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What is the purpose of the "last seen" info on the profile page?

I think it is kind of pointless. This is not a social network. It makes me kind of nervous. And I fail to see how seeing when a user was last active is relevant to answering that user's question.

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    People who consider to put efforts in answering your questions want to know if you are still active.
    – πάντα ῥεῖ
    Apr 29, 2017 at 16:48
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    From the POV that we care about quality content and not about users you're correct. But often people ask the OP for clarifications, before they really answer.
    – πάντα ῥεῖ
    Apr 29, 2017 at 16:54
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    If you don't find it useful the easiest solution is to not look at it. If you don't want it visible when you're browsing questions then don't log in. I find it useful for numerous reasons, both for data analysis in SEDE queries regarding site activity, and determining if e.g. a user is likely to come back to a post or whatever when considering actions to take, or when asking questions in comments to old posts, etc. And there's a faaaaar distance between "displaying last seen time" and "social network", not sure what that's about.
    – Jason C
    Apr 29, 2017 at 16:54
  • related: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/238882/…
    – rene
    Apr 29, 2017 at 17:32
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    Just an example: I posted an answer for an ID question on Movies and the OP said I had got it and that he would accept later. 3 days later it hadn't been accepted and I was a little annoyed so I checked when he had last been seen and it was 3 days ago, meaning he hadn't (as I thought) just gone back to browsing the site. In that case, it was helpful.
    – caird coinheringaahing
    Apr 29, 2017 at 17:41
  • Btw: There's privacy, and there's "privacy". Last seen falls into the latter category. If you're truly concerned about privacy then things you'll want to avoid are identifying info in your profile, such as unique avatars easily findable with GIS, links to your personal blogs, your employment info, etc, or identifying info in posts. As for "last seen", note that your actual activity is always publicly available anyways so as soon as you make a post, comment, etc some info about your last activity date will always be available. Incognito browsing effectively kills "last seen".
    – Jason C
    Apr 29, 2017 at 19:57
  • @JasonC I think this comes under privacy. Consider this scenario: say I want to use my real name and email on SE to create a online presence, but I don't want my employers seeing when I was last online. I could have lied to them and took a leave while browsing SE at home. I don't want them to know.
    – Rat Salad
    Apr 30, 2017 at 3:24
  • @JasonC Of course you could say that I can browse while being logged out. But where is the freedom in that? What if I want to participate?
    – Rat Salad
    Apr 30, 2017 at 3:25
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    @RatSalad Like I already mentioned, as soon as you participate your activity is publicly visible in meta.stackexchange.com/users/357984/rat-salad?tab=activity and "last seen" becomes completely moot. So browsing while logged out is exactly equivalent to hiding your "last seen" status in terms of revealed information. No freedom lost. Just an extra browser tab to have open, nothing more.
    – Jason C
    Apr 30, 2017 at 3:32
  • @RatSalad Then don't use your real name and email. You seem to be under the impression that "creating an online presence" and "complete anonymity" can work together. If you want to create an online presence that represents you in real life, everything you do goes right back to you in real life. SE's "last seen" status is negligible. If you're in a situation where your employers found your SE profile from an email search (SEDE, btw) then began monitoring it, and you then have to avoid them knowing for some reason, you've got much bigger privacy problems to face than your "last seen" status.
    – Jason C
    Apr 30, 2017 at 3:36
  • Wow you guys get so defensive. Here's a better discussion on the same topic: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/260307/…
    – Rat Salad
    May 1, 2017 at 6:24

2 Answers 2

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This is just a "nice to have" feature in my opinion. I'm not using it for anything, but it's a nice stat.

You can also claim that avatars are pointless and sign of social network so they should be removed, or changed to a generic avatar e.g. the site logo. You can also claim display names are pointless, so use only the default name without the ability to change it.

Bottom line: not being a social community does not mean all features and signs of social community are prohibited and banned. Stack Exchange is still a community, consisting of actual people. So some features might not have real value, but still nice to have.

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  • I don't think you can compare this to avatars. You can control your avatar but you are being forced to reveal your last seen time.
    – Rat Salad
    Apr 30, 2017 at 3:18
  • Consider this scenario: say I want to use my real name and email on SE to create a online presence, but I don't want mt employers seeing when I was last online. I could have lied to them and took a leave while browsing SE at home. I don't want them to know.
    – Rat Salad
    Apr 30, 2017 at 3:20
  • @Rat valid point, but then your question is actually a duplicate of this one.
    – Shadow Wizard Is Sad And Angry
    Apr 30, 2017 at 9:05
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It makes our interactions a bit more realistic, ensures that it is not being or wouldn't be one way. It helps one to estimate how much to expect from answerers / askers.

The features on SE become more evident as one spends more time here.

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