# Lost question - how can I find it again?

A long time ago, I asked a question to the effect of:

If choice fails, can the cardinal numbers still be totally ordered?

Or something like that. Anyway, as I recall, Asaf Karagila gave a rather detailed answer that I'd like to reread. However, all searches have failed to find it. Furthermore, with 223 questions to my profile, it would be a real pain to go through them one at a time. Is there a better way to find it?

• Saying that I answered it doesn't make it easier... I answered a lot of your questions and I answered most the AC related questions... :-P – Asaf Karagila Jun 24 '13 at 18:57

You can limit search to your own questions by adding the user: toggle. To search for one's own posts we can use user:me. For posts of other users use user:##### where the ##### is replaced by the user number of the user (you can find it out by hovering your mouse over the user's name card, the number is the first number that appears in the URL. For example, Martin Sleziak is user 8297).

Since it is a question, you can further limit the search to questions by using is:question (as opposed to is:answer).

Then you just need to add a few keywords. So for example, when I searched for

ordered cardinal choice user:42339 is:question


(user 42339 is you, the OP), I end up with this results page.

(On the search results page, there is a link to the right that says "Advanced Search Tips". You can click on it and see what other search options you can use to better filter your search results.)

• Much more in-depth answer than mine (+1) – robjohn Jun 24 '13 at 13:00
• Considering the large number of questions about choice and cardinals answered by Asaf, in this instance it is more useful to search for "your question" instead of "Asaf's answer". It is unfortunate that the SE search function does not extend to specifying both a question author and an answer author (only one author can be specified at a time). – Willie Wong Jun 24 '13 at 13:03

I googled for user18921 Karagila cardinals.

Is this the question you're looking for?
Does well-ordering of the proper class of cardinal numbers imply choice?

• Ahh yes brilliant. It didn't occur to me that I could search for people's usernames like that. Thank you. – goblin Jun 24 '13 at 12:49
• adding site:math.stackexchange.com to such Google searches often helps narrow down the results. – Isaac Jun 24 '13 at 13:51

This query returns the same result as Martin Sleziak found.

On that results page, if you click on the "Advanced Search Tips" link, you will see a list of options for refining a search.