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I am writing a program that checks for new comments posted to a user.

The problem is this: in order to test the program, I am forced to post comments to existing users - which probably isn't the best idea.

Can we have a dummy user post something on this question so that I can reply to him/her/it?


Note: I discovered that you can comment to yourself, so that kind of solves the problem.

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    I agree that not having a test area can be a bit annoying. What would be quite neat is a spam.stackexchange.com which is not search engine-indexed, unmoderated, and possibly wiped every so often, for test purposes. Of course, that'll never happen, but... :) Aug 14, 2010 at 17:35
  • @Lucas: Well, it would be a nice idea... but you're right - it'll never happen. Aug 14, 2010 at 17:59
  • Just test it here I guess - I don't tihnk anyone will mind :) Aug 14, 2010 at 22:17
  • @NathanOsman Sandbox on Area51 might interest you! May 29, 2015 at 8:34

2 Answers 2

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Why can't we get a separate site just for API testing? We just need another community site that is not used for other purposes. The scores are separate, so there is no penalty for posting junk to it.

If there is enough interest, we can probably just create an vote for another site...... Maybe start describing and demonstrating specific use-cases for everybody to test against. E.g. 'A question with no comments/answers'. 'A question where same user provided multiple answers', etc. Could be useful from documenting point of view as well. Could even support a meta community discussing the use cases and prime site implementing them.

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  • Do you think they'd mind if we went on Area 51 to do this? Aug 14, 2010 at 21:00
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    Actually Area51 is probably exactly the place to propose a test site. Unfortunately, there aren't enough active users here to get it past Definition. Aug 14, 2010 at 21:13
  • What is the number of users to get past those stages? FAQ does not seem to answer that. Seems around 400 for commit stage. Aug 15, 2010 at 1:49
  • @DaveSwersky (and Alexandre) Sandbox on Area51 might interest you! May 29, 2015 at 8:35
  • @LucasJones Sandbox on Area51 might interest you! May 29, 2015 at 8:35
  • @ᔕᖺᘎᕊ The Sandbox proposal was deleted. Dec 23, 2015 at 20:06
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You could fairly easily create another account on a site, and use that to test.

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  • Thanks - I figured out that you could address comments to yourself so I did that :) Aug 14, 2010 at 18:00
  • @George, so I could do, @jjnguy and that would show up via the api?
    – jjnguy
    Aug 14, 2010 at 18:57
  • Yup. I tried it. Aug 15, 2010 at 4:17

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