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I recently linked an answer I posted, and the question now has almost 15k views. I am sure that not all of them came from the link I posted, but probably at least half of them were.

But currently the only way to get the publicist badge is grab the perma-link to the question itself.

Should it be possible to earn the Publicist Badge by linking to an answer of a question?

Edit: So it is possible, its just complex and non intuitive. I think there should an intuitive option available instead of finding out how to do it manually.

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2 Answers 2

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The link to an answer doesn't have your user ID in it for tracking like the one from the question does, so it can't be tracked. Should it be possible? maybe - but the links would be even longer than they are now.

For example (for me - being user 135201 on meta), this question link is:

http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/71474/135201

And the link to this answer:

http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/71474/should-it-be-possible-to-earn-the-publicist-badge-by-linking-to-an-answer-of-a-qu/71479#71479

Currently you see they have very different formats...so really it's also a discussion about changing the overall link format, which would be required to support awarding the badge for answer links.

Doing it yourself, it would look like this:

http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/71474/135201#71479
Format: http://site/questions/QuestionID/UserID#AnswerID

This is just a question link, but it scrolls down to the question with the hash just the same...so it's not tracked as an answer hit (if this matters), but will have the desired results: a tracked link to the question while still scrolling to the answer.

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  • So you are saying that it is possible but requires an annoying work-around that only helps after the fact? I think it should be part of the default functionality.
    – AttackingHobo
    Dec 4, 2010 at 18:13
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    The DIY solution might not warp to the answer if there are multiple pages of answers, while the current syntax for answers ensures the answer is shown.
    – Charles Stewart
    Dec 7, 2010 at 14:02
  • I wonder if http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/71474/-/135201#71479 might be safer and more correct
    – Jeff Atwood
    Sep 1, 2011 at 7:59
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You can do this manually.

Take the link from the question and replace the question id (71474 in this case) with the id of the answer (71480 for this answer):

http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/71480/59303/

However, I'm not sure how whether this would register visits correctly as the post id is now an answer rather than a question, though the URL is of the correct form.

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  • This would require that the routes to handle that format (and don't depend on question ID specifically...so this assumes they get the question ID if passed the answer ID). You can do the proper format and get the to-answer scroll though, without needing any changes...though it is still manual for now, updated to show how.
    – Nick Craver
    Dec 4, 2010 at 13:13
  • @Nick the link works and displays the page focused on the answer, but your url is probably the best way.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Dec 4, 2010 at 13:14
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    Oh I agree your version definitely navigates correctly...I'm just not sure on the tracking. It could very well work fine...I'm just not sure of a way to test that doesn't involve 25 people :). It'd be great if one of the SO guys would weight in and give us a definite answer...your version with a hash would be the best of both if it works, could track answer links, question links and still get the scroll all at once.
    – Nick Craver
    Dec 4, 2010 at 13:18
  • @Nick you can answer your own question now
    – Andreas Bonini
    Feb 27, 2012 at 17:13

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