# Don't change 'last seen' when impersonating a user

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/dont-change-last-seen-when-impersonating-a-user/5764
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** impersonate
**Created:** [April 10, 2013, 10:16am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dont-change-last-seen-when-impersonating-a-user/5764 "2013-04-10T10:16:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 3

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### Author: ![tobiaseigen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/tobiaseigen/32/539204_2.png) [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2025, 2:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dont-change-last-seen-when-impersonating-a-user/5764/3 "2025-09-15T14:27:04Z")

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I undeleted this older topic because it relates to #impersonate which is currently being looked at in [Add 'stop impersonating' link to user avatar dropdown when impersonating - #41 by ted](https://meta.discourse.org/t/add-stop-impersonating-link-to-user-avatar-dropdown-when-impersonating/13806/41).

I noticed that the behavior in the OP is still the same as back in 2013. If you impersonate a user it updates their `last seen` date, which is easily reproable by looking at the admin user list. I just impersonated a user on my personal site that hadn’t been seen for a few years and they are now second in the list.

I suspect the same is true on the public user list and in who’s online if that plugin is installed.

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dont-change-last-seen-when-impersonating-a-user/5764)._
