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So according to comments on this meta, colons in URLs are automatically encoded if they occur after string position 7.

Unfortunately, this has the side effect of breaking any link which uses the scheme://domain:port syntax because the colon separating the domain and port gets URL encoded (but, deceivingly, still displays properly in the status bar for most browsers when hovering over the link).

Example of problem: my answer on this question

Would it be possible to change the colon-encoding algorithm to only encode colons that follow the first / or ? character after the domain portion?

Edit: The urlencoded colon appears to work okay in Opera, but not in Firefox, Chrome, or IE.

So according to comments on this meta, colons in URLs are automatically encoded if they occur after string position 7.

Unfortunately, this has the side effect of breaking any link which uses the scheme://domain:port syntax because the colon separating the domain and port gets URL encoded (but, deceivingly, still displays properly in the status bar for most browsers when hovering over the link).

Example of problem: my answer on this question

Would it be possible to change the colon-encoding algorithm to only encode colons that follow the first / or ? character after the domain portion?

Edit: The urlencoded colon appears to work okay in Opera, but not in Firefox, Chrome, or IE.

So according to comments on this meta, colons in URLs are automatically encoded if they occur after string position 7.

Unfortunately, this has the side effect of breaking any link which uses the scheme://domain:port syntax because the colon separating the domain and port gets URL encoded (but, deceivingly, still displays properly in the status bar for most browsers when hovering over the link).

Example of problem: my answer on this question

Would it be possible to change the colon-encoding algorithm to only encode colons that follow the first / or ? character after the domain portion?

Edit: The urlencoded colon appears to work okay in Opera, but not in Firefox, Chrome, or IE.

So according to comments on this meta, colons in URLs are automatically encoded if they occur after string position 7.

Unfortunately, this has the side effect of breaking any link which uses the scheme://domain:port syntax because the colon separating the domain and port gets URL encoded (but, deceivingly, still displays properly in the status bar for most browsers when hovering over the link).

Example of problem: my answer on this question

Would it be possible to change the colon-encoding algorithm to only encode colons that follow the first / or ? character after the domain portion?

Edit: The urlencoded colon appears to work okay in Opera, but not in Firefox, Chrome, or IE.

So according to comments on this meta, colons in URLs are automatically encoded if they occur after string position 7.

Unfortunately, this has the side effect of breaking any link which uses the scheme://domain:port syntax because the colon separating the domain and port gets URL encoded (but, deceivingly, still displays properly in the status bar for most browsers when hovering over the link).

Example of problem: my answer on this question

Would it be possible to change the colon-encoding algorithm to only encode colons that follow the first / or ? character after the domain portion?

Edit: The urlencoded colon appears to work okay in Opera, but not in Firefox, Chrome, or IE.

So according to comments on this meta, colons in URLs are automatically encoded if they occur after string position 7.

Unfortunately, this has the side effect of breaking any link which uses the scheme://domain:port syntax because the colon separating the domain and port gets URL encoded (but, deceivingly, still displays properly in the status bar for most browsers when hovering over the link).

Example of problem: my answer on this question

Would it be possible to change the colon-encoding algorithm to only encode colons that follow the first / or ? character after the domain portion?

Edit: The urlencoded colon appears to work okay in Opera, but not in Firefox, Chrome, or IE.