Why are these PF dates inconsistent?

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Inconsistencies in posting dates on the Physics Forums, particularly regarding a post from March 30, 2022, have raised questions about the accuracy of "Last-seen" dates. Users noted that a "Last-seen" date appearing ten years prior to the post date suggests a potential bug or database error. It's also suggested that system updates during maintenance could temporarily misalign database information. Additionally, the possibility of users altering their privacy settings in the past may contribute to these discrepancies. Overall, these anomalies highlight the challenges of maintaining an accurate forum database over time.
renormalize
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I was looking at this recently revived thread: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/a-homebrew-quantum-computer-simulator.1013770/ and noticed the following regarding a posting by @azntoon on March 30, 2022:
1731717787361.png

How can the Last-seen date be 10 years before the post date?
 
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renormalize said:
How can the Last-seen date be 10 years before the post date?
TIME TRAVEL!
Now if we can just bottle and sell it .... :wink:
 
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Apart from the obvious answer (bug) there is always possibility system updates some information during maintenance events, say once a day, so different parts of the database can be temporarily off.

But in general these old things were imported from the previous version of the forum database at some point and in my experience they do contain some strange inconsistencies.
 
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renormalize said:
How can the Last-seen date be 10 years before the post date?
Maybe the user changed their privacy settings in 2012?

1732502570822.png
 
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DrGreg said:
Maybe the user changed their privacy settings in 2012?

View attachment 353868
I just posted from the future too

Screenshot_2024-12-15-15-07-24-625.jpeg
 

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