So, how old is a topic?

General Yo-Yo
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Seems like there is some confusion on how old a given topic is, if people even bother to look before they reply to a topic… :nauseated_face:

All topics have a time stamp that may look like this: Dec '13
This denotes that the reply is from December 2013.
Note the apostrophe in front of the number.

Or, maybe it looks like this: Dec 13
This denotes that the reply is from December 13 of the current hear.
Note the lack of the apostrophe in front of the number.

Also note that if in doubt you can place your mouse cursor over the time stamp and it will show the entire time stamp in the form month, day, year, time as in Dec 24, 2013 7:37 pm. if you right click on the time stamp it will give the format as Dec 24, '13 7:37 PM.

For newer posts the time stamp may look like: 1d, 2h or 20m implying the post is relatively current having been made 1 day, 2 hours or 20 minutes ago.

So there you have it. This may avoid having you post preceded by: 8 years later

Of course that all assumes that you take the time to read time stamps at all… :see_no_evil: :hear_no_evil: :speak_no_evil:

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What about on mobile. I cant really hover or right click😅 and the small apostophe is easy to miss😬

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I really hope I remember to post on this topic in 8 years…

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You can tap on the time and it will bring up more date/time info.

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Sadly, a guy asked a question on the board about 10 years ago.

I forgot all about it until the other day.

I just remembered I never got back to him and I can’t find the thread.

But from what I understand, he died of old age a long time ago, so I guess it doesn’t matter now.

But I was hoping to post up in that thread just in case his grandkids read the forum.

PS… I mentioned this in another thread a week or so ago> Something I find very interesting.

When somebody necro’s a thread from 8 or 9 years, I like to click on the names of the first 6 or 7 people that responded to the OP.

More often than not, neither the OP or any of the 6 or seven first responders are currently active on the forum anymore.

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Sure it’s a rookie “mistake” to respond to an 8 year old thread, but the usability for this site is all over the map and downright archaic in places. The fact that you even have to explain the functionality is a case in point. Good UX doesn’t require explanation and you don’t blame the users for errors.

A solution seems simple though: apply an auto-lock to all threads, not just BST. Maybe 90 days of inactivity.

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Sometimes I think its fun to rehash old threads. For example I was gonna post soon to the show off your kuntosh

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FWIW, I’m blown away by this forum and am lobbying for my company to set up a Discourse site. Obviously the community here is better behaved than the civilian population, but I do think the moderation features and reputation building features are really nice and help guide people / give incentives for reasonable participation.

To the OP’s point, though, my opinion is that a four digit year display would be clearer than how it works now (the apostrophe being the only apparent difference between December 16th and December 2016. Maybe it’s a setting that someone here can change or maybe something to put on the bug/feature tracker for future improvements. @YoYoExpertGarrett @codinghorror

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Oh wow, that’s an incredible compliment! Thank you! If we can help with anything don’t hesitate to reach out to us at https://discourse.org :bowing_man:

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Agreed, even an Necro that wasn’t necessary doesn’t bother me.

Super glad to understand the apostrophe now though, thanks

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I didn’t have a problem understanding the apostrophe, but I don’t mind either if an occasional thread gets accidentally necroed. It’s a blast from the past and usually good for a little ribbing.

I find this forum to be one of the most intuitive layouts I’ve used, especially on mobile. It feels like an app.

I do have one complaint, which is that when I scroll through a thread my thumb slides right over where the heart button is. So I end up accidentally “liking” posts while scrolling down. But that’s probably more of an issue with me than with the interface.

Ivan

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Exactly… :wink:

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You can till tap the date on mobile and it will bring up a box telling you the full time and date of the post

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I quite like the resurrection. I sometimes come across old stuff which I,ve posted on and then forgotten. A bit like @twitch77 smoking thread

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Hi from 2022