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DannyPancratz
VIP ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
August 30, 2021
Solved

What does last activity represent in user exports.

  • August 30, 2021
  • 14 replies
  • 291 views

In a user export, I’d like to confirm what last_activity represents. I’m assuming it’s a user event like: 

  • create a topic
  • create a reply/comment
  • Like 
  • Upvote

Is that correct? Is there a clear definition somewhere? 

Best answer by Daniele Cmty

Hi there, we always understood “last_activity” the last moment in which we could record any activity, even just a pageview, while being logged in.

For practical purposes, we consider the field “last_activity” like a “last login” 

(“Last Login” not in terms of the act of logging in but the act of browsing the community while being logged in. It also does not necessarily signify an activity like liking, posting, commenting.)

 

14 replies

revote
VIP ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
June 1, 2023

What does this mean:

User havent been idle for 5 years because our community kicks users out after 30min idle time.

I presume last time when user is logged in, is 24.5.20213 12:13, but why that date cant be seen on last_visit column?

revote
VIP ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
June 1, 2023

Now I am more confused:

  1. When I look from Control / Analytics /  User → “User with least 1 post”, there is number xyz
  2. When I export User data, using same timeframe, there are way less users listed

I think we have much more users, who just have logged in, than users who posts.

What I dont understand now and is this really so difficult? I just want to find out how many users have logged in in given timeframe.

DannyPancratz
VIP ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
June 1, 2023

@revote over time, I’ve come to appreciate Last Activity as I got comfortable with what it is (what Daniele mentioned in the reply I marked as the answer). Because our community doesn’t kick anyone out after X period of idle time, Last Login has no meaningful use to me: I want to know when they were last active on the site, which Last Activity gives me. 

I believe Last Visit is new (I very likely would have referenced it in this question if it was around) and I agree that it’s confusing as to why your data isn’t matching up. 

My hypothesis is that Last Visit is still a work in progress / part of the Data Lake feature they’re working on. I’d imagine they want to give us all the relevant info: 

  • Last Log in event - likely to be the oldest date/time
  • Last Visit event - only recorded when visits start and only within 30+ min intervals (so activity can happen after this time stamp)
  • Last Activity event - most recent activity time stamp (visit or action during an active visit: like, reply, etc) 
FYI: I am no longer active in this community
revote
VIP ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
June 2, 2023

@revote over time, I’ve come to appreciate Last Activity as I got comfortable with what it is (what Daniele mentioned in the reply I marked as the answer). Because our community doesn’t kick anyone out after X period of idle time, Last Login has no meaningful use to me: I want to know when they were last active on the site, which Last Activity gives me. 

Yeah I totally understand this.

But:

 

My hypothesis is that Last Visit is still a work in progress / part of the Data Lake feature they’re working on. I’d imagine they want to give us all the relevant info

I hope that when they are building something new for us, they do it in a way what doesn´t make us confused. Meaning, I hope they launch new features when they are ready (enough).