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A large number of story-ID questions come in with insufficient detail to be usefully answered, and there are several people here who point this out, usually commenting with a link to How to ask a good story-ID question?

Is it possible - and would it be sensible - to make that a "magic link", say "[story-id]", much as [ask] expands to "How to Ask" with a link to the appropriate FAQ?

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  • 8
    I like this idea.
    – Möoz
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 19:35

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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There are two very useful user scripts that can be used to get what you want:

  1. AutoReviewComments

    This will add a new auto button next to the "add a comment" one on every question or answer which, when clicked, will present you with a configurable list of comments to insert:

    auto comment link enter image description here

    You can use write the comment you want, including the link, and will be able to add it in two clicks. This, of course, assumes that you want to leave the same comment in all cases.

  2. Custom "magic links" for comments.

    This one is basically exactly what you asked for. You can define your own, custom [magic links] and those will work just like the official ones, automagically expanded to link to whatever you've configured them to link to. In your case, you would add an entry like this:

    magicLinks['story id'] = 'https://scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/9335/
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  • 2
    I'd love to use one of these, but I can't install any sort of browser add-ons here. :(
    – Jeff Zeitlin
    Commented Mar 23, 2018 at 11:36
  • I use AutoReviewComments. I've got four kinds of ID prompts set up and it saves loads of time
    – Valorum
    Commented Jun 22, 2019 at 17:04
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I just asked a CM and this is not possible. Sorry.

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  • 13
    Boooooooo-hiss.
    – Valorum
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 23:43
  • 11
    [citation needed]
    – Möoz
    Commented Mar 22, 2018 at 0:17
  • 6
    Why isn't it, praytell?
    – DCOPTimDowd
    Commented Mar 22, 2018 at 17:09
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    @DCOPTimDowd Apparently the links are all "hard-coded somewhere". (I don't know what this means, being pretty ignorant about programming - for a better explanation, it's probably easier to ask a CM directly, e.g. on Meta Stack Exchange or its chat.)
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Commented Mar 23, 2018 at 9:21
  • @Randal'Thor - it usually means it's buried in a section of the code that's not easily updatable, I guess for a website that'd be part of the backend scripting or something else that'd have to be republished and tested (only half-ass expert myself). Most developers create separate options or definitions files that can be updated on the fly for easy changes that the core engine can reread and update to. Magic links must not be in one of those.
    – Radhil
    Commented Mar 23, 2018 at 14:39
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    @Randal'Thor - Hardcoded means that it is expressly written in the code itself, rather than pulled in from an external source. The downside is that any update to that specific line means the entire application (if it is compiled) has to be updated at the same time. If it is hardcoded in web page(s), then every reference has to be updated. Some heavy lifting.
    – JohnP
    Commented Mar 23, 2018 at 16:57
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    The response from CM seems to contradict this MSE post which requested [mcve] magic link specifically for SO... however I don't know the feasibility of a magic link pointing to a specific meta post though.
    – Andrew T.
    Commented Mar 28, 2018 at 8:12
  • @AndrewT.: As far as I understand things, SO runs a ton of custom code and is generally "special."
    – Kevin
    Commented Jun 25, 2019 at 1:16

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