'Last Visit' vs 'Last Activity'

[Kristian]

This is strange

Whats the difference between 'Last Visit' and 'Last Activity' in the Time Options under User Manager (AdminCP) ?

I sent emails to all users who 'Last Visited Before' a certain date asking them to login to their account if they wanted to keep it. A lot of them emailed me back saying that they had actually visited quite recently!!!

I'm confused!!!

[Jake Bunce]

The last visit time is the time of the user's last session (the session before their current session if they are currently logged in). The last activity is the last time the user loaded a forum page.

[Kaya]

So if a user logs in on the 1st May, on the 2nd May and I check on the 3rd May, would his last activity be 1st May?

I still don't get the difference between "session" and "last time user loaded a forum page". Isn't that the same?
If you load the start page of the forum, that also qualifies as "forum page", right?
My forum is closed to guests. so every activity would be a visit, right?

But with the only difference that last visit is 1st May and last activity is 2nd May?

[Jake Bunce]

In that case the user's last activity would be May 2 while their last visit would be May 1.

[padmaster]

Just to add a comment on this....


I was rather confused by this as well. In the user listing and profile viewing > member list field options, I enabled the last online field and expected it to display the last time a member logged in or visited the forum. Apparently it doesn't do that. I almost dismissed a moderator based on the information displayed in this field.

First, the last online option should say last visit, which is what it says in the column header in the member list, and that is the information displayed in the column.

Second, it would seem more consistent if vBulletin would use either user or member in the admin cp. It's a little confusing when you use user in one place and member in another.

[Banana]

In that case the user's last activity would be May 2 while their last visit would be May 1.

I must say I'm still confused by this.

Why would the last visit be May 1 when they visited (to post) on May 2. How can they post without visiting?

[Jake Bunce]

The lastvisit date is used to determine which posts are unread. Any posts made after the lastvisit date are unread. If that date was not recorded then vBulletin would have no way of knowing which posts are new for that user.

[Banana]

Maybe some better terminology could be used such as "Last Visit Ended"

It is still a little bewildering though how someone can have a Last Activity way after a Last Visit (howsoever named). For instance - here is one of my users:
Last Visit: June 13 23:08
Last Activity: June 14 7:24

Does this mean he was online during all that time or what?

[Jake Bunce]

For instance - here is one of my users:
Last Visit: June 13 23:08
Last Activity: June 14 7:24

Does this mean he was online during all that time or what?

That means his last forum session ended on June 13 23:08. Since then he logged in again and the last forum page he loaded was on June 14 7:24. It doesn't necessarily mean he was online that whole time.

[Stachel]

Wow, I'm so glad I used the SEARCH function before starting a topic *exactly* with this title! This is not a topic to read after 2 glasses of Merlot.

True or False:

___ A Visit turns into an Activity becomes a when a forum page is loaded.
___ A Visit stays only a Visit if the user never does anything but log in and doesn't load any pages except the one after logging in.

Stachel

[Jake Bunce]

Not quite. Here is the whole process.

- User logs in. Lastactivity is updated. All posts since lastvisit are unread.

- User clicks on a forum. Lastactivity is updated. Lastvisit stays the same.

- User continues to browse forum pages. Lastactivity is updated on every page load. Lastvisit stays the same.

- User goes inactive. After the user has been inactive for the length of the cookie timeout, their last visit date is updated.

- Or if the user logged out instead of going inactive then their lastvisit would have been updated upon logging out.

[Stachel]

Shazam!

Got it! Thanks Jake!

Stachel

[Kaya]

- User goes inactive. After the user has been inactive for the length of the cookie timeout, their last visit date is updated.

Here lies the poodle's core (German saying):

If your users set their cookies not to time out (most of my users do this) or if they don't log out, then the last visit date is pretty much random information.
For finding out when was the last time someone "visited" your forum then, you would have to look up last activity!!!

I also find the naming of the "last visit" unfortunate and would prefer if it was called "last logout" (which it really is, right?)

[Jake Bunce]

Cookies don't matter. The user is logged out after they have been inactive for longer than the cookie timeout. When they come back they are automatically logged back in if they have a cookie.

[Kaya]

- User goes inactive. After the user has been inactive for the length of the cookie timeout, their last visit date is updated.

Something is wrong here. I don't think this works (at least not for me). When a user does not log out, the last visit does not update in my case, even AFTER the cookie timeout (900 seconds in my case).

If I understand correctly your explanation, a visitor should always have his last visit date 15 min (900 s) or less than that (if the visitor actively logs off) after his last activity date. This is not the case for my users. Please check this.

Because of the unreliability of last visit, it would also be better to have last activity as a search and display option in the "Search for Users" panel of the Admin Control Panel.