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When visiting a site I don't have an account on, I still see the new indicator:

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Given I can't really interact with the user or their post anyway, this appears to do nothing but create useless whitespace beneath the post.

This is probably even more relevant for users that don't have any SE account and thus most likely won't care at all if the user who posted the question or answer they are reading for the information it contains is currently new.

Can we get rid of that?

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  • But you could say the same thing about anything related the information on sites you can't interact with. The name of the user, how long ago they asked a question, what their reputation is—or any number of other things. Why does the indicator specifically bother you more than any other "irrelevant" information? There will still be white space even with it removed; It's removal won't make much difference at all to that aspect of the UI. – Jason Bassford Supports Monica Aug 22 '18 at 0:00
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    @JasonBassford "But you could say the same thing about anything related the information on sites you can't interact with." I disagree. I visited SO daily for years as a developer before signing up - much of the other information on the page is very useful. You specifically mentioned the date not being important - as a developer, coming across an answer that's 10 years old is a pretty good indicator that I may want to keep looking. Not to mention, it would seem strange for OP to arbitrarily target the removal of indicators that have been there for years as opposed to a brand new feature. – Santi Aug 22 '18 at 0:02
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    @JasonBassford Chances are people at least care about the rep to some extend for instance, if only as a proxy for how experienced the user is with this Q/A business. Stuff that's probably useless to most, but is displayed in the sidebar or in the footer, is at least out of the way. The new indicator, however, just cuts through the main content column while being of little to no use for someone without an account. – Baum mit Augen Aug 22 '18 at 0:05
  • @TylerRoper My point is that this sounds more like simply not liking the new indicator at all. That's a valid opinion, but I'm not seeing the argument for getting rid of it based on screen space. Perhaps to move it elsewhere—or even one to remove it entirely because it's not liked in general. But I don't understand the specific reason behind this particular request. As for a post that's 10 years old, the new indicator won't appear on those anyway. And isn't it useful to see if an answer is from a new user? – Jason Bassford Supports Monica Aug 22 '18 at 0:13
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    @JasonBassford I agree in that the whitespace isn't really any concern of mine as much as it being unnecessary. Regarding the answer being from a new user... not particularly in my opinion, nor do I believe the badge is useful in labeling "new users"; I've seen multiple users now with 5+ years and 10k+ rep being labeled as "New Contributors". The badge's purpose is to "take it easy on this user" - If I have no way to interact with that user, I just don't really see why such an indicator is necessary to me. – Santi Aug 22 '18 at 0:17
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I thought this was strange too at first, but after I thought about it some more, it started to make some sense. In general, there are two ways for people without an account to interact with a new user:

  • Editing. Although most of the suggested edits I've seen made by anonymous users are civil (even if the edit itself is no good), there have been a non-negligible amount of edits that I've seen that are rude. I've even seen one or two edits that I would have approved, except the editor left a rude edit summary.
  • Posting an answer. Most (but not all) sites allow you to go straight down to the bottom of the page and start writing your answer, even without an account (I think either a real or an unregistered account is created before the answer is posted, but at that point it's really too late to begin to show the indicator).

If we're going to have this indicator, having it always shown, no matter who is viewing the question, makes sense given these two points. It's also more consistent (and therefore maybe less confusing) from a UX point of view, and also simpler to implement this way.

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    I don't quite think those two points are good enough reasons tbh. For answers, we already have the indicator in the answer box, no need to put it in the way like that, too. And regarding edits, I am not convinced that snarky or abusive edits by anonymous users somehow passing through peer review is what the indicator is designed to solve, or is something that needs solving to begin with. – Baum mit Augen Aug 24 '18 at 14:24

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