I'm looking at a system that apparently saves the history of changes to the user_data table ... that is, the time and delta of any changes to the username, real name, email, birthday, etc.

Anyone know why this would be important in the Real World? Are there legal, moral, prestige, or practical reasons why an app would do this?

    Just random thoughts:

    • Maybe a way to revert data in case of a security breach or user error?
    • A way to detect usage patterns (including above-mentioned security breaches)?
    • Seemed like a cool feature at the time, but now is YAGNI?

      I'm hoping it's YAGNI because I don't want to add it to my project 😃

        Weedpacket
        I've got a table at work that audits transactions we make to a 3rd-party API. I keep meaning to find someone who can tell me when a transaction is old enough that I can delete it. 🙂

          cluelessPHP Isn't it six months max?

          🤷‍♂️ It started out primarily for billing reasons, but the way they bill has changed (no longer per-transaction), so now it's mostly to keep track of what was requested and what the result was, in case...someone needs to know. 🙂

            NogDog
            Where I am there is a legal requirement for that sort of stuff to be retained for at least seven years in hardcopy. Digital storage is much cheaper, so...

                cluelessPHP Well, I dunno, but thanks for the read anyway. It's good to have as much info as possible without requiring entire books. 🙂

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