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I thought maybe I just wasn't finding it, but after inspection of the HTML of the timeline view, I can see that there aren't any links to actual answers from the timeline view.

For example, see https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/posts/51670/timeline

At first I thought maybe clicking the poster's name was a link to the answer, since I didn't notice that the A was a link. Then I clicked the A and expected to get sent to the answer (URL), but instead it just moves me down the page to the last revision of the post (which is fine).

So, at the revisions of answers in the history, can we get an actual link to the real answer? (I.E. Why do programmers use or recommend Mac OS X?)

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  • 1
    This seems like a reasonable request and, to be honest, I am honestly surprised that we don't do this... we link to everything else, including comments, but not answers. We think this is a good thing to add and have put it on our backlog. We'll get to it as part of our normal bug rotation.
    – Catija
    Commented Jan 30, 2022 at 22:43
  • @Catija bug rotation? But that's not a bug. It's a feature request. :/
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jan 31, 2022 at 13:31
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    @ShadowWizardHatesOmicron does it matter? Small features are treated like bugs because they don't require a full feature development process.
    – Catija
    Commented Jan 31, 2022 at 13:42

3 Answers 3

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Long time coming for this one! We've just pushed a change that adds the "Added" verb to answers in the timeline, and it now links to the answer.

Bonus feature: if you have permissions to see deleted comments, the timeline should now properly display deleted comments and link to them as well.

Appreciate the help with reporting and suggestions folks! Thank you for your patience.

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    That is a REALLY nice bonus 😁
    – Shog9
    Commented Jun 6, 2022 at 20:08
  • 1
    "Bonus feature: if you have permissions to see deleted comments, the timeline should now properly display deleted comments and link to them as well." - That is an excellent addition! (Especially in addition to the other change.)
    – V2Blast
    Commented Jun 7, 2022 at 4:57
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I just came here to request the same thing (wow, 10 years!). Currently the timeline view looks like this (source):

enter image description here

For comments, the text "added" links to the comment, which is good. I'd like to see the same for answers:

  • When an answer is added, give it "added" text with a link.
  • When an answer is deleted, make the "deleted by" text be a link.

Alternatively:

  • Get rid of the "added" text and link for comments.
  • Change the colored square in the "what" column to link to the relevant item.

Either of those (or something else I didn't suggest) would be handy.

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3

I support this feature request, please make it happen.

But in the meantime, for those who aren't aware, you can navigate to any answer via the "timeline" link next to the answer logged in the timeline list:

Example of a question's timeline, showing how answers appear in the timeline, with a link to the answer timeline underlined in the "comment" column

There are, however, two click involved; once on the "timeline" link next to the answer you would like to navigate to, and once on the top link at the page you will be taken to (the timeline of the answer).

Here is a demonstration with last December's Winter Bash "Show off your hats" post:

GIF showing how to navigate from a question's timeline to the answer's timeline, and then to the answer itself

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