# URLs in parenthesis do not turn into links
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/urls-in-parenthesis-do-not-turn-into-links/30479
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [26.Июнь.2015 05:46:41 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/urls-in-parenthesis-do-not-turn-into-links/30479 "2015-06-26T05:46:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@swisspol](https://meta.discourse.org/u/swisspol)
#### Post date: [26.Июнь.2015 05:46:41 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/urls-in-parenthesis-do-not-turn-into-links/30479/1 "2015-06-26T05:46:41Z")
v1.4.0.beta3 +76
If you enter URLs in parenthesis, they don’t turn into links:
```
like this (http://www.apple.com)
```
like this ([http://www.apple.com](http://www.apple.com))
I wonder if that’s a regression as I thought this was working maybe 1 or 2 months ago.
---
### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [26.Июнь.2015 05:49:48 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/urls-in-parenthesis-do-not-turn-into-links/30479/2 "2015-06-26T05:49:48Z")
No regression, that’s incorrect syntax
Try like shown here
> **[Links - Daring Fireball: Markdown Syntax Documentation](https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#link)**
>
> Note: This document is itself written using Markdown; you can see the source for it by adding ‘.text’ to the URL.
---
### Author:  [@swisspol](https://meta.discourse.org/u/swisspol)
#### Post date: [26.Июнь.2015 05:55:23 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/urls-in-parenthesis-do-not-turn-into-links/30479/3 "2015-06-26T05:55:23Z")
Ah, I didn’t think it would be interpreted as the parenthesis of the markdown link syntax, in which case yes, the brackets would be missing.
That’s too bad as surely I’m not going to be the only to want / attempt to naively put a URL in parenthesis (for reference, I am aware of the markdown link syntax which I use, but sometimes I appreciate being able to just paste a URL and having it works as-is).
---
### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [26.Июнь.2015 06:04:05 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/urls-in-parenthesis-do-not-turn-into-links/30479/5 "2015-06-26T06:04:05Z")
> [@swisspol](#):
>
> but sometimes I appreciate being able to just paste a URL and having it works as-is).
A plain URL will become “linkified” but if you want it in parentheses there needs to be spaces
`( http://www.google.com )`
( [http://www.google.com](http://www.google.com) )
---
### Author:  [@tgxworld](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tgxworld)
#### Post date: [26.Июнь.2015 06:06:55 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/urls-in-parenthesis-do-not-turn-into-links/30479/6 "2015-06-26T06:06:55Z")
Hmm I don’t think it is incorrect syntax. See below for the example on Github.
---
### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [26.Июнь.2015 06:11:54 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/urls-in-parenthesis-do-not-turn-into-links/30479/7 "2015-06-26T06:11:54Z")
Maybe so, but there are different “flavors” of MarkDown. (eg. [CommonMark](http://commonmark.org/) 😉)
Hint: Discourse does _not_ use the same as Github uses
---
### Author:  [@tgxworld](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tgxworld)
#### Post date: [26.Июнь.2015 06:16:55 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/urls-in-parenthesis-do-not-turn-into-links/30479/8 "2015-06-26T06:16:55Z")
Thanks for clarifying 😄 I wonder if the above is intentional though since I don’t see any advantages of not turning URLs into links if you wrap them in `()`.
---
### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [26.Июнь.2015 06:19:50 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/urls-in-parenthesis-do-not-turn-into-links/30479/9 "2015-06-26T06:19:50Z")
> [@tgxworld](#):
>
> I don’t see any advantages of not turning URLs into links if you wrap them in ()
Neither do I, just the way it is I guess. Same thing when they’re in quotation marks
`"http://www.youtube.com"`
“[http://www.youtube.com](http://www.youtube.com)”
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [26.Июнь.2015 06:21:07 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/urls-in-parenthesis-do-not-turn-into-links/30479/10 "2015-06-26T06:21:07Z")
You can always provide extra hints, e.g.
([http://example.com](http://example.com))
([http://example.com](http://example.com))
```
(http://example.com)
()
```
Turning “raw” links into actual links is _not_ part of Markdown proper. In Markdown, typing a raw link does nothing.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [26.Июнь.2015 06:33:18 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/urls-in-parenthesis-do-not-turn-into-links/30479/11 "2015-06-26T06:33:18Z")
Also, our autolinker is one of the more annoying regexes we ship, and it has plenty holes [https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/autolink\_dialect.js](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/autolink_dialect.js)
---
### Author:  [@tgxworld](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tgxworld)
#### Post date: [26.Июнь.2015 06:39:01 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/urls-in-parenthesis-do-not-turn-into-links/30479/12 "2015-06-26T06:39:01Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> Turning “raw” links into actual links is not part of Markdown proper. In Markdown, typing a raw link does nothing.
Hmm is it a feature that we would want to ship with autolink since we don’t classify it as a bug?
---
### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [26.Июнь.2015 06:42:50 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/urls-in-parenthesis-do-not-turn-into-links/30479/13 "2015-06-26T06:42:50Z")
> [@sam](#):
>
> one of the more annoying regexes we ship
I’ll say. Anytime I see that many “nots” I can’t help but cringe a little
```
[^`!()\[\]{};:'".,<>?«»“”‘’\s]
```
and that’s only a small bit of it!
---
### Author:  [@renato](https://meta.discourse.org/u/renato)
#### Post date: [20.Октябрь.2025 19:08:53 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/urls-in-parenthesis-do-not-turn-into-links/30479/14 "2025-10-20T19:08:53Z")