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This is a minor thing, but it's been bugging me:

When I navigate onto the Timeline page for a post (using the little clock icon), I can often see that there is a new answer (e.g. here, on today, Oct 05, 2021). I'd expect there to be a link that I could click on to take me to that new answer, but click as I might I've never found it.

It's not so bad for posts with only a few answers, like that one, but sometimes it's an old post with lots of answers and discussion and I just can't find it.

Configuration information: I have just under 5k reputation. I'm using Firefox on Windows. I do use NoScript, but I have everything except google-analytics.com allowed. And if it helps at all, I'll add a screenshot of what I see:

enter image description here

(Also not sure if this is 'support' or 'feature-request', so I added both tags. Feel free to delete as appropriate.)

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  • $\begingroup$ It tells you who posted the new answer, doesn't it, which should make it easy to find it. $\endgroup$ Oct 5, 2021 at 22:27
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    $\begingroup$ @GerryMyerson - not quite so easy when the answers are spread over multiple pages. Or if the same user made multiple comments. I guess I also posted this question because I'm a bit surprised that one wouldn't include a direct link when creating that interface. I figured it was more likely that I was just missing something, but wanted confirmation. $\endgroup$
    – JonathanZ
    Oct 5, 2021 at 22:34
  • $\begingroup$ Can't you just do a "find"? or go to the user's activity page and see the user's answers, listed chronologically? [I agree that it would be easier if we could do it directly from the Timeline.] $\endgroup$ Oct 5, 2021 at 22:38
  • $\begingroup$ I guess I should have said that, yes, with enough diligence I have been able to track them down, but it often ends up being more trouble than it's worth. $\endgroup$
    – JonathanZ
    Oct 5, 2021 at 23:23
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    $\begingroup$ Other alternatives for finding the most recent answer include using the buttons on the question page to sort the answers by "Active" and look at the first one/couple (edits also make an answer/question active), or sort by "Oldest" and go to the end of the list of answers to see the most recent. Alternately, you can click on the link just under the question title which will show you the last activity. That link is in the time of the last activity: "Active [link saying how long ago]". However, the active link will also consider edits to be activity, so may show you the most recent edit. $\endgroup$
    – Makyen
    Oct 6, 2021 at 18:55

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This feature request is now implemented: see 'The timeline view for a question should include links to the answers' at Meta Stack Exchange for details. Quoting from Felippe Rangel's answer there:

We've just pushed a change that adds the "Added" verb to answers in the timeline, and it now links to the answer.

Bonus feature: if you have permissions to see deleted comments, the timeline should now properly display deleted comments and link to them as well.

For comparison with the screenshot in this question, this is what the timeline of that post looks like right now:

Timeline for 'Request from PRIMES to keep an eye out for their problems'

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    $\begingroup$ Well, this was a question I never expected to accept an answer for. $\endgroup$
    – JonathanZ
    Jun 7, 2022 at 2:45
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In the righthand column, click on the "timeline" link:

enter image description here

This brings up the timeline for the given answer. From that timeline, click the link at the top of the page to get to the answer itself:

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ So once you're on that second page you click on the title of the post to get sent to that particular answer? You've given me the perfect reply, Xander - I have a solution to my problem and I don't feel at all bad for not having figured it out on my own. :--) $\endgroup$
    – JonathanZ
    Oct 6, 2021 at 3:37
  • $\begingroup$ @JonathanZsupportsMonicaC I would concur that this feature is neither intuitive nor discoverable. A link in the timeline of the question would be useful. :/ $\endgroup$
    – Xander Henderson Mod
    Oct 6, 2021 at 13:49
  • $\begingroup$ And I just discovered/noticed that comments do have such a link, with the word "added". As befits a math person, I'm more bothered by the inconsistency than the inconvenience. $\endgroup$
    – JonathanZ
    Oct 6, 2021 at 17:46
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As an alternative, if you're alright with installing userscripts on your browser, you can try one of Samuel Liew's useful userscripts: Post Headers & Question TOC. It provides (among other things) a table of contents of answers in the right sidebar. Clicking on the entry of an answer scrolls the page to the beginning of that answer.

I expect this would be especially useful when there are lots of answers, which is the scenario you mention in your post.

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