Today I created Issue #8486 and pasted 'Release Bundles #92 win64' into the Version field of the Defect formular. Due to the mechanics of the software, Issue #92 got referenced.
When I realized my failure, I changed the description of #8486 by formatting 'Release Bundles #92' as code block and deleted the first version of this description.
What I would expect
After deleting the former version of the description, the reference would disappear from #92 and therefore wouldn't be marked as recently changed.
What happened
The reference is still listed in #92, but it's crossed out. When sorting the issue list by 'recently updated', it's still on top.
Conclusion
For me it seems like a bug, not a feature. So some issues get trashed with references.
Related is the issue with Crash Reports referencing the first nine Issues of the tracker (for example #7759; see #6 which got bumped unintended 7 years later).
Disclaimer: I didn't file a bug in 0ad/0ad because it doesn't refer to the game itself nor the forums and the website. I did not file one at Giteas own bug tracker, because I don't know the specifications of this instance.