... [I removed stuff related to the original subject; this thread concerns just the link problem - wcutler] By the way, I've edited a couple of my earlier posts with new information acquired after further testing. Also, the link back to the Feedback thread does not open to the desired post but displays the entire thread from the beginning.
... Now I'm getting discouraged about that. Because I have selected the option to view all postings latest first, which I think is an add-on, since xenForo refuses to consider this a reasonable requirement, I can't keep the page number part of the link, since the page numbers when viewing latest posting first are different than for people viewing the normal first posting first. Since the links still work for me without the page number, I thought what I was doing would make the permalinks actual permalinks. The issue would also occur if some postings were merged in or deleted - the page number part of the link would then be incorrect for everyone. The original link would have been (note that I have tried to break the link so you can see what it says) h ttp://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/threads/feedback-on-new-forum-software.87379/page-7#post-351358 I modified my link to be h ttp://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/threads/feedback-on-new-forum-software.87379/#post-351358
In the process of converting from vBulletin to XenForo I changed the previous post markups to the following format: forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/posts/post#, where post# is the number assigned to the post. So in this case it would become forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/posts/351358. This way the link is not affected by either the page number or thread in which the post currently resides.
I had to change the example, since I have since moved the original target posting to a new thread. @Junglekeeper, are you saying that h ttp://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/threads/feedback-on-new-forum-software.87379/#post-344410 Feedback on new Forum Software which is the link I used, goes to the beginning of the thread for you but h ttp://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/posts/344410 Feedback on new Forum Software goes to the posting? They both go to the same place for me.
The post number can be seen in all the links at the bottom of the post when you mouse over them. (i.e. Report, #n, Like, +Quote, Reply)
The number shows on the right, below the posting. You can right click that number to get the link the system wants to give it, which in this system is inaccurately called a Permalink.
Thank you Junglekeeper, but I have in mind the absolute, not the relative post number, like, for example, in this link Feedback on new Forum Software. 344410 is the absolute post number, while the relative post number in the thread is 144.
Mouseover the aforementioned links in your own post just now and you will see the number 351495 embedded in each of them. Look for the information on the browser's status line.
When you mouse over the relative post number, you see (in Windows, anyway) at the bottom left of the Windows display area, the absolute posting number. Or you can click the relative number, and some popup window appears that has the link with the absolute number.