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I was reading this question when I decided (for no reason) to remove the meta portion of the link and hit return. It took me to this question!!

Debian server on a Intel Core i3 and Intel Q57 Chipset - will it work?

And the accepted answer! Does anyone know why this happens? Is it reproducible? I have been able to duplicate the results on another computer and in another browser.

This also works with other meta links. Doing it with any random link seems to lead to a random question!

Can anyone provide an explanation for this? For some meta questions, it leads straight to the question on the regular site with the same number identification in the link. For others, it just jumps to a random number altogether.

Thanks in advance!

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Reset to default
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It's the answer that has the matching ID number. You get redirected to ...questions/2842/debian-server-on-a-intel-core-i3-and-intel-q57-chipset-will-it-work/3895#3895, the canonical URL for answer 3895.

The times when you end up on a same-numbered question, the post with that number is a question. When it's an answer (and most posts are answers), you end up on the answer, and whichever question it happens to be in.

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  • thanks very much! i didn't think of that. i know this was a silly question, but i was surprised. this is obviously not a bug--any idea what i should edit the tag to be?
    – Joseph Farah
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 7:52
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    @JosephFarah Adding [status-bydesign] covers it
    – Michael Mrozek Mod
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 15:52

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