Direct link to question, answers and comments

Hi Amy,

thanks for your answer! That's really not that obvious! *haha*
Maybe you could just add a "(permalink)" (if it is one) after it?

What about the comments? And the topics it seems I have to link as they are?
(So no "single post" as I made a example of?)

PS: I checked the URL of the "direct" URL, isn't it a little bit long? Or else put:
Can't you "rewrite" the URLs via Apache or sth. like that? I only know, that this is technically possible with Apache commands from my old days of website-building geekery. ;) You should also be able to make permalinks somehow this way.

By the way: Which system (CMS) are you hosting this site on?
(You could put that Q&A in the non-existing FAQ too. ;-p)

PS: Philipp ;)

Philipp, our site is custom built using Ruby on Rails. If you are looking for a short URL for a topic, try clicking the "Twitter this" link. You don't have to actually send a tweet, but you may copy the short URL from the overlay and it will link to the topic page. Permalinks from the timestamps are as good as you're going to get for linking to a Reply or comment.

Hi Cameron,

> "Permalinks from the timestamps are as good as you're going to get for linking to a Reply or comment."

I don't get this sentence. (Maybe it's too late here. ;-))
As I just thought about, that it is impossible to make a "readable URL" out of a random comment or so and you are already using "readable URLs" for the start topics, I'll withdraw my request concerning this part.

But I still don't get, what wrong with approaching to the URL system used in forums for the advantages I mentioned and those, that are obvious?

Philipp, sorry for confusing you. What I meant to say was that we have no plans to design individual pages for replies to be linked to directly. We are building a conversation platform, not a standard forum system, so we don't see a need to link to a page containing only one reply out of context of the conversation.

As it stands, you may link directly to replies as Amy said above, with a full url http://getsatisfaction.com/satisfaction/topics/direct_link_to_question_answers_and_comments#reply_527260 or (through the handy use of our "twitter this" url shortener) a short url http://gsfn.us/t/jb2#reply_527260.

I hope that helps clarify!

Hi Cameron,

yes that's cool! :) Of course the "one reply out of context" proposal is very sophisticated, as you see I even didn't find a lot of examples!

Your solution is great! :) But: Now is the question, let's say I'm the average user
(I was until trying to find the number of the post), where did you get that number!?
And how do I as the average-0815 user know, that it works like that?!

It's not self-explanatory and not even easily obtainable, as even as a advanced user, I have to get the trick, Amy told me, then copy the URL, then delete this part: "?utm_content=topic_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=reply_notification"
and then I can use the URL !! That's not usable, sorry.

Bottom line: Can we do it without the "?utm_content=topic_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=reply_notification" and can we make the labels self-explanatory with a simple "#{script gets the right no.}" and/or "(permalink)" label?

You're right about the extra parameters being a hassle. Those are a product of coming to the topic or reply directly from an email notification. We could remove them through the use of a redirect, but that might be more hassle than it's worth.

The number of the post comes from the timestamp link,

and now I see the problem!

...

When visiting this page from an email (as I just did), all the timestamp links have the "?utm_content=topic_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=reply_notification" junk! That's something we can fix. I will add it to our bug tracker.

I just don't understand why you would have to remove them that complicated?

Of course I don't know your custom-built Rails system, but when this works in several standard forums, why shouldn't it possibly work with Ruby on Rails here?

I've just fixed the bug a deployed the change to the timestamps/permalinks.

The old: n minutes ago linked to http://getsatisfaction.com/satisfaction/topics/direct_link_to_question_answers_and_comments?utm_content=reply_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=reply_notification#reply_527683

The new: n minutes ago now links to http://getsatisfaction.com/satisfaction/topics/direct_link_to_question_answers_and_comments#reply_527683

Ah Cameron, I now got the point above! It all works fine, if you don't go here via the stupid e-mails!!! :) Great! Sorry for all the trouble! ;-)