# About the "Last Seen" stat in users profiles **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 20, 2022, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-last-seen-stat-in-users-profiles/969990 "2022-08-20T16:17:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2022, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-last-seen-stat-in-users-profiles/969990/1 "2022-08-20T16:17:22Z")
I followed a link to an thread from 2009 which had a lot of former posters in it. In looking at a couple of profiles, I saw that one had a “Last Seen” of August 11, but no posts since 2016. Another had a “Last Seen” of 3 minutes, but no posts since 2012. Am I correct in assuming that these posters needed to be signed in for the statistic to work? Is it really accurate to minutes? Is there a way to see how often someone visits just to read other than their last visit? Do most people log in and out when they visit, even if they don’t post? I haven’t been logged out since I started my account in 2001(?), except when **Ed** insisted I take a few days off. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2022, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-last-seen-stat-in-users-profiles/969990/2 "2022-08-20T16:32:58Z")
That’s my understanding. Seen is the last time you were on the board while logged in. Last Post is the last time you posted something. It’s at least roughly accurate. Yeah, probably to within a minute, maybe even to the millisecond, but that doesn’t get displayed. Checking on how often someone visits just to read, no, the standard user doesn’t have those stats. Closest are the Read Time and Recent Read Time stats given on the profile. I never log off on purpose. I have wiped out my cookies and had to log back in, though. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2022, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-last-seen-stat-in-users-profiles/969990/3 "2022-08-21T07:31:55Z")
> [@mordecaiB](#): > > Do most people log in and out when they visit, even if they don’t post? Looking at the migration thread, Tuba Diva said that everyone had to login again after moving to Discourse. > [@It's that great getting up morning: The new site is nearly ready for you.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-that-great-getting-up-morning-the-new-site-is-nearly-ready-for-you/855380/1): > > \*\*When you arrive at the new site you will need to reset your password to get into the system. So those people who were last seen this year must have logged in once since the migration. They may have logged in then, and haven’t bothered to post since, for whatever reasons. But they keep coming back, maybe just because they need to search for something, or check a message. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2022, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-last-seen-stat-in-users-profiles/969990/4 "2022-08-22T17:07:17Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > Closest are the Read Time and Recent Read Time stats given on the profile. I don’t know how Discourse figures Read Time, Recent Read Time or Days Visited, but they don’t seem to be accurate in my case. > [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > But they keep coming back, maybe just because they need to search for something, or check a message. In the case of the one that stopped posting in 2012, they seem to read here every day. Do you ever log out?