# Why are the URL tags not working? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 8, 2002, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-url-tags-not-working/122923 "2002-08-08T06:22:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-url-tags-not-working/122923/1 "2002-08-08T06:22:27Z")
The last few times I’ve tried to link to offsite pages, vB has parsed it queerly, adding an extraneous [url] and [/url] to the correct coding. Like this: I’ve typed: [url=”[http://216.232.71.251/~larry/personal.htm”]Come](http://216.232.71.251/~larry/personal.htm%E2%80%9D]Come) see my cheesy webpage.[/url] which results in: http://216.232.71.251/~larry/personal.html”]Come see my cheesy webpage. For some reason, the “Automatically parse URLs” feature is treating it as if I hadn’t put valid vB tags around the URL and kludges its own in, buggering up the link. What the…? If I merely uncheck that feature, it doesn’t interpret the vB code in preview. If I do a link properly, with APU disabled, will the link display properly later? Like so: Come see my cheesy webpage. Well, golly, it worked. Well, now that I know how to work around it, is this happening to everyone? Or have I got a wiggly thing in my cookie or something? ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-url-tags-not-working/122923/2 "2002-08-08T06:36:52Z")
Test [Test link](http://216.232.71.251/~larry/personal.html) [test link 2](http://216.232.71.251/~larry/personal.html) ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-url-tags-not-working/122923/3 "2002-08-08T06:42:02Z")
Okay, I tried it both with and without the quote marks " " surrounding the link, with Auto URL parse on. Both worked. See example. I was going to look at your coding, but did you perhaps specifically bodge up the examples to manually reproduce the effect you were seeing? If so, that approach won’t help. Can you link to an example that was naturally produced (and not your own artifact)? ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-url-tags-not-working/122923/4 "2002-08-08T06:42:57Z")
I think it’s the “curly quotes”. Try using plain quotation marks instead. (That is, use " " instead of “ ” .) ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-url-tags-not-working/122923/5 "2002-08-08T20:39:25Z")
Thanks, **MEBuckner** Well, I’ll be buggered. I should really wear my glasses… I didn’t notice that. Why the hell is Opera doing that all of the sudden? It’s sticking those bloody things in of it’s own accord. The only mention of “curly quotes” in connection with Opera I could find on the web are about the Mac version recognizing them in a beta version. I’m sure it’s an Opera thing, because IE and Mozilla are still behaving the way I expect them to. This has only started to happen in the last couple of days. I don’t really want to switch to another browser for this board, Opera works best… except for this. I guess I could cut and paste regular quotes from Notepad, but that seems like a bit of a hassle. There must be a toggle somewhere for the damn things that I hit while trying to call up some other special characters… I seem to remember using a “™” recently and missing on the first attempt. “” “” ‘ ‘’ Maddening. Maddening, I tell ya. :mad: What the hell? Now my reply form is in wacky cartoony font, and nearly unreadable. I{ think I’ll just uninstall Opera and give it a do-over. Argh. ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-url-tags-not-working/122923/6 "2002-08-08T20:48:04Z")
Actually, this happened to me yesterday while trying to post a bunch o’ links over in Cafe Society. Previewed the sucker five times (try THAT when the hamsters are near death) and ended up removing the quote marks to solve the irritating problem. IE5, BTW, so it’s not just Opera. And now to test just to see what happens. ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-url-tags-not-working/122923/7 "2002-08-08T20:50:59Z")
Heh. It worked with the quotes this time. So what happens, now, if I leave out the [[url=www.straightdope.com](http://url=www.straightdope.com)]quote marks? ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-url-tags-not-working/122923/8 "2002-08-08T20:56:06Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by chique \* Heh. It worked with the quotes this time. So what happens, now, if I leave out the > [@](#): > > ([www.straightdope.com](http://www.straightdope.com)) Well, the 2nd one would’ve worked had I closed the tag. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-url-tags-not-working/122923/9 "2002-08-08T21:31:36Z")
This version of vBulletin removed the requirement of surrounding an URLwith double quotes in the [url=…] tag, but I still put them in out of habit. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-url-tags-not-working/122923/10 "2002-08-08T21:35:37Z")
Now, with a fresh install of Opera, I grit my teeth and try: [Hallelujah](http://216.232.71.251/~larry/personal.html)! Thanks, all. **Chique** , allowing URL tags without quotes must be new to this version of vBulletin… I’m pretty sure it used to gag on it, so I never tried. I must admit, it’s an elegant solution. 😃 Well, everything’s working for me now, oh happy day. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-url-tags-not-working/122923/11 "2002-08-08T21:39:13Z")
Oh, 'allo Arnold. I’m likely to continue using the quotes, too… out of habit. I’m anal about using them for all values in HTML, too, because that’s what it says in the specs, 'tho I think most browsers will interpret it correctly without them, and some authoring-tools even omit them. (I go back and stick them in by hand, the sloppy buggers.) ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2002, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-url-tags-not-working/122923/12 "2002-08-09T01:02:08Z")
“testing”