# site design question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-design-question/91837>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 6, 2001, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-design-question/91837 "2001-11-06T19:16:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-design-question/91837/1 "2001-11-06T19:16:31Z")

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On this site I’m redesigning, the author has a few links on the main page (not the index) that are to livejournals and such. The links read [http://www.livejournal.com/~myname](http://www.livejournal.com/~myname)

When they’re clicked on (in ie 6) the ~ turns into %7E and displays a “Not Found” error.

I’ve double-checked the links, and they should be working fine. What could be causing this?

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**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-design-question/91837/2 "2001-11-06T19:19:28Z")

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It works fine in IE5, is IE6 still beta?

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**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-design-question/91837/3 "2001-11-06T19:20:42Z")

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That’s not the URL. And it works fine when I type it into the address bar. Just when I click on the link in her site.

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**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-design-question/91837/4 "2001-11-06T19:30:37Z")

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Try replacing each occurrence of the tilde with

```auto

~

```

Does that help at all?

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**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-design-question/91837/5 "2001-11-06T19:44:16Z")

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Yes!

Thank you!

Why does it do that?

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**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-design-question/91837/6 "2001-11-06T20:06:08Z")

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I’ve no idea why it does that in your case at all, sorry!

I did it on my site purely because I ran it through an XHTML validator and it demanded that I replace non-standard characters in URLs with the proper reference codes. Most browsers seem to overlook this failure to meet standards and take a common-sense / slapdash approach, but maybe IE6 doesn’t.