You can fully control what a link looks like and where it links to writing the tags directly and not relying on the system to parse and make them:
[<the text for the link>](<your URL here>)
I hope Neo won't hate me reading this but I have long switched off all the "advanced" stuff in the editor and write all my tags directly. The only regret i have is that the "simple textbox editor" doesn't work like vi .
Well, i know you put in a lot of work to make this site better and enhance its usability for all. I really, really appreciate that (at this point a big THANK YOU is in order) but it is a "lost cause" on me personally. I am really, truly "old-school" to the bone:
my mobile phone is not a smart phone
my only editor is vi
my "desktop" is mwm and no real desktop at all
my web browser has tabs disabled and all icons removed (i like text-based GUIs, because it is easier for me to read "options" or "file" than to discern what "red thingie with green kringlet" means)
i could go on, but i think you know what i am getting at.
You will be happy to know that I'm not making the necessary site renovations for you bakunin, man. So don't worry, you can use all the old tech you like and I'll not shed any tears.
It's a good thing you are not addicted to smart phones and the rest of the social dysfunctional media gizmos available that are tearing the world apart.
Good for you.
You are probably happier than a vast majority of people who are addicted to their phone screens and apps!
I am also sometimes refused by today's overloaded GUIs where you often cannot see if a picture is a navigation or an advertisement. (If you are suspicious and have time you can try options on it, right mouse click or "click+hold").
I have seen a wanted action, for example a "continue" button, after 2 seconds being replaced by an advertisement...
Fortunately not on Unix.com. Yet.
Back to the passwords.
In the good old times we ran "crack" on the Unix pw crypts.
The input for crack was made of a top 100 list and a dictionary and a top 100 modification rules.
Users with a cracked pw got mail, with tips for a safe pw.
A wrong pw was punished with a delay before it prompted for a new pw. That made hacking less attractive.
Today companies establish "good" passwords by enforcing longer pws, character set rules, and comparisons against a history of old pws. (Storing pws in a DB? I get sick!)
Then, companies intoduce multi-factor authentication. You must install a dozen apps on mobile devices that generate pin codes. Of course these apps are 100% safe...
And then, there is a dozen applications that have there own pws - of cause with all flavours of security turned on!
If you work for 3 companies there is hardly enough space on the backside of your keyboard to hold all the passwords and pin codes...
I completely agree, I remember running crack against the pw file from a bunch of Siemens Nixdorf machines running Reliant SVR4 back in the early 90's and yes the most common password was ........."password". I have to keep my passwords in a key-ring as I now have in excess of 200, where systems have differing levels of complexity - I did keep them in an encrypted spread sheet on my encrypted USB stick until the WinTel team remotely imaged my Laptop and disabled the USB ports - but then that's progress.
Now I work in a much more sanitised environment and along with the password complexity rules and the 2FA, it sometimes takes me longer to navigate to the console of a server - than it does to fix the problem - I just love working in IT!
Also remember that three wrong attempts and you had to wait 60s before trying again - from memory if you got it wrong on an other three attempts the wait went up to five minutes or it might have been fifteen.