Posts and Pages w. private visibility don't show up in existing content

[heinrichgeps]

when inserting or editing a link in the editor (post or page) pages & posts with private visibility don't show up in the "existing content" section of the "insert/edit link" popup. All pages/posts with public visibility are shown. This doesn't make sense as I have all necessary privileges to see and edit these private pages/post. Even the admin doesn't see the private pages. Very annoying.

[soulseekah]

Remember that links to private content that a visitor has no access to will result in a 404. ​http://codex.wordpress.org/Content_Visibility#Private_Content
This is especially true for crawlers, you will get 404 even though your content exists for you.

For possible non-core-based solutions to this refer to:

• ​http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/11427/how-to-301-private-posts-rather-than-404
• ​http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/9017/how-do-i-display-content-to-users-who-are-not-logged-in-instead-of-404-on-privat

The attached diff shows private posts in the lists. Patch will not work on 3.3.1, since many things have been moved around in that area.

JS would require proper localization for the word "Private" if this enhancement/defect is considered. If not, use ​HTML links.

[heinrichgeps]

The patch works flawless on 3.3.1.

Remember: there are situations where you have only a few pages / posts that are visible to the public and the main content is visible only to subscribers (we love privacy in germany!). It is very annoying not to be able to use the internal link tool. The 404 problem is very well documented with many possible solutions (you pointed to the most important ones).

Ergo: I'd highly propose the implementation of this patch.

[ocean90]

#44069 was marked as a duplicate.

[MaximeCulea]

Linking a private content might be confusing for a visitor and/or for crawlers considering that this links would generate 404 errors.

So, for my point of view there is no sense in linking a private content.
Finally, as there is a filter, you could programmatically change this behaviour for your needs.

[MaximeCulea]

In my opinion we should not change this behaviour for ux and seo purpose.
Waiting a 2nd opinion since 8 years before taking any decision here.

[knutsp]

Would be nice if such items get marked as having a private destination and can be hidden by CSS for visitors or users missing required capability.

Links pointing to 404 is very bad for SEO.

[noisysocks]

I agree that Core should not encourage linking to a private page as it results in a poor UX for site visitors.

If a user needs to link to a private page, they can still do so by pasting in the private page's URL.

If a site owner wants to enable this functionality, they can do so using the rest_post_search_query filter.