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When looking at the editing help and the different options for text editing I see a lot of useful options. Sometimes when writing an answer I would like to put in a reference to the texts. The thing is that I have some PDF-files about Buddhism that is no longer findable on Google and therefore cannot be linked to.

I was wondering if it in the future will be possible to attach files to questions and answers?

The file size could e.g. be set to be within 0-5 MB or maybe more or less. This way if one has a slower internet speed one can still download the files without it taking forever.

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    If they are core Theravada texts, I could host them in static.sirimangalo.org/pdf
    – yuttadhammo Mod
    Commented May 18, 2015 at 14:55
  • Thank you for the proposal Bhante. I just did a google search on the book and for some reason i just found it. Its called "The Great Chronicles of Buddhas". I do not know if this is core Theravada texts. I found the book here: bps.lk/olib/mi/mi014.pdf. What do you think?
    – user2424
    Commented May 18, 2015 at 19:52

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FYI this feature was requested, and declined, in 2009: Please add a system to allow file uploads attached to questions and answers

Their recommendation there was that you upload the document yourself, to any file host.

I'd like to suggest that you also use copy-and-paste to extract up to a few paragraphs of text, from the document, into your question or answer, as well as posting a hyperlink to the whole document. That's so that people can read the most relevant text in your quote, then optionally follow your hyperlink to the whole document if they want to read more.

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  • I don't think it is necessary to actually link to an online version... just like in a bibliography, simply citing the text should be enough, no? Of course, always nice to have the text available.
    – yuttadhammo Mod
    Commented May 18, 2015 at 14:56
  • Yes an online version might be preferred (for convenience), not required. Answers can also reference printed, paper books.
    – ChrisW Mod
    Commented May 18, 2015 at 19:42
  • @Chris. I see. I tried to search whether or not this question was asked before but apparently i did not do it thoroughly enough. Anyway thanks for the answer.
    – user2424
    Commented May 18, 2015 at 19:54
  • @Lanka FYI meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/feature-request shows 18,960 topics tagged 'feature-request', of which 2,563 are tagged 'status-completed' and 1,015 are 'status-declined'.
    – ChrisW Mod
    Commented May 18, 2015 at 20:20
  • @Chris. Thanks for the info but i do not know how to interpret it.
    – user2424
    Commented May 18, 2015 at 20:52
  • In the last seven months (since October 2014), they completed another 50 requests (out of 18000).
    – ChrisW Mod
    Commented May 18, 2015 at 20:59
  • @Chris. Could you please explain in layman terms the connection between the question i asked and all these requests you mention. I simply cannot understand the relation. Is these 50 requests asking the same that i asked about attachment of files?
    – user2424
    Commented May 18, 2015 at 23:50
  • @Lanka Sorry. What I'm saying is that they have a lot of unimplemented feature-requests already. It's not that feature-requests like yours are unwelcome (it is kind of you to think of ways in which to improve the site, and to make texts available) however apparently the size of the their backlog is much larger than the rate at which they implement new features i.e. I think it unlikely that they can implement every feature request.
    – ChrisW Mod
    Commented May 19, 2015 at 7:03
  • @Chris. Thank you for explaining that. 50 completed feature-requests out of 18000 pending. They must have a lot of work to do with all these users and different SE's.
    – user2424
    Commented May 19, 2015 at 12:05

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