Jessica

in the beginning there were anchors, which were a feature to let you jump to a section of a document. this was considered generally helpful and useful and a good application of the technology. there was eventually a period where connections were slow/high latency enough but technology was advanced enough that it was attractive to create a single page which does navigation client-side, so you load once and then handle everything in the one browser tab, theoretically without loading more data, or at least by loading less data, but in latter years often neither of the above. this approach was perpetuated by popular frameworks and platforms and stuck. it was eventually codified from a hack using the hash of a URL into the browser features which allow lying about the URL you're at from JavaScript today

in this particular case? I think Atlassian baked their own analytics, and did it in a shit way where they prevent navigation and then do it themselves afterwards, incorrectly

as ticky explains, sometimes the internet has A Phase where something novel and impressive is possible using disgusting hacks. instead of waiting for a proper solution to develop in the web standards process, everyone just learns how to do it the hacky way to score some clout points and don’t really question it more than they need to

then when a proper solution to the problem does emerge, because the Web is a platform with essentially no breaking changes, there is rarely any incentive for anyone to adopt it other than developers wanting a clean conscience or possibly accessibility (which most businesses will not devote any time or budget to unless it is a regulatory requirement). we will be stuck with the web’s mistakes forever