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Currently in the front page, if a question is modified, answered, commented etc. the last user to affect the question appears:

Which is great.

The problem is when I want to know what that user did.

For instance, for very popular questions I know it will be the last answer in page ... 16 etc.

For comments or edits I copy the user name ( ctr+c ) click on the question, and then ctrl+f to find them.

I think it would be nice if I can have a link to what that user did on that question to see it directly. I guess a link in the "time" would do, just like in the editing history.

I have just realized this functionality is half done in the "Recent" tab in the user profile which actually has the "link to recent activity" functionality already.

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    I agree - great idea!
    – Gavin Miller
    Jul 10, 2009 at 22:55
  • "symbolic +1" (because I can't up-vote yet) This would be really usefull, sometimes I interpret erroneously who whas asking the question.
    – Eliseo Ocampos
    Jul 11, 2009 at 4:52
  • @JeffAtwood: Thanks, man! Another nice addition.
    – Sampson
    Feb 3, 2010 at 6:49
  • Indeed, nicely implemented. Right now, meta.stackexchange.com/questions/37328/… links to the edit of Marc at meta.stackexchange.com/questions/37328/…, while actually a more recent answer than Marc's answer exists. But indeed: that more recent answer is older than the most recent edit to that older answer. Thumps up, this works fine!
    – Arjan
    Feb 3, 2010 at 10:13
  • Awesome. Actually this was implemented exactly the way I thought!! Thank you!
    – OscarRyz
    Feb 4, 2010 at 4:43
  • This is a great feature, but it's sneaky. I would never have considered clicking on that gray text if I hadn't been lucky enough to see this post on Meta's front page.
    – Pops
    May 1, 2010 at 16:57

5 Answers 5

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+250

I wouldn't mind seeing the little activity listing right there say some of the following:

  • Answered by [Username] 5 min ago

  • Question revised by [Username] 15 min ago

  • Answer revised by [Username] 7 min ago

  • etc. etc. etc.

Sometimes I look at the little activity indicator there and I think that was the person who asked the question, so it can lead to some confusion.

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  • Creating a direct link to the action is useful too. Suppose you see: "Answer commented by[Jeff Atwood] 20 sec ago" on a question which you remember was very active 4 months ago. Then you really want to see what did Jeff commented ( or any other user you are interested in ) You open the question and you see nothing at first sight because this was a very active question it has 15 pages. Eventually you may see what the user did, in page 2 or 3. By providing the link you can see what the contribution was.
    – OscarRyz
    Aug 14, 2009 at 20:37
  • I have no problem with it being a link along with the text.
    – TheTXI
    Aug 14, 2009 at 21:17
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I can't tell you how many times I've clicked the name, thinking it would take me to the most recent post.

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  • 1
    Well at least I'm not the only one.
    – TheTXI
    Aug 15, 2009 at 4:21
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To illustrate the new click-through functionality:

alt text

Note: 21 min vs. 44 min is due to the way the screen captures were made; normally the maximum difference is 1 min.

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    Implementation note: the way it was implemented may cause some noise to some users, because the link actually takes you to the "most" recent activity. This is the related question: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/40243/…
    – OscarRyz
    May 3, 2010 at 19:38
  • 2
    note that this also works on the question page if you click the date on the sidebar for last activity.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Jan 26, 2011 at 7:18
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While this would be useful, I think that introducing a new answer sort order, "active", that puts the latest activity at the top would be a better solution. That way if there are multiple recent updates you can see them all. I suggested this on UserVoice a while ago but it didn't take.

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  • The problem with that is, you have to click twice, once in the question, once in the "active" tab. Not really what I would like to do ( if am I to know that that user did ) ....
    – OscarRyz
    Aug 13, 2009 at 3:42
  • By default, I sort by "newest", and if "active" ever appears I would sort by that instead. But the suggestions aren't mutually incompatible, so ideally we could get both.
    – Kyle Cronin
    Aug 13, 2009 at 3:54
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If they're worried about this being making the UI look too busy, perhaps make it "hidden" by not changing the look of it. That way, those of us whose reflexes have been trained by Infopop or other forums will be rewarded for our instincts, and the interface still looks clean.

While you're at it, if you could add in this, Make Activity Description in 'Activity' Tab More Descriptive, that would be greeaaaaat.

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