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I have been facing a small problem with Stack Overflow. Actually, I joined stack overflow 3 weeks back. Here is my activity:

enter image description here

As you can see, I joined Stack Overflow on Sep 21 or something close to that. But my profile shows that I joined Stack Overflow 11 months ago.

enter image description here

I am 100% sure that I did not join Stack Overflow 11 months ago. 11 months ago, I just had the habit of referring to Stack Overflow, but I did not join it. Why is this so? And how do I change this to the actual status (i.e a member for 3 weeks)?

P.S: I tried searching this on this website (Meta Stack Overflow), but I did not find any relevant answers.

Mureinik
315k8 gold badges77 silver badges96 bronze badges
asked Oct 6, 2020 at 7:08
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    Probably an account merge, maybe you created an cookie account 11 months back without realizing. Commented Oct 6, 2020 at 7:15
  • Hmmm...But I am 100% sure that I didn't create a stack overflow account 11 months back. Now how do I solve this problem? Commented Oct 6, 2020 at 7:16
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    You registered and logged into this account in November last year. You haven’t touched it since, not until a few weeks back when you logged into it again and started using it regularly. Because you used one of the external login information providers (and not a Stack Exchange account) it is easy to forget about the first time you came here and created an account. Commented Oct 6, 2020 at 7:21
  • Okay...Isn't there any way to solve this problem? Commented Oct 6, 2020 at 7:22
  • 2
    What problem? We can’t reset your join date, no. Commented Oct 6, 2020 at 7:23
  • Okay...Fine. I can understand... Commented Oct 6, 2020 at 7:24

1 Answer 1

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You did join the site, with an external account (Facebook / GitHub / Google), in November last year. You logged in once then never used it until a few weeks back.

Because you use a third-party login provider it would have been easily forgotten about.

When you started this account properly, in September, you simply logged back in, as far as Stack Overflow is concerned. Your account was here, waiting for you to come back. Even when you use the "Sign Up" button, then pick one of the external providers, if you then use an external account that already has been registered with Stack Overflow before, you are just logging in, really.

answered Oct 6, 2020 at 7:27
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  • Okay...But isn't there any possibility to reset my join date? Commented Oct 9, 2020 at 8:15
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    @Sushil: no, it isn't. Commented Oct 9, 2020 at 9:02
  • Ok...The sole reason that I wanted to reset my join date is that it makes my profile look good. 700 points in a month sounds cooler than 700 points in a year. Anyways, if it isn't possible, no probs. It isn't a big deal. Thank you! Commented Oct 9, 2020 at 9:10
  • Let alone my situation. Do u have the power to change the join date (I'm asking this to u as u r a moderator)? Commented Oct 9, 2020 at 9:15
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    @Sushil: that's not a great reason. And there are lots of profiles that don't gain rep fast, but the expertise of the person behind the account is not diminished by it. I started in 2009, if you zoom in on the first few years of my reputation graph, how much do you think I gained in rep then? Commented Oct 9, 2020 at 9:45
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    @Sushil: and no, we don't have the ability to change the join date of existing accounts. Commented Oct 9, 2020 at 9:46
  • Hmmmm...Ur reputation is just like the coronavirus cases. It started out slowly and then increased rapidly XD Commented Oct 9, 2020 at 9:48

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