4

I thought I missed a day, but looking at it, this looks really weird: http://area51.stackexchange.com/users/66506/

It says 8 consecutive days, but visited 10 days in total. That would require at least 11 days of history right? But it says member for 10 days only. Note: Figures may change over time.

member for  10 days
visited     10 days, 8 consecutive
seen        3 mins ago

Update

It can be determined that the method for counting the member for days is implemented differently on area51, and other stackexchange accounts (including stackoverflow, meta, ...).

Generally, the member for count is equal to the number of UTC days you have been registered for (including partial days).

However, on area51, member for is equal to the actual time you have been registered for (in days), rounded down.

Thus, before my registration on area51 at UTC 01:01:53 (currently UTC 00:58), it will say:

member for  10 days
visited     11 days, 9 consecutive
seen        6 secs ago

This inconsistent behaviour should be fixed.

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3
  • Try clicking on it. It will pop-up a calender. What does it show?
    – Mysticial
    Oct 11, 2012 at 2:02
  • 1
    There is no calendar on the area51 profile.
    – ronalchn
    Oct 11, 2012 at 2:03
  • I suspect that the "member for 10 days" rolls over to 11 days after the account has existed for >= 11 days. But the visited X days/ Y consecutive is done by UTC time. So if the account has existed for 10.9 days, it still reads as 10 days. But 10.9 days can definitely touch 11 UTC days.
    – Mysticial
    Oct 11, 2012 at 2:07

1 Answer 1

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6

You registered on Area 51 on October 1st at 01:01 UTC time. At the time of writing this, UTC time is now October 11th 02:17, which means there have been 11 days where you could have logged in.

The problem here is the math is confusing you. The consecutive days counter includes the day you registered on as one of the days you could login, but the "member for" count just calculates the amount of time your account has existed. See this chart:

Oct  Action (Consec)            Days Old
------------------------------------------
1    Register, Visited 1 (1)    0 Days Old
2    Visited 2 (2)              1 Day Old
3    Didn't Visit               2 Days Old
4    Visited 3 (1)              3 Days Old
5    Visited 4 (2)              4 Days Old
6    Visited 5 (3)              5 Days Old
7    Visited 6 (4)              6 Days Old
8    Visited 7 (5)              7 Days Old
9    Visited 8 (6)              8 Days Old
10   Visited 9 (7)              9 Days Old
11   Visited 10 (8)             10 Days Old
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8
  • Nothing confusing about zero-based numbering (for us nerds ;)
    – yannis
    Oct 11, 2012 at 2:28
  • If this is the case, we should see member for 53 days, visited 55 (55) at meta.stackoverflow.com/users/193598/ronalchn for another half hour, then member for 54 days. But in fact, we already see member for 55 days.
    – ronalchn
    Oct 11, 2012 at 2:31
  • @ronalchn: I'm pretty sure it's rounded once it's so close to the new day. If it doesn't increment to 56 days in about half an hour, then you have your answer. ;) But I'm pretty sure that's why it says "member for today" when you register your account. Saying "member for 0 days" looks silly.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Oct 11, 2012 at 2:34
  • Actually, you say there are 11 potential days for area51, with member for 10 days, even after passing the time of registration during that day. This is inconsistent with my other accounts, where it is member for the same number of days as the number visited. Based on what is happening on area51, should be 1 less, even after passing the time of registration. Thus, the member for count must be inconsistently implemented on the different sites.
    – ronalchn
    Oct 11, 2012 at 2:43
  • You've only been a member there for 10 days and about 1 hour. Why would they round an hour up to another day to make 11?
    – animuson StaffMod
    Oct 11, 2012 at 2:44
  • I am saying, if that is how it is calculated on area51. Then on meta, I have been a member for 54 days minus 10 minutes. It should therefore not show member for 55 days.
    – ronalchn
    Oct 11, 2012 at 2:47
  • That's how rounding works. You know, 0.5 and up rounds up, below 0.5 rounds down... 10 minutes to the new day is like 0.994, which would round up. I don't know if they actually use 0.5 as their median for rounding, but that's the normal one.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Oct 11, 2012 at 2:50
  • You are rounding the wrong number. On meta, it would be rounding 53.9 days, which gives 54 days. Not 55 days.
    – ronalchn
    Oct 11, 2012 at 2:52

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