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I know how to search a user by name. But I want to search for tags and a particular username. Searching for the userid does not work, because I do know that there are several userids for the same username (and actual person). So this is different to the other questions posed here already.

The reason for it being that some users (for rather technical reasons) get a new userid from time to time. Actually, even I got a new one for no reason (that I was able to understand at that time). As an example I want to search user:mat [prolog].

In the below discussion it was suggested to add a user merge request for user:mat. Which I subsequently did. Unfortunately, this was not really welcomed - implying that I want to force a user to merge who supposedly does not want to. In any case this suggests that searching for the username is a missing functionality.

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  • Do flag multiple profiles of the same person for a mod to merge.
    – user154510
    Mar 3, 2012 at 19:42
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    Searching by username is pretty unreliable. Just because you have two different user accounts with the same display name doesn't mean they're the same person.
    – BoltClock's a Unicorn
    Mar 3, 2012 at 19:43
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    @Matthew Read: Fine, but how do I find all multiples?
    – false
    Mar 3, 2012 at 19:44
  • As for the reason for asking this feature request, having two accounts is not something forbidden, as long as one of the accounts is not used to up-vote the other one, or both the accounts are used to vote posts written by another user. Moderators, who have better tools to identify accounts used from the same person, merge accounts if they have a good reason. If you plan to flag all the accounts you think are from the same user, don't be surprised moderators don't take any action.
    – apaderno
    Mar 3, 2012 at 21:37
  • @kiamlaluno: In the concrete case, all such accounts do have the same name and write about the same subject. And it is by no means intended by the user to do this. It is just that for some (technical) reason he loses the identity and thus restarts it all over again.
    – false
    Mar 3, 2012 at 21:53
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    If that is the case, just report it in chat, or here. If that is the only use case you have in mind for the feature request, I am not sure it is going to be implemented. Furthermore, unregistered accounts are not searchable, using the search page.
    – apaderno
    Mar 3, 2012 at 21:57
  • @kiamlaluno: Thank you, I did what you suggested
    – false
    Mar 3, 2012 at 22:52
  • @false You're assuming that it isn't the user's intention to have multiple accounts. You have no way to know for sure, do you?
    – razlebe
    Mar 22, 2012 at 7:24
  • @razlebe: My intention was to have a somewhat unified access to all articles of mat. I proposed to search a user by name and not by uid. But was told that the "right" way is to unify those accounts. But no, it does not seem to be a good idea after the discussion in the other thread. What I know for sure is that it would be a benefit to all to have somewhat better access. No matter how. It is a pity that a lot of valuable answers are de facto inaccessible.
    – false
    Mar 22, 2012 at 13:51
  • Is there a way to search for a user with a string and not id number?
    – Eric Johnson
    Feb 20 at 8:26

1 Answer 1

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Now, since the account merge request has been denied, your only option is Data.SE.

https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/66937/mats-posts-answers

SELECT
  id AS [Post Link],  -- This creates a link to the question
  CreationDate,       -- May be useful
  body                -- Preview
FROM posts
WHERE
  Posts.PostTypeId<=3 -- Questions, answers and CWikis. Mat only posted answers
  AND Posts.OwnerUserId in (350449,359483,365186,382821,464906,467302,468055,468966,477848,487505,497684,509695,512816,517270,558531,657053,690673,693422,812275,851052,927614,959589,999877,1158828,1189709,1229606,1288893,1292916,1311359,1319706,1320725);
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  • ! Thanks I did not know that... and there is also UserDisplayName
    – false
    Apr 16, 2012 at 20:41
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    @false The UserDisplayName field contains strings. Queries involving these take much longer than the ones about the OwnerUserId fields.
    – Rob W
    Apr 16, 2012 at 20:42
  • I understand. It is to find out all uids. Manually, I had 14 first, now 31 ...
    – false
    Apr 16, 2012 at 20:46
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    @false Including reputation in the query can be useful, since the mat's you're after are the low-rep users. See this query: data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/66943/who-is-mat
    – Rob W
    Apr 16, 2012 at 20:53
  • Just thank you again - I found 14 further mat users that match (and will remember to exclude all others next time I will query them...)
    – false
    Apr 16, 2012 at 22:12

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