Last modified: 2011-03-13 18:04:48 UTC
I think it could be useful to have a magic word to retrieve the timestamp of an user's last edit. That would work as an away-meter on their talk page. This was inspired on REVISIONDAY, and there could maybe be a magic word USERLASTEDITDAY or something (I dont think there is a need for more accuracy beyond days. And for caching issues, it would be better as the cache could be updated once a day. Also, it wouldnt be more problematic on this issue than, say, CURRENTTIME). That would be great especially for new users who ask for advice on other user's talk pagesm so they would know how rapidly to expect a response from a given user. Alternatively, instead of a magic word, the timestamp could be automatically included on the user's talk page, so there would be only one instance of it to be updated.
This information is obtainable through Special:Contributions. What benefit would there be in exposing it as a magic word?
(In reply to comment #1) For new users it would be much easier. When asking for advice on a user talk page they may not be aware that a good indicator of the time they should wait for a reply is found on the user's contributions page (and may not even know that there is one, that it is accessible for them, or how to access it). Even for more advvanced users it is not very comfortable to get to a user page, go to his contributions page and then back to his user page to finally go to their talk page and leave a message (IF they decide it worths it).
While such an indicator might indeed be useful, it isn't really suitable for a magic word in parsed text IMHO.
