# ?ref parameter being added to links

**URL:** <https://forum.ghost.org/t/ref-parameter-being-added-to-links/38335>\
**Category:** Developer help\
**Created:** [May 9, 2023, 7:46am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ref-parameter-being-added-to-links/38335 "2023-05-09T07:46:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![boxedpaul](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/boxedpaul/32/9142_2.png) [@boxedpaul](https://forum.ghost.org/u/boxedpaul)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2023, 7:46am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ref-parameter-being-added-to-links/38335/1 "2023-05-09T07:46:54Z")

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If you’re looking for help, please provide information about your environment. If you delete this template and don’t provide any information, your topic will be automatically closed.

If you aren’t running the latest version of Ghost, the first thing we’ll ask you to do is update to the latest version of Ghost.

- **What’s your URL**? [photomojo one-on-one photography tuition in all locations](https://www.photomojo.au/tuition/in/all-locations/) (in the “Can’t find what you’re looking for?” box)
- **What version of Ghost are you using?** Ghost(Pro)

Many links across the site content have ?ref=photomojo.au querystring appended. I’m not sure why.

This breaks the links using the javascript protocol that I’d like to use to invoke the chat box.

The link I paste is: javascript:void(Tawk\_API.toggle())  
The link that appears is: javascript:void(Tawk\_API.toggle())?ref=photomojo.au

The latter breaks the Javascript.

Is this something I can turn off?

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**Author:** ![vikaspotluri123](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/vikaspotluri123/32/24_2.png) [@vikaspotluri123](https://forum.ghost.org/u/vikaspotluri123)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2023, 2:01pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ref-parameter-being-added-to-links/38335/2 "2023-05-09T14:01:52Z")

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This feature is called “Outbound Link Tagging” and can be disabled in the analytics page of your Admin dashboard (`https://{site}/ghost/#/settings/analytics`)

That being said, the tagging being applied to inline javascript is probably not expected behavior 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![boxedpaul](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/boxedpaul/32/9142_2.png) [@boxedpaul](https://forum.ghost.org/u/boxedpaul)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2023, 6:55am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ref-parameter-being-added-to-links/38335/3 "2023-05-10T06:55:49Z")

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Thank you! Disabling that feature did remove the tag from the javascript and now it’s working.

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**Author:** ![vikaspotluri123](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/vikaspotluri123/32/24_2.png) [@vikaspotluri123](https://forum.ghost.org/u/vikaspotluri123)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2023, 2:58pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ref-parameter-being-added-to-links/38335/4 "2023-05-11T14:58:06Z")

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It looks like the issue with `javascript:` urls getting the `ref` treatment might be fixed in an upcoming release 🙂

> <https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/pull/16773>
>
> refs https://github.com/TryGhost/Team/issues/3172
> 
> The outbound link tagger wa…s tagging non http urls (i.e \`javascript:\`, \`mailto:\`) which would prevent these urls from working as expected. This change only allows urls to be tagged if they use the \`http(s)\` protocol.