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Document how to avoid backlinks for references #35987

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@mschoettle mschoettle commented Jan 18, 2025

Why:

The existence of redirect.github.com does not seem to be documented.
Yet, several projects, such as dependabot and Renovate Bot, make use of it to avoid backlink spam.

It would be good to have an official documentation for this.

What's being changed (if available, include any code snippets, screenshots, or gifs):

Adds a small section to "Auto-linked references and URLs" explaining that redirect.github.com can be used to avoid backlinks.

See for example the discussion in: renovatebot/renovate#10796 (comment) and renovatebot/renovate#30980

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  • A subject matter expert (SME) has reviewed the technical accuracy of the content in this PR. In most cases, the author can be the SME. Open source contributions may require a SME review from GitHub staff.
  • The changes in this PR meet the docs fundamentals that are required for all content.
  • All CI checks are passing and the changes look good in the preview environment.

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@mschoettle mschoettle temporarily deployed to preview-env-35987 January 18, 2025 22:03 — with GitHub Actions Inactive
@github-actions github-actions bot added the triage Do not begin working on this issue until triaged by the team label Jan 18, 2025
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github-actions bot commented Jan 18, 2025

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Source Preview Production What Changed
get-started/writing-on-github/working-with-advanced-formatting/autolinked-references-and-urls.md fpt
ghec
ghes@ 3.15 3.14 3.13 3.12 3.11 3.10
fpt
ghec
ghes@ 3.15 3.14 3.13 3.12 3.11 3.10

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@mschoettle mschoettle marked this pull request as ready for review January 18, 2025 22:19
@nguyenalex836 nguyenalex836 added content This issue or pull request belongs to the Docs Content team waiting for review Issue/PR is waiting for a writer's review get started Content related to "Getting Started" doc set and removed triage Do not begin working on this issue until triaged by the team labels Jan 20, 2025
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@mschoettle Thanks so much for opening a PR! I'll get this triaged for review ✨

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raiph commented Jan 20, 2025

The comment https://www.github.com/orgs/community/discussions/23123#discussioncomment-3239240 (posted 2.5 years ago) is relevant here because it established:

  • The work-around of using the www subdomain. If you're going to document use of redirect for this purpose instead then you may want to consider adding a sentence deprecating use of www for the same purpose.

  • Two sub-problems that I presume apply no matter whether the work-around uses redirect or www:

... the pop-up that usually appears when hovering over a link to a GitHub issue or PR ... no longer appears

... GitHub owners could break [these work-arounds] at any time by treating [these altered] links [as if the were the same as https://github.com...] for the purpose of adding cross-links"

You may want to consider establishing whether a reasonably quick resolution, or at least clarification, about one or both of these sub-problems, is a reasonable goal before completing and merging a PR updating the doc.

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Thank you for that additional insight, @raiph! Our writers will be sure to consider this when they review this PR 💛

@subatoi subatoi added the needs SME This proposal needs review from a subject matter expert label Jan 21, 2025
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Thanks for opening a pull request! We've triaged this issue for technical review by a subject matter expert 👀

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