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When I'm looking down the front page on dba.se, I often wish I could tell at a glance what happened to the question to bump it there. Sometimes it is obvious from looking at the number of answers, other times you have to follow a link to find out if it has been edited or if an answer has been added or updated.

I'm guessing this is just as applicable on other SE sites - this is the kind of thing I'm suggesting:

enter image description here

A couple of suggestions from the comments that might be good:

  • To reduce clutter the word 'ago' could be removed at the same time.
  • The new text could be visible only to established users - ie users who are likely to be reviewing/editing and would benefit from seeing at a glance what kind of change has occurred.
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  • 5
    Good suggestion, but I suspect the cost is pretty high.. let the devs decide though.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Aug 27, 2012 at 11:23
  • 10
    @ShaWizDowArd I can't agree about cost. While I don't know exactly how the data is stored, I imagine it's just a top 1 on a highly optimized index on the last updated/modified/answered fields. Same for the cache. But, yes, it's up to SE to decide.
    – casperOne Mod
    Commented Aug 27, 2012 at 11:55
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    Thanks @casper we should also consider the risk of cluttering the list, guess not everyone will be happy with such change.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Aug 27, 2012 at 12:12
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    @ShaWizDowArd No downvotes yet, doesn't seem like anyone is unhappy with the prospect yet. Also, reputation score could be removed from that list to make space. It doesn't really help with anything. You shouldn't care if questions are added/edited/answered based on reputation.
    – casperOne Mod
    Commented Aug 27, 2012 at 12:28
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    @casper actually the reputation display help me notice potential non answers - seeing 1 rep user modifying question with over 100 views is usually suspicious. 50% of the times, it should be a comment.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Aug 27, 2012 at 12:31
  • @casperOne I wondered about suggesting removing the word 'ago'?
    – Jack Douglas
    Commented Aug 27, 2012 at 12:33
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    @ShaWizDowArd I can see how that's helpful, but it's a secondary usage of the front page, not the primary usage (or at least, not the intended usage). If anything, I'd say those edits should be in a separate list that's slated for review. Chances are if that happens, the new /review queue is going to pick that up (at least I'd hope so).
    – casperOne Mod
    Commented Aug 27, 2012 at 12:35
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    @JackDouglas I can get behind that. Seems very redundant; if you think that time is indicative of something that's going to happen in the future, then you've got bigger problems on your hands.
    – casperOne Mod
    Commented Aug 27, 2012 at 12:36
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    @casperOne It may be there to avoid tiny links like "1s" - which wouldn't be necessary if other text was added.
    – Jack Douglas
    Commented Aug 27, 2012 at 12:46
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    What would the word be for questions poked by Community? poked?
    – Andriy M
    Commented Aug 27, 2012 at 12:48
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    @AndriyM 'bumped'?
    – Jack Douglas
    Commented Aug 27, 2012 at 12:49
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    +1 But this UI change should only be for users of a certain rep.
    – Mark Hurd
    Commented Aug 31, 2012 at 2:05
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    This would be nice indeed; I often click into a question thinking it was asked by someone with 3k+ rep (which for me translates as interesting) only to find out it was edited by that user =/
    – Jack
    Commented Sep 4, 2012 at 6:43
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    Why only at a certain rep limit? Established User is 1000 rep. But you can start reviewing with 200 rep. And commenting above 50 rep. I don't see the need of user separation (maybe because I have less 1k rep)
    – Shegit Brahm
    Commented Sep 4, 2012 at 6:46

2 Answers 2

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This feature has been pushed out in build rev 2014.4.14.1545. It was decided that the questions will have only asked, answered and modified (which also covers everything else - bounties, community bumps, etc) statuses on the home page. We didn't do a backfill, so you may still see some questions w/o a status on less active sites.

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  • Looks good, thanks very much :)
    – Jack Douglas
    Commented Apr 16, 2014 at 18:29
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    This post doesn't show any sign of being 'edited', but the front page shows: "modified 5h ago", is this a bug or is it because I deleted the post?
    – Jack Douglas
    Commented May 6, 2014 at 8:45
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    @JackDouglas it's status-bydesign, it was displayed as modified because you deleted an answer.
    – m0sa Mod
    Commented May 6, 2014 at 14:07
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    OK, but it said "modified 5h ago Chuck Riley" not "modified 1h ago Jack Douglas" (I deleted it about 4 hours after it was posted.
    – Jack Douglas
    Commented May 6, 2014 at 14:13
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    We don't bump questions when answers are deleted. In order for it to say whatever 1h ago by whomever it would need a bump and modified 5h ago by Jack Douglas would also be wrong. Furthermore, we can't leave the answered text there because it too would be even more confusing + there's also the case of a question with deleted answers only. What we have now is basically the least of all possible evils :)
    – m0sa Mod
    Commented May 6, 2014 at 14:38
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    @m0q: is this behaviour coming soon the questions/tagged/active page? Currently all posts show "modified", even if the last activity was the question being asked/ answered.
    – Matt
    Commented May 8, 2014 at 13:23
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I have written a userscript for those who need this functionality.

Stack Activity: Last activity of every question on the homepage

Here's a screenshot of Meta Stack Overflow with the userscript:

meta

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