I presume "Newest Nodes" is the only form that uses the field

About the Newest Nodes view lists some of the other nodes/views which use it.

And there is some logic in Newest Nodes based on the "clear" status...

I think i have found all the logic bits in Newest Nodes. But yeah, code search revealed some other modules that also uses this, like the extra "clear" button in the user settings.

Another way around might be to push the "last seen" timestamp about 30 years into the past. That way it's a valid timestamp, but it's just "long in the past" and the automatic limits would kick in in any code i overlooked. And in the couple of bits where logic depends on it (mainly which buttons to show in Newest Nodes), it would be easy to check if the timestamp is a few decades old.

30 years seems a good number, as this shouldn't run into any 32 bit Unix epoch problems this might or might not still exist in the system. And if, in the future, a user logs back in after more than 30 years of inactivity, i'm pretty sure they wouldn't want to start reading where they left off.

perl -e 'use Crypt::Digest::SHA256 qw[sha256_hex]; print substr(sha256_hex("the Answer To Life, The Universe And Everything"), 6, 2), "\n";'

Honestly, I can see many things on PM which need improvement ...

This one wouldn't even make it into my top 50, sorry!

Apart from that I've already listed plenty of workarounds, and Roho seems to be the only one unhappy with the status quo.

If it's just for training purpose, such that you can get acquainted with the framework, please go ahead. =)

But be sure not to invest too much work, before the gods signaled their OK ...

(edit: Their silence so far resonates loud and clear! ;)

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery}