Why does the URL field not do anything?
Why does the URL field not do anything?
When you create a post, you can fill in a URL, an image, a title, and body text.
It seems if you do all 4 (maybe just the image is the issue?), the URL doesn't seem to be available anywhere on the post.
I have seen a few articles posted without sources and I am wondering if people are posting sources to the URL field as I have just tried to do now on another post, which is then seemingly not displayed either on lemmy.world or on Sync at least. Am I missing it?
I think the idea is that the image comes from the URL. If you have both an image and a URL, then you effectively have two URLs, and the post can only lead to one place.
If you wanted both, I guess you'd have to put one in the post, and one in the body (as an inline image, or a clickable link to what you're posting about)
Yeah I mean that makes sense and follows how reddit functions, I think the UI could do with some reworking or clarification on that though. I'm surely not the only one to be confused by it. Ultimately if it lets you fill in 4 boxes and submits fine with no errors, its a little strange that one of the boxes doesn't do anything.
Normally the URL is apart of the thumbnail, the title, and right under the title. All three will take you to the link, but yeah I haven't did every field either. What's the use case for using every field?
So for example, I posted a link to some Lemmy growth statistics. I posted the source of them to the URL field, I posted a particular graph to the image field (uploaded from my PC) and then I discussed that particular graph in the body field, as well as a title of course.
Upon hitting submit of course, the Source I thought I was providing had been lost
I have also seen people posting articles a lot where there is a relevant image posted, and the article text or a section of it posted to the body I guess to save people clicks. But then the URL/source is missing so you have no idea where the article actually comes from.
I think this system needs a redesign to make it clear how it functions - like reddit is the same in that you can't have a URL as well as an image so it's not a problem, but when you can input 4 different pieces of information and Lemmy effectively deletes one without letting the user know I don't think that's good design or clear at all.
True, there needs to be a fair amount redesigned. Some things aren't clear and you find out from trial and error. The best way to do what you want though is to use the URL field for what you're wanting to link to. If you want a image visible as well, you have to use the inline image markdown code:
