How can I get to read the google answers archives easily?
For example I saw a thank you note to google researchers for the work
done for the editor of a book. And I would like to read the answers
they provided, which were given through 2003-4. I can search through
google for the user's name (which I did) and got some taste of it by
seeing the communication in 2003. But this is cumbersome. I cant find
anything on the answers homepage. So I thought this may be a question
for the researchers.
Thanks,
Can

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 06 Jan 2005 14:35 PST

It's not clear to me exactly what you're wanting to know. To find a
list of the questions posted by a certain user, you can search for
"asked by [username]". To find a list of questions answered by a
certain GAR, you can either click the GARs' hyperlinked username or
search for "answered by [username]". Beyond that, what would you like
to do?

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Clarification of Question by can1972-ga on 06 Jan 2005 15:06 PST

Hi pinkfreud, 
thanks for taking up the question.
I am new to GA. I have been reading the current questions pages just
out of interest to see what people ask and what sort of answers they
get.
What I do at the moment is go through the current questions page and
read anything that looks interesting. When I get to the bottom of the
list, I am somewhere around mid-december 2004. At first I thought that
was it. But then I Q-As from 2003 and it dawned on me that this was
going on for a while.
I would now very much like to be able to do that for the past
questions, too. These are, as far as I can see, not immediately
available.
That is, I am not necessarily after the people but rather after the fun questions.
Thanks,
Can
PS: btw, do you mean a google search "answered by [xyz]"?

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Request for Question Clarification by cynthia-ga on 06 Jan 2005 15:38 PST

can1972, --pinkfreud means a GOOGLE ANSWERS search, from the front
page of Google Answers.  However, doing the same search [answered by:
xxx-ga] in GOOGLE --will bring up some results, but not all.

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Clarification of Question by can1972-ga on 06 Jan 2005 15:52 PST

Thanks cynthia.
Can1972

This earlier answer might be of interest to you:

http://www.answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=433691

Browsing through Google Answers isn't as easy as it used to be in the
early days. My best suggestion is that you narrow your search to a few
keywords or a username, and use the search box on the GA homepage
(where it says "Search Google Answers for"). Notice that you can
choose whether to search for all questions, for answered questions, or
for unanswered questions:

http://www.answers.google.com/answers/

Keep in mind that you can view the answers posted by a certain Google
Answers Researcher simply by clicking that Researcher's username.

Thanks pinkfreud.
It is a shame that one cannto go back to see all past questions. There
appears to be around 70000 of them.
Would you care to post that as an answer? I got the answer to my
question, although not what I want. Alas! Maybe next time..
Thanks. I am checking out for the night.
Can

I don't feel right about posting an answer that doesn't fully satisfy
your needs. Consider my remarks as a friendly freebie.

Can1972 --

Pink's holding out on you -- she should have told you to start at the
beginning and just keep increasing the ID# in the URL until you get to
today:
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=2

But seriously, one of the best ways to use this great Google service is:
1.  go to Google Answers home page
2.  enter search terms desired -- researcher name, question #, search
terms -- then the search is done only within Google Answers

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

I was about to say 'Thank you pinkfreud. It is not your fault that
what I want is not possible. I am sure we will meet again. I will keep
thisone in mind."
And along came omnivorous and partially solved my problem (what a problem)..
Over and out for tonight!
OK OK one last chess game and then...

Since you indicated a desire for a method that was not cumbersome, I
did not mention the method described by omnivorous, which requires
that you manually change a portion of the URL for each new question
you wish to view. You'll find that many of the URLs created by this
method lead to questions that have been removed by the editors for one
reason or another. I cannot imagine plowing through tens of thousands
of questions in this way, but maybe I have a low tolerance for
nuisance. ;-)

I suppose some sort of script could be written that would automate
this. That's out of my areas of competence, since I haven't done any
coding since the 1980s.