URL to specific post using thread id and post# rather than post id?

[unboggling]

Hi, I hope someone can answer this linking question. From a new post, I want to link to a post within an older thread, and know the thread id and that the specific post is #34 within the thread. But I don't know the post id because the thread is locked. What is the specific syntax for appending the #34?

(I know I've seen something like this somewhere before and can't track it down. The variations I've tried haven't worked.)

Example, want link to post #34 within this thread:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145808

[Iznogood]

The URL is https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...1&postcount=34

Just click the little post count number (#34) in the upper right corner

In the URL you can find the post number, but this linking does not use the thread number.

Edit:Eventually, if you want to use the thread number and know the page of the thread the post is on, you could use https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...essage_1697211

Note that the message count is the post number from the first URL, but that the linking would break if someone changes the behavior of mobileread to show more/less posts per page. The only reliable way is to use the first method

[unboggling]

Originally Posted by norway1456

The URL is https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...1&postcount=34

Just click the little post count number (#34) in the upper right corner

In the URL you can find the post number, but this linking does not use the thread number.

Edit:Eventually, if you want to use the thread number and know the page of the thread the post is on, you could use https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...essage_1697211

Note that the message count is the post number from the first URL, but that the linking would break if someone changes the behavior of mobileread to show more/less posts per page. The only reliable way is to use the first method

@norway1456, thank you! Clicking the #34 to find out the post id and automatically get the url: brilliant! Never would've guessed that in a gazillion years. So that produces your first example, which is what I needed:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1697211&postcount=34

But, btw, that seems redundant, it works without the "&postcount=34" too. So why does it add the &postcount=34 ?

[unboggling]

And now it's unlocked too, thanks to dreams. And thank you again, norway.

[Wetdogeared]

Once you know the internal post number you can also link directly to that post, within MobileRead, using the [Post] bb code.

Example: Have you seen [post=1697211]this[/post]?

Have you seen this?

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by norway1456

Edit:Eventually, if you want to use the thread number and know the page of the thread the post is on, you could use https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...essage_1697211

This may not work for everyone, since in the User CP, you can set your own "Number of Posts to Show Per Page". So a post that shows up on page 7 for you, may show up on page 3 or page 14 for someone else.

So you have to link to posts, not thread pages, if you want the links to work. Also consider that threads may be split or merged, posts moved, and only links that contain the post id itself will keep working then.

[Iznogood]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

This may not work for everyone, since in the User CP, you can set your own "Number of Posts to Show Per Page". So a post that shows up on page 7 for you, may show up on page 3 or page 14 for someone else.

So you have to link to posts, not thread pages, if you want the links to work. Also consider that threads may be split or merged, posts moved, and only links that contain the post id itself will keep working then.

Ah. I didn't know that. Thanks for clearing it up. It occurred to me that it could be broken by global changes in the forum system (and I think I stated that it was unreliable) but I was not aware that it could so easily be broken.

So there is no way to link to a specific thread and post at the same time then? E.g., if I wanted to send a link to a colleague I would have to link to the thread itself, or to just one specific post?

I ask because the link

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145808&page=3#post_message_1697211

takes the user to the specific post but allows scrolling up and down in the thread if the user want to see the context for the post.

[frostschutz]

I think the solution posted by Wetdogeared above my earlier post seems to work fine.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...30#post2218330

I agree that those single post links are bad; a lot of posts are quite useless if shown without context. Maybe this forum could be changed to use the above post link style for the number links, so you can easily right click copy link paste elsewhere etc...

[Jellby]

Click on the number at the top right corner of the post. Replace "showpost" with "showthread" in the address:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...1&postcount=34

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Click on the number at the top right corner of the post. Replace "showpost" with "showthread" in the address:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...1&postcount=34

Technically this solution is wrong too, the scroll down in this case is done by javascript and does not happen for people with JS disabled.

You really need the ?postid#postid style. ?postid to open the correct thread at the correct page that contains the post, #postid to make the browser actually scroll down to the post

[Iznogood]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

I think the solution posted by Wetdogeared above my earlier post seems to work fine.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...30#post2218330

I agree that those single post links are bad; a lot of posts are quite useless if shown without context. Maybe this forum could be changed to use the above post link style for the number links, so you can easily right click copy link paste elsewhere etc...

Yes, I agree that this solution does solve the problem best. Single posts are, as you say, quite useless. A post is only valuable in its full context.

[unboggling]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

You really need the ?postid#postid style. ?postid to open the correct thread at the correct page that contains the post, #postid to make the browser actually scroll down to the post

Thanks, all. I agree: this style seems best for me to standardize on:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1697211#post1697211