You’ve been told many many times now of the differences between block and inline elements so these same questions are wearing a little bit thin now.
‘A’ elements are inline elements by default and have a default display of inline. If you need to apply dimensions or proper vertical margins and padding then you need to set them to display: block ( or display:inline-block).
I know the Discourse search can be a little awkward to use, so I suggest you use the bookmark facility to keep note of useful posts, so you can easily refer back to them.