# It's been \[time\] since \[user\] posted **URL:** \ **Category:** Site Feedback\ **Created:** [May 17, 2022, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531 "2022-05-17T04:16:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/1 "2022-05-17T04:16:22Z")
Why is this even a thing? It’s just noise injected into a thread. No one has ever responded with a "Thanks for commenting after [time]! **NO ONE CARES!** We’re happy that [user] commented, but we could have cared less, nor would have noticed, if they didn’t. But by all means, reply if these system notes are meaningful to you. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/2 "2022-05-17T04:45:21Z")
Some people might care. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/3 "2022-05-17T04:45:43Z")
Well, for one thing, they’re useful for highlighting that someone is brand-new, since that’s the same notification functionality used. They’re also useful for highlighting that someone who _generally_ lurks has felt stirred enough to post on some hot topic, especially in ATMB. Sort of a “voice of the silent majority” kind of thing. Also sometimes a useful sock detector. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/4 "2022-05-17T11:13:44Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > No one has ever responded with a "Thanks for commenting after [time]! Actually, yes they do. > [@Priest caught having sex with 2 women in church](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-caught-having-sex-with-2-women-in-church/922574/28): > > According to the automatic banner that was posted, this is your first post in 17 years, @BurglarGenie! Welcome back! > [@How do I tell my narcissistic mother I don't want her to move to where I live?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-tell-my-narcissistic-mother-i-dont-want-her-to-move-to-where-i-live/921422/76): > > Welcome back **crazytooth**! > [@What's so great about "The Princess Bride"?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-great-about-the-princess-bride/540149/176): > > FWIW, the system says it’s been five years, but in any event, welcome back, **dhk**! And so on The message doesn’t do any harm to anyone, and some people are interested. Why do you object? ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/5 "2022-05-17T12:48:01Z")
Personally I find it interesting to see’s back after a hiatus, who’s new, etc. And, as it’s a single line at the top of a post, 1. it’s really easy to scroll by 2. you only see it once since generally the thread will expand past it in pretty short order. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/6 "2022-05-17T12:49:52Z")
I find it mildly interesting if the time is long enough. E.g. 17 years = interesting, 8 months = not very interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/7 "2022-05-17T12:54:54Z")
I find it interesting and like it. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/8 "2022-05-17T13:31:55Z")
The banner should display for any amount of time since your last posting: “It’s been 1 minute since [user] posted” ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/9 "2022-05-17T13:33:10Z")
Since this is about Discourse’s software, let’s move this to Site Feedback (from ATMB). ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/10 "2022-05-17T13:34:48Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Why is this even a thing? It’s just noise injected into a thread. Just to be clear, this is a “feature” of Discourse and we don’t have any control over it. Feel free to give your opinion of it though. Discourse is still being developed and maintained, and the devs do at least occasionally read through the Site Feedback forum. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/11 "2022-05-17T14:00:55Z")
I would prefer it not to be shown. If I hadn’t posted in a while, knowing that fact would be announced might make me decide not to post. And if I did post, I would want any comments to be about the content of what I posted, not any about how long I had been gone. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/12 "2022-05-17T14:54:00Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > The message doesn’t do any harm to anyone I’ve seen a couple of people post (sorry, don’t remember the threads) that they’re embarrassed by having that message show up on their posts and point out how long it’s been since they last posted – so they’re less likely to post at all. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/13 "2022-05-17T15:40:17Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Actually, yes they do. I stand corrected. Thank you. > [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > The message doesn’t do any harm to anyone, and some people are interested. Why do you object? I stand by my opinion that it’s just irrelevant noise injected into the thread. And I object to irrelevant noise. I also accept without complaint that some users will consider my posts to be irrelevant noise. > [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Just to be clear, this is a “feature” of Discourse and we don’t have any control over it. Noted. I had thought that it was one of the check boxes in the configuration similar to the the option to ‘like’ posts. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/14 "2022-05-17T16:54:52Z")
> [@saje](#): > > Personally I find it interesting to see’s back after a hiatus, who’s new, etc. I agree with this. > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I’ve seen a couple of people post (sorry, don’t remember the threads) that they’re embarrassed by having that message show up on their posts and point out how long it’s been since they last posted – so they’re less likely to post at all. But I also agree with this. So as a product manager, I would include this message on posts with a hiatus greater than 1 year, but I’d also include a button visible to the poster to “remove this notification.” ---
**Author:** ![omenran](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omenran/32/3318_2.png) [@omenran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omenran)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2022, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/15 "2022-05-18T02:01:26Z")
This thread makes me wonder how it would react to a poster who has a gap long enough to cause the message to generate, but the post was deleted and another post made after the deletion. Not possible here, but I wonder. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2022, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/16 "2022-05-18T05:00:54Z")
A post deleted was still posted. ---
**Author:** ![omenran](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omenran/32/3318_2.png) [@omenran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omenran)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2022, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/17 "2022-05-18T06:06:55Z")
I was actually wondering about the behavior of the notice attached to the then deleted post, not the post itself. So that one could avoid the notice by posting elsewhere first with a garbage response (probably the Pit where a low content post would not be if note if it was even noted before deletion) and then posting the intended post to defeat/obscurate the unwanted notification. It’s a lot of extra effort to even try. And where only mods can delete posts, not at all worth it. But, again, I was curious about the hypothetical edge case where the board software could act oddly. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2022, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/18 "2022-05-18T06:34:49Z")
That’s a smart idea. No need to delete if you make some harmless test post in the test thread. I think it’s in ATMB but it might be here in Site Feedback. You could even outright say “testing the welcome back feature” or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/19 "2022-05-19T00:20:11Z")
I think it would be neat if a person could choose to suppress these messages, if they don’t care who is new, or hasn’t posted in awhile. But others can still see those messages. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-time-since-user-posted/964531/20 "2022-05-19T15:16:13Z")
Is this “feature” still enabled ? Because the new user @KateMathers joined today and has posted just 3 times … and none of these posts has the “welcome new member” stuff. just askin’