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Today is my birthday. I was disappointed to see that when I logged on to SO I was not greeted with a "Happy Birthday" message.

Can we display something (maybe through the notification bar?) when someone logs in on their birthday?

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  • 21
    How is this too localized? AFAIK almost every SO user has a birthday.
    – Motti
    Apr 29, 2010 at 8:39
  • 2
    What working calendar says it's still 24 April 2010? @mot
    – random
    Apr 29, 2010 at 8:40
  • @random: Fair enough, but it looks like the "feature-request" part went relatively unnoticed, which isn't attached to a specific date.
    – GManNickG
    Apr 29, 2010 at 14:45
  • What was the feature request anyhow?
    – random
    Apr 30, 2010 at 1:35
  • 5
    @random: Just throw in a little "Happy Birthday!" banner on the sites on someones birthday, nothing important. :)
    – GManNickG
    Apr 30, 2010 at 5:04
  • Did you get cake?
    – Andrew Grimm
    Jan 12, 2011 at 11:38
  • This is a feature-request: I don't see how that can't be reproduced.
    – Joachim
    Sep 9 at 7:19

12 Answers 12

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We don't hate you. Happy Birthday! My pony smiles for your birthday. I think it's a good idea to have a message show up saying happy birthday.

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23

I'd like to shed a little light on the recent tagging of this post as .

In May 2018, in order to comply with GDPR, SE removed all references to age and birth dates from their system: it's now no longer possible to set a birth date in one's profile, and other users can't see others' age in SEDE, the API, and other places. Additionally, all info that was previously entered into that profile field has been permanently removed.

As a result, it's now impossible to implement this request.

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  • 4
    Oh great, another one of those puritan effectuatiins of GDPR. Sigh... You could very well store that information just to wish people a happy birthday. Making that data disappear from SEDE would be a wise call, but you could just takrn that field off from the DB.
    – Luuklag
    Dec 15, 2019 at 19:07
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    I don't follow. How does storing data that somebody literally gave you to store violate GDPR?
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Dec 16, 2019 at 11:58
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    @Lightness Something along the lines of you're only supposed to collect information that actually serves a purpose. We have no purpose for it.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Dec 16, 2019 at 16:11
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    @animuson You can store whatever you like if the owner gives consent (which they do when they're the ones providing the data), but ok :P GDPR doesn't stop you collecting information, it just stops you from doing it without explicit permission (when you don't need to) and it also stops you from disseminating it to Amazon without consent (:P). That being said, I can imagine it being hard to come up with a list of purposes (which you must give to the user) when there isn't one beyond "display on profile", so, fair.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Dec 16, 2019 at 16:16
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    @Lightness It's not strictly about the law, it's about minimizing risks and data. The accepted practice regarding the law is to store only the information you need. Just because you can collect it willingly doesn't mean you should have it.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Dec 16, 2019 at 16:19
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    @LightnessRaceswithMonica It's worth noting that the age display on the profile was removed with the profile page redesign in 2015. The field thus had essentially no purpose after that time.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Dec 16, 2019 at 16:42
  • @animuson That makes sense. 👍 So, strictly, this answer is not quite correct, as it was not about complying with law, though it was related.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Dec 16, 2019 at 17:34
15

Stack Overflow has detected that you are a robot and therefore not born. Sorry.

But Happy Day Your Algorithm Began Being Computed!

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  • 1
    I thought the GMan's race was unknown?
    – Billy ONeal
    Apr 24, 2010 at 16:08
9

Rejoice, for unicorn tears are the most valuable things on earth given their rarity and sheer power. Much better than silly phoenix tears and their lesser healing properties.

I hear tell that the Philosopher's Stone came about when someone forgot poor Socrates' birthday. And then it really was a happy birthday.

Other notable forgotten birthdays: Jon Skeet, Chuck Norris. I hope you're getting an idea of what a gift you've been given

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  • 2
    Jon Skeet's birthday is perfectly willing to come to your house and beat you up, which is pretty hard to forget.
    – David Z
    Apr 25, 2010 at 1:12
5

People should get +200 rep on their birthday. Just sayin'

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  • 21
    As long as it is taken from them at the next day.
    – perbert
    Apr 24, 2010 at 16:24
  • 9
    @voy, I would update my birthday information every day of every year
    – juan
    Apr 30, 2010 at 1:17
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I just posted this answer this Stack Overflow Meta question: Can a user be greeted on his birthday?

Today is my birthday and I was unable to get the day off work. Upon visiting Stack Overflow I was surprised to not see some form of birthday message in the notification bar.

Ignoring the part about seeing how may birthdays you've celebrated here; this is an interesting question in that here on Stack Overflow's Meta this has 27 down votes and 6 up votes, yet on Stack Exchange's Meta the question of a birthday greeting asked over 4 years beforehand has received 71 up votes and only 19 down votes. Quite a difference, unless everyone is only focusing on the count part of the question.

With the new notification system in place, I don't see any reason something like this would be all that obtrusive or annoying:

Example Image

I mean, I'm sure some setting could be added for those of you who would rather not see a friendly message like this.

It's been over 5 years since this was submitted and I'm really surprised there hasn't been an official response.

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  • 4
    +1 I liked your "inbox notification" mock-up... the cake icon was a good touch.
    – HackerKarma
    Aug 6, 2015 at 11:36
  • That quoted user is obviously not representative - they only use SO at work??? ;)
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Dec 16, 2019 at 12:00
1

It's Saturday where I'm at. You should've told me that your birthday was yesterday, I would've brought punch and pie.

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  • 7
    It's still today where I'm at!
    – Ether
    Apr 24, 2010 at 15:35
1

Happy Birthday anyway! :D and I hope it was a good one, even though we @ Meta Stack Overflow missed it!

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1

I agree and support the proposal OP has made. There are few good suggestions already made here by fellow community members. I like the inbox notification idea posted by "James Donnelly". I would suggest displaying a small banner message upon login e.g. "Happy Birthday!" that stays for a few seconds and goes away. I don't know what is right word for this type of message (is it flash notification?) but I have seen this on few other sites.

This little personalized touch will be a nice addition to the Stack Exchange Network sites.

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  • 1
    Why just for a few seconds? The banner can stay all day!
    – shasi kanth
    Aug 6, 2015 at 11:59
  • 1
    @shasikanth Thanks. I don't mind that. My suggestion was at least show upon the "login". I don't know whether SE's UX/UI team will consider occupying the screen estate for the banner for the entire day.
    – HackerKarma
    Aug 6, 2015 at 13:17
0

Enjoy the day - er, I mean yesterday. We didn't mean to miss it...

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0

You should get +50 on your birthday. Just sayin'.

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  • 8
    I think he already got +110.
    – Pekka
    Apr 24, 2010 at 12:42
  • 13
    Yes, but on MSO. That's like getting scratch tickets for your birthday :)
    – user27414
    Apr 24, 2010 at 13:09
-4

I suggest that everyone who prefers birthday greetings from a computer script should type in her or his own console:

$ yes "Happy Birthday"

But please do not flood us with computer generated greetings. This includes scripted seasonal greetings as well.

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