[2026 update] Long-time reader, first-time poster posts 31–51
This is a continuation of a long topic, addressed by post number rather than by page. Start at post 1 · go to the accepted answer.
On Long-time reader: the maintained page in the documentation commons covers the general case with citations and a review date, which is more reliable than any reply here including this one.
Where I have landed on Long-time reader, having got it wrong once in public: the direction is clear, the magnitude is not, and anyone quoting a precise magnitude has borrowed it from somewhere that did not measure it.
Worth separating Long-time reader as a question about the compound from Long-time reader as a question about the documentation. They get answered by different people and only one of them is answerable here.
Following up: if you introduce yourself and someone asks a follow-up question, you can reply here or in a direct message depending on what feels right.
Reading it again, the caveat matters more than the finding.
Two things can be true about Long-time reader at once: the mechanism is plausible and the evidence for the size of the effect is thin. Most of the argument here is people defending the first against attacks on the second.
Long-time reader came up in a thread eighteen months ago and was answered well. I cannot find it, which is itself the problem, so here is the reconstruction.
Thank you for taking the time. That was more work than a reply usually is.
No spam: introductions are not a place to advertise commercial products or services. That is a rules violation.
The arithmetic on Long-time reader is the easy part and it is where the errors are, which is an uncomfortable combination. Show your working and someone will catch it.
If you are new and reading this thread for the answer to Long-time reader: the answer is conditional, the conditions are in the third reply, and the rest of the thread is worth skipping.
What I can speak to on Long-time reader is narrow, so I will keep it narrow rather than generalising from it. Beyond that boundary I do not know.
Long-time reader is a good example of a question where the honest answer is boring and the interesting answers are unsupported. I would go with boring.
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