Template talk:plainlinks

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Implicit parameter version

I'm not sure why my version was reverted. This way, if you type {{p|l=http://www.homestarrunner.com}} or {{p|http://www.homestarrunner.com}}, it would still work either way. I'm not sure what's confusing about that. Gfdgsgxgzgdrc 22:54, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

That may work for that particular URL, but any URL that has an equals sign in it would completely break the template if passed that way. For example, {{p|https://google.com/search?q=Homestar+Runner}} would end up being parsed as having been passed a parameter named "https://google.com/search?q" with the value of "Homestar+Runner", rather than taking the entire link as the "1" parameter as you seem to expect that it would. Of course, since "https://google.com/search?q" is not a parameter that this template expects, it would end up doing nothing, and the template itself would show gibberish rather than the expected link. Given how many links on the modern web involve query parameters, there are probably more links that would break the template if used in this manner than there are links that would not. (I know that for myself, the vast majority of times I have used this template were to link to a particular page revision on this wiki, which most definitely contain equals signs.) Given that the difference between URLs that will work and URLs that will break is subtle, technical, and not immediately obvious, it would be a bad idea to allow an alternate form that only works sometimes. Imagine someone who is familiar with the implicit form suddenly getting no link out of the template at all and having no idea why it's not working nor how to fix it, because they don't know this thing about the equals signs. All in all, it's better for everyone if we require those two extra characters ("l=") whenever this template is in use. Hope that clears it up for you. — Defender1031*Talk 11:47, 8 May 2017 (UTC)
Okay. Thanks! Gfdgsgxgzgdrc 14:38, 8 May 2017 (UTC)
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