8

I want to archive some questions. But some comments are hidden because of the mechanics of how SE's UX work i.e. I have to click on show X more comments below each post.

So, like superuser.com/a/1557718 expands to https://superuser.com/questions/1557711/how-to-know-the-font-used-in-a-pdf-file/1557718#1557718,
What modification can I do in xyz.stackexchange.com/q/... so that all comments are visible in each post?

I tried appending some ? and & based combination, just random tries with assumed terms, but SE sites seem well designed to avoid SQL in URL hacks - so this approach didn't work.

Improve this question
2
  • In case there isn't such a url to show all comments by default, one possible option is to use Stack Printer. Select the site and enter the question id to get the question and answers in a printable format. All the comments are displayed. Of course you can also just compose a query to get all comments using Data Explorer
    – Cave Johnson
    Commented Jun 10, 2020 at 5:36
  • Pretty sure that's just not possible. There's a pending feature request asking to add such a button.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jun 10, 2020 at 5:49

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
4

It's hard to prove a negative, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist. If it would exist, it would be a good candidate to be added to my answer on Documentation for Stack Exchange engine URLs?

I want to archive some questions.

I agree it would be easiest to do so by just saving the URL to the Wayback Machine. @KodosJohnson mentions a few solutions in the comments:

  • Stack Printer (I haven't tried it)

  • SEDE - it's possible to archive SEDE queries if you run them manually first (the Wayback Machine can't defeat the Captcha)

    A possible downside is that SEDE is refreshed only once a week, on Sunday morning

  • Since you tagged your question , you can use the questions by ids method with an appropriate filter to fetch all relevant data. Here is an interactive example, and you can copy the URL and pass it to the Wayback Machine.

Improve this answer
3

Some comments are hidden

There are a couple of different user scripts to expand all comments:

The following script for Tampermonkey (multi browser) or Greasemonkey (Firefox) automatically expands all comments which are normally hidden behind the "show ... more comments" link:

Expand all comments script - Stack Apps

In principle that what Expand all comments script does, but with two major differences:

  • Scrolls the page back to the initial target of the corresponding link you selected (i.e. to question, question comment, answer or answer comment) after comment expansion (since also "clicking" on a link programmatically – show n more comments in this case – scrolls the page to that link).
  • [internal] Uses regex for @include and @exclude. (Agreed, this prevents the really nice Sites favicons in Tampermonkey's Installed userscripts tab.)

script - StackExchange – Expand Hidden Comments - Stack Apps

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .