# Indicate large time gaps between posts in a topic
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/indicate-large-time-gaps-between-posts-in-a-topic/29868
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** rfc, spec
**Created:** [June 10, 2015, 9:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/indicate-large-time-gaps-between-posts-in-a-topic/29868 "2015-06-10T21:16:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2015, 6:18pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/indicate-large-time-gaps-between-posts-in-a-topic/29868/21 "2015-06-19T18:18:27Z")
This is fantastic. Thank you!
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### Author:  [@ColdSun](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ColdSun)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2015, 7:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/indicate-large-time-gaps-between-posts-in-a-topic/29868/22 "2015-06-19T19:28:53Z")
Loving the feature as well. After seeing it on Meta, I was compelled to update to the latest commit 😃
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### Author:  [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2015, 3:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/indicate-large-time-gaps-between-posts-in-a-topic/29868/23 "2015-06-22T15:42:46Z")
I have a question.
Do the time gaps appear retroactively? Meaning if we just upgraded to latest and there was a topic that had a gap a month ago, that gap would be highlighted?
The reason I ask, is we have several topics with gaps that are no showing the Time Gap indicator. Even in our staging environment, I created a reply on an old thread intentionally to see the Time Gap and I’m not seeing it. I’m trying to investigate the cause (taking some time), but thought I’d check to see if there is anything obvious I should be looking for/at.
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2015, 4:20pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/indicate-large-time-gaps-between-posts-in-a-topic/29868/24 "2015-06-22T16:20:29Z")
Yes, it should happen automatically, it’s calculated when the topic is displayed.
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### Author:  [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2015, 4:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/indicate-large-time-gaps-between-posts-in-a-topic/29868/25 "2015-06-22T16:32:05Z")
Okay, I found the setting “show time gap days”, I’m trying to get that info for our setup, as we’re definitely not seeing it. So it is either set exceptionally high, or some value that doesn’t make sense.
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### Author:  [@elijah](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elijah)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2015, 7:01am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/indicate-large-time-gaps-between-posts-in-a-topic/29868/26 "2015-06-24T07:01:20Z")
There are XYZ replies with an estimated read time of MN minutes.
Summarize This Topic
Click summarize and read.
And it looks kinda weird in that view. The time gaps are marked for periods between posts that get shown, not for gaps of time with no posts…
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2015, 7:32am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/indicate-large-time-gaps-between-posts-in-a-topic/29868/27 "2015-06-24T07:32:06Z")
Yeah, @eviltrout mentioned he is planning on fixing that.
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### Author:  [@elijah](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elijah)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2015, 10:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/indicate-large-time-gaps-between-posts-in-a-topic/29868/28 "2015-06-25T22:22:47Z")
Another case that works odd: topics with many long delays. Here on meta there are many topics that periodically get new activity and then go silent for a while:
I think it might be better to have smaller interruptions for time gaps that are further in the past. When everything is 6+ months ago, knowing that there were various two to three week gaps seems less important.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2015, 11:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/indicate-large-time-gaps-between-posts-in-a-topic/29868/29 "2015-06-25T23:44:27Z")
Looks fine to me, personally.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2015, 11:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/indicate-large-time-gaps-between-posts-in-a-topic/29868/30 "2015-06-25T23:50:19Z")
Agree, it looks fine, its properly communicating that this topic is somewhat … odd.
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### Author:  [@eviltrout](https://meta.discourse.org/u/eviltrout)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2015, 7:24pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/indicate-large-time-gaps-between-posts-in-a-topic/29868/31 "2015-06-29T19:24:25Z")
I’ve changed it so it’s not displayed in summary mode:
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/00134774536c0d458996f33cdc16fd432bdcb3df](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/00134774536c0d458996f33cdc16fd432bdcb3df)
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2015, 7:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/indicate-large-time-gaps-between-posts-in-a-topic/29868/32 "2015-06-29T19:34:45Z")
After using it for a while I will set the default interval to 7 days, so only gaps of 8+ days will be shown. I think that is a better default than 4.
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### Author:  [@eviltrout](https://meta.discourse.org/u/eviltrout)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2015, 8:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/indicate-large-time-gaps-between-posts-in-a-topic/29868/33 "2015-06-29T20:07:09Z")
Cool it’s `show_time_gap_days`
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2015, 8:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/indicate-large-time-gaps-between-posts-in-a-topic/29868/34 "2015-06-29T20:21:33Z")
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