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We have a nice autocard feature, which lets you easily link to Magic: The Gathering cards like Lightning Bolt with the following syntax:

[mtg:Lightning Bolt]

When this feature was first introduced, the resulting link was different, e.g. http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Lightning%20Bolt instead of https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Lightning%20Bolt. However, those links don't work anymore and they're quite widespread: this query lists all 1,786 of them.

I was planning to ask the Community Managers if they can assist; it looks very much like repairing broken links for which they have a script that can do so without bumping posts. Any thoughts from your side before I reach out to them?

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  • Yes, mass fixing, this is beyond annoying!
    – John
    Dec 14, 2021 at 20:02
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    Hey y'all, just letting you know this is on my list. It takes a dev to run the appropriate changes (I've reviewed them and it looks quite possible), but that probably won't happen until early January because of the holidays.
    – Slate StaffMod
    Dec 20, 2021 at 20:06
  • @Slate thanks for the response - considering these links are broken since (probably) a couple of years already, a few weeks delay won't be a problem :)
    – Glorfindel Mod
    Dec 20, 2021 at 20:09
  • @slate are you aware of this: Switch Magic autocard over to a different search engine, Scryfall
    – AncientSwordRage
    Jan 4, 2022 at 3:24
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    @Pureferret Thanks, hadn't seen that. I'll ask if it's possible, but it probably won't be something we can do with the standard link replacer because of the particle. Will follow up soon.
    – Slate StaffMod
    Jan 4, 2022 at 15:57
  • I don't think switching over to Scryfall is necessary or even particularly desired here. That question was essentially an alternative to this other suggestion, which was recently implemented.
    – murgatroid99 Mod
    Jan 7, 2022 at 9:23
  • @murgatroid99 my impression was, only based on my memory when I first saw them, was that scryfall was preferred, but the stopgap you linked to would do for now. I'll have to go back and re-read when I have the chance
    – AncientSwordRage
    Jan 7, 2022 at 11:07
  • Actually, looking at it again, the Scryfall suggestion was actually older than the other one I linked. Both of those suggestions were made to address the same problem: for a few reasons, some cards could not be linked properly. That problem has been addressed by the implementation of the post I linked, so we don't need another change to solve it again.
    – murgatroid99 Mod
    Jan 7, 2022 at 17:40
  • @murgatroid99 the feature request doesn't just fix bugs, but adds language support and uses a better maintained and more reliable service - meaning fewer future bugs that we'd need SO Devs to fix. Gather goes down (or at least used to) when new cards are added, whereas Scryfall doesn't. There's lots more to using scryfall than just fixing a few cards.
    – AncientSwordRage
    Jan 10, 2022 at 11:41
  • This post is being discussed elsewhere on meta.
    – AncientSwordRage
    Jan 10, 2022 at 18:54

2 Answers 2

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These links should now be fixed. These actually step outside the standard link replacer, because of some implementation details in the autocard functionality works.

So, there may be a few stragglers floating around with broken links. Any edit to those posts should fix the issue, even if the edit does not change the autocard link itself. Bar those few posts, the links should now be working again.

Shout if y'all spot an egregious number of nonworking links.

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    Thanks! I've updated 8 posts with a manual link to the old URL, and this query now returns 0 results.
    – Glorfindel Mod
    Jan 18, 2022 at 19:37
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    @Glorfindel Perfect! By memory, that checks out. :)
    – Slate StaffMod
    Jan 18, 2022 at 20:05
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    That's awesome thanks!
    – AncientSwordRage
    Jan 19, 2022 at 12:03
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That would be a good idea! I have been manually fixing them as I run across them and mass fixing them without bumps would be better.

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