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My user ID on StackOverflow is 50776.

I just noticed that when sharing a link, it's appended to the end of any link when I try and get a link for a question/post.

User ID attached to share link

I'm curious what purposes this is for (not being a privacy nut either, I'm not concerned).

The question arises because if I post the link (on a Facebook wall, or tweet it, etc), then other people can share that link, and at best, the only tracking that can be done is who exposed the link for a subset of views.

This is a valid reason in itself, but I was wondering if there were any others.

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It's used to track questions views for the Announcer, Booster, and Publicist badges. There are no other reasons that I'm aware of.

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  • 5
    If you don't want those badges, you can just copy the link to the question from your browser's address bar.
    – Kate Gregory
    Commented Nov 25, 2011 at 18:59
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    @KateGregory Or delete the userid from the link before using it anywhere. That way you get the benefit of the shortened link as well.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Nov 25, 2011 at 22:08
  • See also the blog: Announcer, Booster, and Publicist Badges. (And @Kate, copying a full link for an answer is slightly harder.)
    – Arjan
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 21:01
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    And oddly enough, these badges apparently are not (yet) awarded for answers. That makes the user id in permalinks for answers useless, but I guess that will soon change.
    – Arjan
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 21:05
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    @Arjan It has changed since 2012-01-10: Sharing direct links to answers now also counts towards these badges
    – Volo
    Commented May 9, 2012 at 16:43

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