# Users cannot change the color of links (with BBCode) anymore
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-cannot-change-the-color-of-links-with-bbcode-anymore/203894
**Category:** Bug
**Created:** [September 18, 2021, 11:22am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-cannot-change-the-color-of-links-with-bbcode-anymore/203894 "2021-09-18T11:22:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@eisprinzessin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/eisprinzessin)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2021, 11:22am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-cannot-change-the-color-of-links-with-bbcode-anymore/203894/1 "2021-09-18T11:22:23Z")
Before our forum software got updated to 2.8.0.beta6, I used to nest the color tag in links - e.g.:
```plaintext
[[color=cyan]Discourse[/color]](https://www.discourse.org/)
```
Now I need to use HTML… which does not work here either:
```plaintext
[Discourse](https://www.discourse.org/)
```
_(Due to new user restrictions I had to remove the actual links from this post.)_
It really looks nice in this [table](https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/build-compendiums/82060/4).
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2021, 12:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-cannot-change-the-color-of-links-with-bbcode-anymore/203894/2 "2021-09-18T12:39:41Z")
Maybe you want [Discourse BBCode color](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-bbcode-color/65363)? Or maybe there’s an issue with it?
---
### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2021, 12:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-cannot-change-the-color-of-links-with-bbcode-anymore/203894/3 "2021-09-18T12:43:43Z")
This issue is the anchor, remove it and the colour works fine:
```plaintext
[color=cyan]Discourse[/color]
```
Otherwise the BBCode colour scheme is not parsed correctly.
If you wrap it the other way:
```plaintext
[color=cyan][Discourse](https://www.discourse.org/)[/color]
```
The CSS for anchor takes precedence, even though the BBColor is rendered as good html styling.
---
### Author:  [@eisprinzessin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/eisprinzessin)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2021, 12:51pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-cannot-change-the-color-of-links-with-bbcode-anymore/203894/4 "2021-09-18T12:51:26Z")
> [@pfaffman](#):
>
> Maybe you want [Discourse BBCode color](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-bbcode-color/65363)?
That is what we have been using. IIRC it has been list in the plugins list since we switched to Discourse.
> [@merefield](#):
>
> This issue is the anchor, remove it and the colour works fine
But I want the link and the custom color.
> [@merefield](#):
>
> Otherwise the anchor formatting takes precedence.
It used to work before. Was that not intended?
---
### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2021, 12:52pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-cannot-change-the-color-of-links-with-bbcode-anymore/203894/5 "2021-09-18T12:52:42Z")
> [@eisprinzessin](#):
>
> It used to work before. Was that not intended?
You’ll need the maintainers to weigh in.
---
### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2021, 1:24pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-cannot-change-the-color-of-links-with-bbcode-anymore/203894/6 "2021-09-18T13:24:02Z")
I looked at that post in raw and it’s not using vanilla BBCode:
```plaintext
[Necromancer](/tags/pure-necromancer)
```
This seems to work.
FYI:
> [@eisprinzessin](#):
>
> Now I need to use HTML… which does not work here either:
That’s because BBCode is not running on Meta?
Demo on one of my sites which is: [https://rideables.tech/t/rip-sir-clive-sinclair/603](https://rideables.tech/t/rip-sir-clive-sinclair/603)
---
### Author:  [@eisprinzessin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/eisprinzessin)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2021, 1:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-cannot-change-the-color-of-links-with-bbcode-anymore/203894/7 "2021-09-18T13:33:28Z")
Yes, I switched to HTML earlier today. In the past BBCode worked, too. While other users don’t mind, I wanted to avoid the use of HTML.
---
### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2021, 1:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-cannot-change-the-color-of-links-with-bbcode-anymore/203894/8 "2021-09-18T13:35:17Z")
I dug into the plugin code briefly. Tbh nothing appears to have changed BBCode plugin side functionally for about 4 years? All the commits since appear to be just coding standards and repo CI stuff?
---
### Author:  [@eisprinzessin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/eisprinzessin)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2021, 1:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-cannot-change-the-color-of-links-with-bbcode-anymore/203894/9 "2021-09-18T13:46:24Z")
Thank you very much. Yes, it was one of the first things I noticed after the update to 2.8.0.beta6. So, I assume either the plugin needs an update or Discourse a bug fix.
Or I need to be content with using HTML, too. But I find it messy to use three markup languages.