Changes to formats supported for creating links within contributions

OK, now I see what's going on. But would we be able to simply type in the Title as an alternate method to knowing a web address of what we're linking to (it's not always that easy remembering such)?

While I can see the necessity from a software maintenance perspective, from a contributors perspective this is... bad. As frankfob2 pointed out, it is now necessary to follow five steps instead of one or two. Additionally, one of the advantages of the old system was that, in the case of multiple persons with the same name, it gave you a choice of names. This is not the case anymore, you have to do everything manually, meaning the new method is less effective.
So unless a different way of adding/correcting links is implemented (for example, like adding cast members: you add a name and a list of possible matches appears), I will submit less data/corrections.

Feel free to sign this Petition of mine in regards to that Update of how it could sometime Improve: https://www.change.org/p/imdb-let-us-have-an-easier-way-of-linking-pages-in-trivia-pieces

This new change has also led to a delay in process, before a trivia item i added would appear within 1 hour, now one i added for an actress whose starmeter is above 100k hasn't even appeared in 3 days ... please stop breaking whats not broken.

I can see how this update looks through a Computer Perspective: https://contribute.imdb.com/updates

All those Names now list [link=Number] in their place, appearing like how you'd see them when editing a Trivia Item on the App Version.

I haven't had a chance to fully digest this change yet, but have had some thoughts about it so far.  I mostly live within the Soundtrack space, so my comments refer to that section, but obvously cross over to the others.

Complaint: Readability has been eliminated during editing.
Previously:
Written by 'Justin Timberlake' (qv), 'Tim Mosley (I)' (qv) and 'Scott Storch' (qv)
Performed by 'Justin Timberlake' (qv)
Produced by 'Tim Mosley (I)' (qv)
Currently:
Written by [link=nm0005493], [link=nm0608856] and [link=nm1395028]
Performed by [link=nm0005493]
Produced by [link=nm0608856]

The enhancements Owen suggests would greatly improve this, and should be the highest priority fix.

Suggestion: Putting in something like this should be allowed:
Performed by [link=Justin Timberlake]
and the system would make the conversion automagically.

Putting in something liks this, would bring up the name picker, where we select the correct name (roman numeral), and the system auto-converts it to the name const.
Produced by [link=Tim Mosley]

To-Do item: The back-end needs to update links when name merges happen. Example from soundtracks:
Music by [link=nm2228215]
Name/page doesn't exist under that const anymore.

To-Do item: Links to companies need to be disallowed at submission, and lists scrubbed for them. Example from soundtracks:
Courtesy [link=co0508645]

Typing the new syntax on a virtual keyboard (phone/tablet, etc...) is very time comsuming because the square brackets are not part of the standard virtual keyboard layout. The old (qv) system was much easier to type because single ticks and parens were easy to get to from a virtual keyboard.

Apparently, using this method on a mobile phone is a real pain. Just getting a person’s or a title’s number copied to the clipboard is a nightmare. Seems like nobody bothered to consider that some people use phones to enter contributions while sitting on the couch and watching TV.
As things stand now, I’ll be passing on anything that involves this tedious procedure - too much work for me, sorry. I’ll gladly reconsider this decision if and when the system is improved.

I realise this when it comes to linking, they won't do so if you use Capital Letters.

I notice just now that you can't put in Full Links when linking pages, it can only be the stuff at the end. When doing so on the IMDB App, sometimes when I select on something so I can delete it, it can select a whole thing, making it harded to only include the starting point of the links. Things have gotten harder I'll say.