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Time and again, I have seen people making comments (polished and polite) here which I think I could borrow and use at other relevant places later because I often feel like I am at lack of words and probably won't be able to vocalize my opinion on a question/post in a polite and humble way. I have tried to search for some of them (which I really liked the first time I saw them) but it just gives too many results and it would take a ridiculously long amount of time to search through all of it just to search for a single comment (I forgot to save them at the time when I first saw them but when I face the same situation, I believe their comment (which I read a long time ago and vaguely remember) would have been appropriate and succinct to say in that situation). Also, I checked out the user's profile but it seems there is no way to check their daily activities(the comments they make on a particular day). By the way, I am not trying to stalk any user in particular, so please do not get me wrong. Is this possible to view comments made by someone? or is that a privilege one needs to earn? or is it not possible at all? Also, what do you do in a situation when you know the answer to a question but still find it difficult to write it down without making it look like it's been written in broken English with a very clumsy use of words.

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    Have you tried clicking Activity --> all actions --> comments, starting from the user's Profile page? That should yield a list of the user's comments, from most recent to oldest. If you don't have access to that information, there must be some sort of reputation-based bar to such access that I'm not aware of.
    – Sven Yargs
    Commented Oct 27, 2015 at 8:28
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    @SvenYargs Thanks, just tried it on your profile. I missed that somehow and I feel so dumb now. Commented Oct 27, 2015 at 8:38
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    It's never wrong to ask. If I have trouble figuring something out—or for whatever reason just don't see the answer that's staring me in the face—there is at least a remote possibility that someone else may run into the same difficulty some day, and may benefit from my having asked about it.
    – Sven Yargs
    Commented Oct 27, 2015 at 8:42
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    Some of us post a lot of comments (too many in my case, I'm sure), so I sympathize with OP's predicament. If I can remember a distinctive phrase from a user (perhaps even myself) I sometimes use Google's site-specific search, looking for the text I'm after and the relevant username. It's not great, but it's usually better than the SO built-in search facility (which optimizes out "noise" words that are often part of the text I'm looking for). Commented Oct 27, 2015 at 13:48
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    @FumbleFingers I tried that. It's definitely better but sometimes doesn't yield much or any result. One example: try searching a comment which was made by tchrist ("... needs your compassion, patience and sympathy rather than....") on some question where the OP was requesting for an insulting remark to be used on a foolish person who doesn't stand for himself and is an extreme wuss. The only links which appear are related to Bible. His activity log is quite large just like yours. I wouldn't dare to search through it. :) Commented Oct 27, 2015 at 14:27
  • @SvenYargs Why don't you post that as an answer for future users? Commented Oct 27, 2015 at 15:02
  • @Araucaria: I added a formal answer, as you suggested, but it might be more helpful to readers interested in this question if someone who knows how to highlight portions of screen grabs provided an illustrated version of the process.
    – Sven Yargs
    Commented Oct 27, 2015 at 16:43
  • @SvenYargs What's a screen grab? Commented Oct 27, 2015 at 16:47
  • It's just another way of referring to a screenshot ("photo") that you take of an open file or Web page on your computer screen. Then you use either the capture program itself or some simple image-editing program to draw a circle or oval or box in red or black around the relevant part of the image to highlight the label or whatever is of interest. Lots of users have included annotated images of this sort in their answers here and on the main site, and I'm sure it's not hard to do, but I've never attempted it.
    – Sven Yargs
    Commented Oct 27, 2015 at 17:05
  • @Jony: I think you misread/misremembered the username - I bet it's this answer by Trish you're thinking of: one is wiser to use humour, sweet love and kindness, understanding and compassion rather than bitterness, anger, aggression and the like. Easier to find when I discard tchrist from the search terms, and make sure to include rather than, since you're more likely to remember that 2-word collocation than the exact abstract nouns.. Commented Oct 27, 2015 at 17:07
  • @FumbleFingers - You can search comments? Can you please teach me that little trick? Commented Oct 27, 2015 at 21:14
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    @medica: Per my first comment, I can only "search comments" approximately, by adding the target username as well as a few distinctive text fragments. But supposing I vaguely remember you having written something within the past few weeks about "bloodlust" (I don't, honest! This is just an example. :) Since I also expect the month to follow the username, and I figure it was probably within October, I could use Google's site-specific search... site:http: //english.stackexchange.com/ "bloodlust" "medica Oct". (space after http: just to make that legible to you). Commented Oct 27, 2015 at 21:28
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    @FumbleFingers - Cool! Thank you very much! :) Commented Oct 27, 2015 at 22:04
  • @FumbleFingers Thanks a lot. I am pretty sure that it was tchrist and that the comment was made in the comment box and not the answer box but I could use that line too :) BTW, when you speak about Google site specific search, do you mean Google Advanced search? The previous example that you used to explain to medica, did you mean that I should type " http: //english.stackexchange.com/ "bloodlust" "medica Oct" " in the address bar? Commented Oct 28, 2015 at 4:58
  • @Jony Agarwal: I use Google Chrome - things may be different with other browsers. With Chrome it's exactly what comes after ... above (including the word site) except for the space after http: which I only inserted to stop the display logic from recognizing it as a web address and "helpfully" reformating it into a hotlink. Here's another method which should net down top the same results (but it's not the way I do it). Commented Oct 28, 2015 at 12:48

2 Answers 2

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You can reach a chronological list of the comments left by a particular EL&U user from the user's Profile page, in three clicks. First click the Activity link in the upper left corner of the Profile page; then click all actions in the row of links beneath the Reputation, Badges, and Impact summary boxes; and then click comments in the row of links that appears immediately below 'all actions'.

I believe that there are no reputation-based restrictions on access to a user's comments or to any other linked data field in a user's Profile or Activity summary, though I may be wrong about that.

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    I believe we don't have access to people's question-specific downvote info. Commented Oct 27, 2015 at 16:48
  • @Araucaria Yes but I think that's limited to all non mod users, it's not based on reputation. Commented Oct 30, 2015 at 17:19
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    @Araucaria I'm not sure what you mean by "question-specific downvote info" but individual votes are only visible to SE staff. Moderators cannot see votes or voters on questions.
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Commented Nov 1, 2015 at 0:19
  • @AndrewLeach, Mods don't have access to downvote info? They used to have that don't they?
    – Pacerier
    Commented Nov 3, 2015 at 16:21
  • @Pacerier Not in my 15 months, and I don't think so before then either. But you've been around longer than me. Perhaps (although I doubt it).
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Commented Nov 3, 2015 at 16:28
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If you know, or are willing to learn a bit of, SQL, there is https://data.stackexchange.com. You should be able to get a query that targets a specific user, where you can find comments containing keywords and within specific timeframes.

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