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I am currently in the process of writing a paper about the discourse within Stack Overflow. I am focusing on the concept of seniority within the site.

My question for the site users is: Do you pay any attention to an account's age when evaluating the value of an answer/post/advise? If yes, what effect does this have on your perception of a user?

For example, if you ask a question and two people answer with conflicting information, will you have a bias to trust the older user more?

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  • Do you mean the real age of the user, which can´t be really proved, or just how long the user already participating on the site?
    – convert
    Commented Feb 16, 2023 at 14:55
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    The account age, the one that shows when you click on the user's profile.
    – Ido
    Commented Feb 16, 2023 at 14:58
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    I heard about people being biased toward the user with more reputation points, but I highly doubt anyone checks the age of an account; it's not even that easily accessible, you'd need to go and check every user profile to compare. And it really has no relevance, I might have a new account, but be an expert programmer, or have a very old account and be actually new to the question's field.
    – Adinia
    Commented Feb 16, 2023 at 14:58
  • Seems logical, would you say the "new contributor" tag has any bearing?
    – Ido
    Commented Feb 16, 2023 at 14:59
  • "will you have a bias to trust the older user more" - that's not relevant. or at least should not be relevant. What matters is the content, not who wrote it. It's not a social network where people compete for Likes.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Feb 16, 2023 at 16:28
  • OK, if you're writing a paper and you're asking a question like "For example, if you ask a question and two people answer with conflicting information, will you have a bias to trust the older user more?" I'd suggest you go back to the drawing board (metaphorically). What you've done is opened the floor for self-selection bias. You're not likely to get good workable data out of asking something like this.
    – VLAZ
    Commented Feb 16, 2023 at 18:05
  • There is also activity right next to "Member for..." on the same page: e.g., "Last seen this week", "Last seen more than a month ago, or "Last seen more than 6 years ago"
    – This_is_NOT_a_forum
    Commented Feb 16, 2023 at 19:05
  • None whatsoever. I would only ever look at this if I'm performing moderator tasks, not when using the site "normally" to get answers.
    – Cody Gray - on strike
    Commented Feb 18, 2023 at 14:28

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I would say reputation itself matters more. Sure, account age may help, but it's hard to find. Even if someone's account age is older, reputation would be more credible.

For example, two users have conflicting information:

  • User A: 2321 reputation, a year of experience
  • User B: 100 reputation, three years of experience

It is clear that the one with the 2321 reputation is more credible, as they have more experience with the Stack Overflow community in general. It's also possible that you can have an account sitting for years and never use it. This is why account age is never a good way to check for credibility, and reputation should be a better resource.

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