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I just noticed that where user profile pages used to display (something like) "view all questions and answers," they now say "view all questions, answers, and articles" (emph. mine); see the image below, directly beneath the "Top posts" header.

What exactly is an "article" in this context? The relevant link gives a 404 error for each user I've tried. Is this a feature in the process of being added, or something else?

Note that this is only something visible when looking at another user's profile. E.g. if I look at my own profile (while logged in) I see no mention of articles. (This is why in the image below I'm logged out.)

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Corresponding bug report on MSE: Articles on MSE? $\endgroup$
    – Xander Henderson Mod
    Nov 14 at 20:51
  • $\begingroup$ @XanderHenderson Ah, interesting! And at StackOverflow the articles link does do something - e.g. this randomly picked user has no articles, but we nonetheless don't see a 404 error. So is this something that's really only for SO and got accidentally pushed onto all sites, or what? $\endgroup$
    – Noah Schweber
    Nov 14 at 20:53
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    $\begingroup$ Also relevant: stackoverflow.blog/2021/05/03/… $\endgroup$
    – Xander Henderson Mod
    Nov 14 at 20:57
  • $\begingroup$ I have no idea if this was "accidentally" pushed to users off of SO. I don't know anything beyond what is in that currently unanswered Meta SE post. :\ $\endgroup$
    – Xander Henderson Mod
    Nov 14 at 20:58
  • $\begingroup$ @XanderHenderson Fair enough, thanks! $\endgroup$
    – Noah Schweber
    Nov 14 at 20:58
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    $\begingroup$ Also see this CM post (in particular the last sentence) and the rest of that thread. So with minimal supporting evidence, my speculation is that Articles will be rolled out network-wide some time in the future, and today's release is a technical error. On a more specific note, if the Articles plan is true then it would be beneficial to this community as it can solve a lot of duplicate post issues. $\endgroup$
    – TheSimpliFire Mod
    Nov 14 at 21:40
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    $\begingroup$ @TheSimpliFire It will also pose more moderation challenges, e.g. cranks will now be article-blogging their "proofs" of FLT, $\,3x\!+\!1$, etc in hopes of benefiting from the high page rank of SE. $\endgroup$
    – Bill Dubuque
    Nov 14 at 23:12
  • $\begingroup$ This announcement on Meta Stack Overflow also has one paragraph on Articles: Beta release of Collectives™ on Stack Overflow (BTW the announcement has now score $-271$.) There were also two recent bug reports on meta.SO: /articles leaks top secret AudioBubble collective articles and Why doesn't the /articles page show that an article has a negative score?. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Nov 15 at 2:53
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    $\begingroup$ It sounds like an interesting idea, IF we can use the feature to handle FAQs. But we also need the ability to use the existence of an article on the theme as a reason to close and delete. Also, the bar for writing and publishing an article needs to be rather high. Like 3 or more gold badge owners approve of it. Otherwise we run into the kind of problems Bill Dubuque brought up. $\endgroup$
    – Jyrki Lahtonen
    Nov 15 at 7:53
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    $\begingroup$ A staff member confirmed on Meta SE that this is a bug and that this will be fixed soon. $\endgroup$
    – The Amplitwist
    Nov 15 at 15:01
  • $\begingroup$ The feature is probably applicable not only to StackOverflow but to StackOverflow for Teams private sites above the free tier, aka the Business tier of Teams. $\endgroup$
    – hardmath
    Nov 16 at 18:59
  • $\begingroup$ Interestingly, I just noticed this for the first time within a minute or two before seeing your question! $\endgroup$
    – Dave L. Renfro
    Nov 21 at 17:42

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