How do you get the url/marker to a specific post?

This is probably a stupid/obvious question…

People often link to a specific post, and it’ll look something like:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=tjga-ds9gh&postid=1924192#post92414

I know the # references html “marks” made on a page so that one can skip around within an individual page, but I’m wondering if there’s an easy way to get that url and link to a specific post.

It seems unlikely that people view the html source and insert the post number into the url, because it’d be a bunch of work, due to the dynamic nature of the BBS links. They may just do that, but if there’s an easier way, I’ve missed it.

I don’t believe those marakers exist in the SDMB layout so you probably can’t make use of the feature.

If you mouse over the “Quote” button in the lower right corner of each post, the postid is in the URL to identify not just the thread but the post. You still have to construct the URL manually, but that’s the only obvious way I see.

Ah, it seems if you remove “action type=reply” or whatever, and also change “newreply” to “showthread” at the beginning, the url changes into a pointer, but as people frequently do this, I assume there’s an easier way. Maybe not.

Since this is a question about this message board, I’ll move this thread to ATMB.

This post describes how to link to specific posts.

There is no easy way to do it. You have to construct the link manually. I do it as follows (which is fairly easy to remember)…

First, click the Quote button on the post you want to link to, then copy and paste the address field into the reply window, to get…
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?s=&action=newreply&postid=2671041

I replace the first “newreply” with “showthread” to get…
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&action=newreply&postid=2671041

Then I delete “s=&action=newreply” and add “#postxxxxxx” to get…
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?&postid=2671041#post2671041

I then add the tags and a description to get…
description

Now you have your link and you just have to add your erudite text around it.

Algernon - you can also get rid of the & right after the ?.

Thanks Arnold for the additional info.

Once I found a system that worked I didn’t mess with it.

What I do is “View Source” in the browser, do a find for a recognisable string of text in the source, then scroll up slightly to get the Post ID. Not the most efficient way of doing it compared to the above.

How about putting a working sample in a text document on your desktop and then simply paste it in with the postid # changed as appropriate?

:smack: Why didn’t I think of that?

That’s a great idea UncleBeer. Since I compose all my posts in Notes email first anyway, I can just keep a draft document handy with the appropriate coding.

Personally, I copy and past the URL for the entire thread, and then manually postpend the #post12345 . I get the post number by hovering over one of the buttons below the post (edit, quote, “report this post” and “IP: Logged” all work for this).

Thanks. I thought perhaps there was a link somewhere that I was missing, and I didn’t want to do everything manually if there was an easy way. But doing it manually is simple enough.

Chronos: That’s not the best way to do it.

Would it be priggish of me to point out that this is in a thread entitled “FAQ - technical issues - please read this BEFORE posting a question”?

Nothing against you personally, SenorBeef, but I’m repeatedly astonished at the number of posters that post questions that are answered explicitly in that very clearly marked thread. This one’s borderline but I seem to be grumpy today.

Point taken - I’ve never been in the ATMB forum, and I’d forgotten it exists.

While my usual method is to copy in the template from my handy-dandy notepad “vB quote code.txt” file and then overlay the post number with the number displayed when hovering over the quote button, there is an easier way to ensure you’ve got the correct link if you’ve gotten there through a search.

If you specify “Show results as posts” on the search page, you can get a direct link from the Post link instead of the Thread link. The url includes the search argument between the &postid=9999999 and the #post9999999
(as in &postid=9999999&highlight=cecil#post9999999)
and you can either eliminate the &highlight=cecil or leave it in there.

NOW, the time and resources needed to run a search simply to save typing 14 keystrokes over a template means that this is NOT the way I generally insert direct-to-post links. (Heck, it takes more than 14 keystrokes–and lots more time–to put in a search argument and username, identify a time period, choose a display method, and select the individual Forum to be searched.) However, if I have already done the search, this method does keep me from providing a link to some thread in MPSIMS when I thought I was citing a pertinent remark in Great Debates simply because I can’t type.