Topic replies referencing other topics, are still visible in the gutter of the referenced topic after the referring topic reply is deleted

[Serdar]

The title is pretty self-explanatory.

Reproduction Steps:

1. Create a topic.

2. In another topic, have another user reference/link the topic that you have just created through the replies section of the other topic.

3. Have an administrator of the forum delete the other users’ reply – referencing/linking the topic that you have created, on the other topics’ replies section.

4. You’ll notice that in the gutter of the topic that you have created, a link leading to the deleted reply referencing/linking your topic will still be visible even though the reply has been deleted.

For A Reproducted Example:

Check out the gutter link titled: “AffedilmemTR - Turkish Localization Services” in this topic published in another forum created using Discourse software. It leads to topic reply #40 in another topic which doesn’t reference/link the topic that’s being referred to as that is the second time topic reply #40 has been created (the first time it was created, topic #40 was referencing/linking to the referred topic, but was later on deleted by a forum administrator).

Apologies in advance in the case that this non-reproducible and is a fault on the other forums’ end. I’ll be sure to notify them or send them the potential solution(s) (if there are any) to this issue if it is.

[Serdar]

@codinghorror

Are you expecting the links to change in real time, dynamically on your screen as it happens?

No and the problem persists (the links are still visible) long after the target post is deleted.

@codinghorror

The links between topics are indeed removed if the target post is deleted

But since you’ve mentioned this, it seems to be a problem on the other forums’ end.

Thank you for taking the time to address my concern. I’ll file a bug report to them.

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

I’m not sure why; if the post containing the link to the other topic or post is deleted, then the backlink is also removed from the post in my experience (after a page refresh, not in real time). I’m not aware of any bugs around this recently.

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

I just tested this on try.discourse.org.

1. created a new user and logged in

2. created a new reply with a link to an existing topic in it, like so:

   

3. refreshed the page for the existing topic; the backlink shows up at the bottom of the post

   

4. All is an expected; backlink appears in the linked target post. As an admin, I deleted the reply:

   

5. I then refreshed the page as the regular user… and yep, indeed, I can repro the bug, the link is still there even though the topic with the link has been deleted.

   

Can we get this bug assigned this coming week @eviltrout? Looks like a new regression unfortunately … not sure what all we need to do to deal with the data cleanup either. If it went out in the release we need to backport as well.

Thanks for the report @Serdar and apologies for the regression.

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

I noticed this also still carries the link for small actions that are deleted … deleting the small action (for, say, splitting a topic) does not delete the link on the reciprocal post

[Serdar]

@codinghorror

Thanks for the report @Serdar and apologies for the regression.

No problem and it’s okay.

Looking forward to seeing it addressed soon.

Have a great day.

[pmusaraj (Penar Musaraj)]

This was fixed last week via FIX: Delete internal links when moderator deletes a post by pmusaraj · Pull Request #13233 · discourse/discourse · GitHub. Thanks for the report, @Serdar.