Do you like putting links in your posts? I've noticed a lot of posts with broken links, like this one.
If you omit the https:// from your link (the protocol), Cohost will interpret it as https://cohost.org/YOURLINK.com, which is probably not what you want.
Hope this helps! 
Happy chosting!
more or less! markdown compiles to HTML and tries to be as compatible as possible, and HTML, by default, has relative links. that's what they were originally for, links to other sites were simply not a thing yet! so for example linking to lexi will be /lexi relative to the current URL. absolute links were only added later, and those require the full protocol to avoid ambiguity. that's also why you can open compiled markdown files in IE3 or netscape without a problem! also, there are relative protocol urls: if you start a link with //, for example //google.com, it will use the current protocol. so for example, http://example.com would redirect you to http://google.com, and https://cohost.org to https://google.com. this is also super useful for testing stuff locally: usually you do not have HTTPS on localhost, so if you use relative protocols it will automatically use the correct one :3
markdown compiles to HTML
i guess that explains why css crimes are possible with a whole 'nother markup language than html
@lexi just about covered it, but the big takeaway is that it isn't Cohost's fault. This is just how links work in HTML, for better or for worse.
so? why should cohost "fix" an intended feature?
this is how markdown works almost anywhere. personally, i think consistent design is more important than "convenient" design. it's honestly really annoying having to see and learn dozens of different "flavors" of markdown across the web.
plus i wouldn't think making a fork of markdown just to change this one tiny thing is very high on cohost's priority list lol
if anything, all they should do is simply update the markdown cheatsheet to clarify stuff like this. it would clear up any confusion, and would help anyone new to markdown understand it more easily.
Intended by who for who? At any rate, they obviously don't have to do anything.
it's the design built into HTML. these standards were set decades ago, as a couple other people have already explained above. markdown simply changes the way your given text is rendered, not how it behaves.
I'm aware. Don't actually care about this thing in itself. Just making the point that Cohost team determine Cohost functionality at the end of the day.
you mean you guys aren't obsessively checking your links before and after posting anything?
no? just me...? 😶
I can never remember if it's ()[] or []() so I always default to my html days and use 'a href' tags.
there's a series of posts I do that involves lists of links collapsed with detail/summary divs. I found out the markdown format (because I'd not known it) and went, "oh, that'll make things easier to read in code", changed the current one to that version, and then found out to great amusement that within html div blocks, the markdown didn't function, so I had to redo to a hrefs. the more you know
