this:
```plaintext
[Link: .]
```
[Link: [https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1](https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1).]
---
### Author:  [@Lilly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Lilly)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2026, 5:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-characters-after-url-mean-topic-link-doesnt-work/402371/9 "2026-05-07T17:37:37Z")
yea that’s exactly how i did this (i guess i should have given the code tho lol)
> [@Lilly](#):
>
> [Link: [https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1](https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1).]
---
### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2026, 6:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-characters-after-url-mean-topic-link-doesnt-work/402371/10 "2026-05-07T18:10:36Z")
> [@david](#):
>
> To explictly choose where the link starts/ends, you can use angle brackets
Good to know, thanks! Edit: That link works, though it’s not showing the topic title. I’ll stick to omitting the full stop 🙂
> [@Lilly](#):
>
> yea that’s exactly how i did this
That link doesn’t work!
---
### Author:  [@Lilly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Lilly)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2026, 6:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-characters-after-url-mean-topic-link-doesnt-work/402371/11 "2026-05-07T18:16:39Z")
works just fine for me - i think quote removed the angle brackets
[Link: [https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1](https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-to-discourse-start-here/1).]
---
### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2026, 7:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-characters-after-url-mean-topic-link-doesnt-work/402371/12 "2026-05-07T19:03:02Z")
Thanks all. Looks as though this is a Markdown thing rather than just Discourse, and there are two potential solutions when a sentence within brackets ends with a URL:
1. Surround the URL with angle brackets, though this doesn’t display the URL as the topic title, and the link won’t work when quoted.
2. Just skip the full stop. This is what I’d done before asking here.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 7:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-characters-after-url-mean-topic-link-doesnt-work/402371/13 "2026-06-06T19:03:40Z")
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