Bitcoin Forum

I have come across an unusual glitch. I don't think we can call it a bug, but it's definitely weird to me.
If you take a look at this post (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=717790.msg62762196#msg62762196), you will notice several internal links written under the Other sources section. They are all clickable in the post, except the last one.

Here is a screenshot of how it looks now just in case OP changes and fixes it.
https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/08/31/M0Cc2.jpeg

However, quoting the post or previewing it before a quote turns the last link into a clickable one as well.
Screenshot below:
https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/08/31/M0MMP.jpeg

My question is, why is that? Why is the link in the original post not a hyperlink but if you quote the post it turns into one? @theymos what's an easy way around it without manually adding the hyperlink code?

That's not a glitch instead there are 2 spaces in the last heading means after licenses he put two spaces that's why the link is not clickable. While in the above heading he put only one space.

This is not a glitch instead writing mistake which could be corrected if reported to that OP. Otherwise I do not think there is anything to worry about.

Good point, but how can you explain that the link is now clickable after quoted and still have double space. What's with the quoted post without on the non-quoted post.

Example link  https://quillbot.com/grammar-check   with 2 spaces
Example link   https://quillbot.com/grammar-check   with 3 spaces
https://talkimg.com/images/2023/08/31/M0FXZ.png

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The easiest explanation is, Our preview allowed us or allowed the link to be clickable because it is a simple link for example a link of some topic we used to insert in between our discussions or under our news as source link. Those links also turn out to be working in preview. Other then preview I can say for sure that it is not workable just because of two spaces if they will be reduced to 1 then link will be workable but in preview I think the rules or previews are made in such environment which allow all the links to look as workable instead of the following ones. These will not be look as workable.  

Well, the one scenario in which links are not shown working are:
Example:https://quillbot.com/grammar-check   with 0 spaces
Examplehttps://quillbot.com/grammar-check   with 0 spaces


Edit--> WTH links are working now. (why I said links are working will be elaborated later after hearing more from you).

Let me try this quickly by posting links to the Meta board with different spaces. I am not going to try without any spaces because that would obviously not work as a hyperlink.

Meta board: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=24.0
Meta board:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=24.0
Meta board:   https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=24.0

Edit 1: It has nothing to do with empty spaces before the link. The hyperlink is clickable with 1, 2, and 3 empty spaces.
Edit 2: After writing edit 1, the second link (with two empty spaces) turned into non-clickable. So, the text that follows affects the links somehow, but not all of them.

It's not the added text that makes the link unclickable. It's the edit that makes the link unclickable.

Make a post containing a link with two spaces before that. After that, click on "edit" button and save the post without making any edit. You will see that the link becomes unclickable.
The same thing happens when the number of spaces before a link is a multiple of 2.


7 spaces before the link:
       https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=24.0

8 spaces before the link:
        https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=24.0

Yes, you are right I created a test post and this is what it shows https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5465237.msg62776645#msg62776645 All the links are not clickable so trying to edit without doing anything will render it not clickable, even when you quote and you just hit save it will render the link not clickable.

In my second quote I only use one space and all the links become clickable

I apologize for the repeated posts previously! I should have done the same as you! If the moderator sees fit to put everything together, ok. Sorry. I won't edit, so as not to defeat the purpose. :-[


I went to your topic, made several posts with letter spaces, without spaces, followed links and everything worked.

How do you create the space for this not to work?
This seems more like a typo, perhaps due to the browser or operating system, than this idea of spaces in writing.


A few more tests, to enjoy the post:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5465210.0 1space
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5465210.0  2space
  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5465210.0  2space
To work? It seems so to me...


EDIT: Still works?

The links are clickable and work well in the unedited version of posts regardless of number of spaces there are before the link.
The thing you are missing is that if there are 2 (or any multiple of 2) spaces before the link, it becomes unclickable after you edit the post. (That happens even if you don't make any change to the post when editing the post.)

I understood!!! I realized on the contrary, that the public notice is what, allegedly, corrects the situation.

OK, I took the test and this is indeed what happens. It is a BBCode code error that generates this situation. It interprets another space, as being an element of the sentence, no longer being considered a link.

Our service technician @PowerGlove is able to come up with an idea and resolve it.  ::)


PS.: I deleted the consecutive posts that I believed.

That's interesting. Btw, is this public knowledge and did you already know about this before you saw my thread or did you figure it out by doing your own tests? Any idea why it only affects empty spaces before links dividable by two and not all links for example?

This is very interesting to me, Bitcointalk is using 1.1.19 version of SMF I tried to replicate all the methods including the one that I just did to create a non clickable link but I had no success on my forum which is an SMF 2.1.3, I have not yet uploaded any mod software and the post settings are on default, is the error only on this version or there is a modification software that can do this.

I will just take note of this and remember as I configure my forum and install modification software


https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/09/01/mUSnP.png

The issue was reported more than 2 years ago by Husna QA.
Is it a bug when I click on quote (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5303648.msg57156899#msg57156899)

I did some tests after seeing that post and concluded that (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5303648.msg57157166#msg57157166) if there are two spaces before a link and you edit the post, the link becomes unclickable.

I made some tests again after you reported the same issue and I found out that the same thing happens when there are 4, 6, 8, ...... spaces before a link.


It's probably a bug and I have no idea what's causing that.

Did you also edit the previously created post as hosseinimr93 explained? The issue only becomes apparent after an edit of a post that contains links where there are empty spaces before the link which are dividable by 2.

It's no secret that theymos has heavily modified the current forum software to make it safer and more usable for what he wanted to achieve. One of those custom changes might have led to this "bug" or it's a known issue that got fixed in later SMF versions like the one you are using on your forum.

What I experienced with unclickable links occurred after the post was edited. The solution I use to overcome this is to embed the URL code in each URL link.


Example:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5303648.msg57156899#msg57156899 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5303648.msg57156899#msg57156899)

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I edited my post to see the results.

Husna QA, you posted the link at the beginning of the line and without any space before that. The link would still work after the edit, even if you didn't use URL tags.
As already said, links become unclickable and no longer works after you edit the post, if there are 2 (or any other multiples of 2) spaces before them.

Exactly. A good example is found in the thread I mentioned at the beginning of this discussion where I noticed this problem for the first time. Have a look at this post (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=717790.msg8109748#msg8109748). It's been edited many times. If you scroll all the way to the bottom of the post, you will notice the Other sources section. The last link in that section has two empty spaces and is clickable. You might think everything is ok until you see the code. OP used a hyperlink to make the link clickable. Here is how it looks:

When we use the [url] tag, everything that's in there turns into a link, even if it's not a true link. That way the system will always say it's a link.

Through further research, the idea of the problem being related to the text editor came up. That fails to recognize the link, because it joins it to the existing space. And if that's the case, there's not much more you can do to change that as long as this is the forum software.

Perhaps, we should consider it that odd number of spaces work while spaces that are even in number render a link non-clickable. If two spaces make hyperlinks go off but three spaces don't, that seems to also be my assumption here as it migrates upward to higher numbers.

OK, I will try to include several links by adding space beforehand, as you mentioned,
Example without URL tag:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=6.0   https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=6.0


I added the URL tag to the following example for each URL link.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=6.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=6.0)   https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=191.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=191.0)


Next, I will try to edit this post and see the results, whether by adding the URL tag, it is still unclickable or clickable.

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As far as I know, the URL link that has been added the URL tag will turn into a hyperlink like this:

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Edit the post to see the results.

I cannot replicate it in my SMF version All links are working as it is I have done all steps I guess it is because the outdated and modified version of the version Bitcointalk is using, even the theme version Bitcointalk currently using is not available now in the gallery selection, it used to be.
I don't know if Bitcointalk is using a debugger, although there are a lot of mods for debugging

In your first example, there are 3 empty spaces between the two links. The bug won't affect that particular example. On the other hand, if there were 2, 4, 6, etc. empty spaces, you would notice the link turning into an unclickable one after an edit.

Nothing should happen if a text segment is turned into a hyperlink regardless of the number of spaces before the link. You can see that in the example I shared in my previous post. The OP of that thread used a hyperlink on an edited post, and a link with two empty spaces before it is clickable.

One more thing. In your example, you placed two links one after the other (with 3 empty spaces in between). Maybe there needs to be some text before the links. 

OK, you're right. After I edited the previous post (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5465210.msg62783402#msg62783402), the URL links still work. In other words, there are several different causes for the URL link to become unclickable, as found by hosseinimr93 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5303648.msg57157166#msg57157166 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5303648.msg57157166#msg57157166)). I discovered this problem in 2021 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5303648.msg57156899#msg57156899 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5303648.msg57156899#msg57156899)) when editing a post containing Laszlo's post quote:

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So, the solution I implemented was to use a URL tag on each URL link, including in this post (except Laszlo's original post quote).

Luckily, hosseinimr93 figured out where the problem is and that won't be necessary any longer. All we have to do now is pay attention to the number of empty spaces before the link in case of an edit. It's possible not to notice two empty spaces preceding a link, but it becomes improbable you won't see 3, 4, or more. So if a link suddenly turn unclickable, it's an easy fix.   

Is this the setup from now on where there are two spaces before a link after a sentence Those who are used to using a forum can easily adjust to this just by adding the URL tag but for newbies, it is not  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5465210.20 I tried on this but it turns to a clickable link, anyway a bug show itself sometimes its not
Anyway if it's a bug, it's a bug that can be fixed by the poster using a URL tag.

The bug only occurs when you edit the post.

This is related to the forum's text editor, which in an edit ends up recording the link information poorly.

When editing the post, you can do that by paying attention to the number of empty spaces before the link. However, if there are many link URLs, fixing them will be pretty troublesome.

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I prefer to use the URL tag on the link URL when creating a post so that when I want to edit the post, I don't have to pay attention to the empty spaces one by one because the link URL has automatically become a hypertext.

Thanks to our forum coder and developer PowerGlove, the bug that affected the clickability (I probably invented a new word) of links has now been fixed. theymos has already updated the code and it seems to be working fine. If you want to read more about it, take a look at Improving the auto-linker (SMF patch). (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5466011.0)

This thread has now served its purpose but I will leave it open. In case someone manages to find a new instance of where links turn to unclickable, they can report it here or in PowerGlove's topic.