Who Or What Determines Which Birthdays Are Shown On The Front Page?

[Denim&Venöm 18,726]

Everyday, five birthdays are highlighted on MLP Forums. But there are like, 50 or so birthdays everyday here on the forums. So who or what decides which ones are shown? 

[Rikifive 24,126]

The order is based on their latest activity.

The most recently active user is at the top, the one who hasn't logged in for ages is at the bottom (of the whole list - so most likely won't even appear there). That way it sorts the active users from ones, who don't visit the forums anymore, because there's kinda no point in wishing a happy birthday to a user, that hasn't logged in for years.

For example let's take the currently displayed users:

The further it goes, the older last active date is.

Edited September 8, 2018 by Rikifive

[Music Chart Fan 819]

I believe that the forum members being shown with birthdays on the front page are displayed in order by the last active or last visited date/time, with the most recently active forum members listed first. That way, those forum members whose birthdays are being shown are more likely to still be visiting the site, and thus are more likely to see and appreciate any birthday messages, etc. sent to them, as opposed to showing accounts which might be inactive or abandoned.

[Snow Frostflame 3,568]

I'm gonna take a stab at it and say it might just throw in the most active users' birthdays. That's what I've always assumed at least.

[Jeric 46,850]

@Rikifive nailed it. The system will first pull users who have a birthday that day, and then sort based on activity. Closing as answered.