21

Links in [link text][number] format don't work properly if they follow a tag using the new [tag:tagName] format. Here's the result of [tag:python] [gold badge page][1]:

[gold badge page]1

Putting the tag inside the link is worse. Here's the result of [[meta-tag:bug] some text][2], where [2] is google.com:

[meta-tag:bug] some text

The part of the link outside the tag just disappears silently.

EDIT:
To be more precise, the entire link to [2] disappears. The markup that is produced contains (invalid) nested anchor tags, as shown here from Firefox's "View Source":

<a href="http://google.com" rel="nofollow"><a href="/questions/tagged/bug" class="post-tag required-tag" title="show questions tagged 'bug'" rel="tag">bug</a> some text</a>

So the tag is still a link, but it is a link to the tag page, which is the behavior it would have if the link to [2] didn't exist at all. The user's desired behavior in this case is... ambiguous, to be charitable.

EDIT 2:
I briefly included markup from Firebug here, but it turned out to be irrelevant. It has now been removed to improve readability. See the revision history if you're interested.

Improve this question
3
  • 2
    the link disappears completely actually.
    – jjnguy
    Nov 19, 2010 at 14:40
  • 1
    @jjn, yeah, word choice on my part... I didn't want to say that the tag link disappeared, because it didn't... I'll edit.
    – Pops
    Nov 19, 2010 at 15:30
  • 10 years? Not a big deal, but also seems like it would be a pretty easy fix.
    – THE JOATMON
    Oct 19, 2021 at 13:06

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
13

The <a>[tag:name]</a> generating bad html is mildly annoying, even if I don't really think its a valid use case. I've gone ahead and checked in a fix to dev (we just won't process the tag syntax if it appears in an anchor tag).

The [tag] [text] [index] is actually by design. The markdown spec allows a space between a link's text and its "index." Its kind of a goofy use case, but its in there.

Markdown Link Spec

You can optionally use a space to separate the sets of brackets:
This is [an example] [id] reference-style link.

Improve this answer
1
  • 11
    it's a totally goofy use case. I didn't even know that was supported!
    – Jeff Atwood
    Nov 19, 2010 at 23:15
19
+50

Case 1 can be worked-around by inserting two spaces after [tag:python].

[tag:python]  [gold badge page][1]

gold badge page

Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    as Kevin pointed out this is because the markdown spec allows a space between [link title][1] .. much to my surprise.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Nov 19, 2010 at 23:16
  • Stranger yet! I never would have suspected just one space was allowed!
    – SamB
    Sep 19, 2016 at 15:28
2

Another way to work around this is to add the link in parentheses just like we do in comments.

For example: 

[tag:support] [question from four years ago](https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/152827/321647)

This gives: question from four years ago

It's also possible to use the HTML space.

[tag:support]&#32;[question from four years ago][1]

Which gives the same result:

question from four years ago

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .