There is a List of unlinked pages on Stack Exchange sites but it only covers URLs you normally wouldn't find. I don't think there's a unified location document for 'public' URLs, so here's an attempt:
Questions
- Canonical form: /questions/[question ID]/[question title]
- Most links generated by the site itself have this form (e.g. question lists, sidebar widgets)
- [question title] is not the full title if it's longer than 80 characters
- What you type as [question title] doesn't matter; if you type something else, it'll still redirect to the canonical form (which exists for SEO purposes)
- If you use an answer ID instead of a question ID, it'll still work and redirect to the canonical form (of the answer)
- Parameters (here is an extended but not up-to-date list, these are the ones I see the most):
lq=1
: visited from the Linked Questions sidebar widgetrq=1
: visited from the Related Questions sidebar widgetnoredirect=1
: prevents redirection to original question in the following cases:- Questions with no answers closed as duplicates of one question (only active for anonymous users)
- Questions migrated to other sites (i.e. migration stubs) (always prevented for moderators)
lastactivity
: links to the last activity (edited post, new answer) on the pagecb=1
: visited from the Community Bulletin (sidebar widget with Meta posts and blog links)r=SearchResults
: visited from a search results page. In this case, a parameters=[rank]|[relevance]
is added as well; see here for more details.answertab=[sort]
, where[sort]
is one ofactive
,oldest
,votes
, makes sure the right sort is set (regardless of the user's current choice). Often combined with a#tab-top
fragment to scroll down to the answers.
- Short form: /q/[question ID] or /q/[question ID]/[user ID]
- This is the link you get by clicking the share link underneath a question; the user ID is the one currently logged in, not the author. It makes sure the link counts for the Announcer badge and its kin.
- If you use an answer ID instead of a question ID, it'll still work and redirect to the canonical form (of the answer)
- If you use the ID of a tag wiki or excerpt, e.g. https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/62883, it will redirect to the tag info page.
- An obscure form, used in the newsletter: /landing/r/newsletter?cta=question&id=[question ID]
Answers
- Canonical form: /questions/[question ID]/[question title]/[answer ID]#[answer ID]
- This is basically an extended version of the canonical question URL; again, only the question ID and the last answer ID matter (the latter because it scrolls the page to the right position).
- The first answer ID matters if there are too many answers to fit on a single page; it makes sure the correct page is displayed.
- Short form: /a/[answer ID] or /a/[answer ID]/[user ID]
- If you use a question ID instead of an answer ID, it'll still work and redirect to the canonical form (of the question)
- The global inbox uses this format (with
noredirect=1
) when somebody posts an answer to one of your questions.
Posts / revisions
- Edit post: /posts/[post ID]/edit
- Revision history: /posts/[post ID]/revisions
- Can be visited via the 'edited x hours ago' link underneath a post, but works when there is only a single revision too.
- The global inbox uses this format for notifications that one of your posts has been edited.
- Single revision (rendered): /revisions/[post ID]/[revision number]
- Edit post, starting from a particular revision: /posts/[post ID]/edit/[revision GUID]
- Single revision (markdown): /revisions/[revision GUID]/view-source
- Timeline: /posts/[post ID]/timeline
Comments
- Canonical forms:
- /questions/[question ID]/[question title]#comment[comment ID]_[question ID]
- /questions/[question ID]/[question title]/[answer ID]#comment[comment ID]_[answer ID]
- Most of the remarks about questions and answers applies here, too
- Short form: /posts/comments/[comment ID]
- This format (with a
noredirect=1
parameter) is used in the global inbox.
- This format (with a
Users
- Most URLs support
current
instead of a user ID. This will automatically be populated with the user who is currently logged in, so e.g. /users/current will redirect to your own user page. - Canonical form: /users/[user ID]/[display name]
- What you type as [display name] doesn't matter; if you type something else, it'll still redirect to the canonical form (which exists for SEO purposes)
- For your own user (for ♦ moderators, all users), this shows the Activity page; for other users, the Profile page
- Navigation is possible with
- the
tab
parameter (for the top tab: Profile / Activity and the second Activity tab (Summary / Answers / Questions etc.) - the
sort
parameter (for subtabs; sometimes it does affect the sorting, e.g. answers by votes or by creation date; sometimes it's just an additional filter, e.g. with votes) - the
page
parameter
- the
- Short form: /u/[user ID]
- Even works for deleted users (♦ moderators are able to view them)
- Doesn't support
current
- Flag summary: /users/flag-summary/[user ID]
- Normally only works on your own user ID; ♦ moderators can view other users' flag summaries as well.
- Edit profile page: /users/edit/[user ID]
- Normally only works on your own user ID; ♦ moderators can edit other users' profiles and some of the subpages as well.
- Edit subpages have their own URL structure, e.g. /users/email/settings/[user ID] for the email settings and /users/delete/[user ID] for the 'Delete account' page.
- Deleted posts: /users/deleted-questions/[user ID] and /users/deleted-answers/[user ID]
- Normally only works on your own user ID; ♦ moderators can view them for other users as well.