Stackoverflow – “Last seen” not accurate?

5 pointskvothe_1 comment

On stackoverflow the last seen appears to be inaccurate as shown in the linked images. The user, ( I chose random user), asked a question 11 mins ago but his last seen is 21 mins ago ??

Images: https://imgur.com/a/qP2KUiE

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I imagine the “last seen” times are shown mainly to indicate whether users are still active members of the site, and if they are likely to have seen recent replies. For these purposes, a few minutes’ error is harmless.

It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Stack Overflow’s developers—like those of many large websites—have decided, as a performance optimization, to allow some information to be cached, and updated lazily, to avoid the cost of providing a globally-consistent, up-to-the-minute view to every user.

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