Heads-up: clearer, more trustworthy link labels are now live ✅️

[Susan]

Links should help you decide—fast—whether to click. But we've seen posts use styling tricks, color changes, or "friendly" link text that can hide where a click actually goes. That makes moderation harder and—more importantly—puts readers in the position of guessing. It also makes it much harder for spammers to hide spam links in posts, private messages, or user signatures.

We've updated how links render after you publish a post. The goal is simple: make the real destination obvious at a glance without changing what you can post. Internal links to our site look the same. External links get a small, consistent tail that surfaces the true host (and for masked links, the path), so readers can verify intent—even when the visible text says something else.

Think of it as built-in trust verification: a neutral, readable cue that resists color overrides and other formatting games. It helps everyone—especially folks browsing on small screens or assistive tech—by making "where does this go?" instantly clear.

How different links will look

Internal site (no change)

Bare internal URL
Post text:

Code Select Expand

oursite/index.php
Now displays:

Code Select Expand

oursite/index.php
Internal link with anchor text
Post text:

Code Select Expand

Read our Terms of service  (links to oursite/index.php/topic,2.0.html)
Now displays:

Code Select Expand

Read our Terms of service
(Note: Internal links are trusted— So no icon or label is shown even if the text isn't a bare URL.)

External Sites

External bare URL (icon only)
Post text before:

Code Select Expand

shortdomain/a1b2
Now displays:

Code Select Expand

shortdomain/a1b2 🔗

External masked link (icon + bold bracketed label with full path)
Post text before:

Code Select Expand

soap making blog  (links to craftsitehost/blog/soapmaking/)
Now displays:

Code Select Expand

soap making blog 🔗 [b][Link: craftsitehost/blog/soapmaking/][/b]

Attempted URL impersonation (tail exposes the real host)
Post text before:

Code Select Expand

techcompany  (links to techc0mpany/login)
Now displays:

Code Select Expand

techcompany 🔗 [b][Link: techc0mpany/login][/b]
(Even though the text says "techcompany," the tail shows it actually goes to "techc0mpany/login".)

If you spot an edge case we missed, share the post URL and we'll refine the matcher. Thanks for helping keep the forum clear, accessible, and safer for everyone.

[Lori Dee]

THANK YOU!

That will be a HUGE help.


@Susan