Users can see a dim (grayed) countdown at the bottom of topics they are looking at. Here is the explanation of that function:

a) it appears very shortly after loading a topic
b) it shows the number of people with that page open including you, but only if there is at least one other person
c) it refreshes often but with declining frequency if you remain on the page and eventually disappears
d) if there are new replies to the topic since you viewed it, the number of extra replies are shown.
e) if you quick-reply, you'll see (d) in action, otherwise you won't as you got the topic anew
f) the title bar changes as well so you can see by scanning your tabs if a topic has new replies
g) it is intended as a way for participants in a fast moving topic to keep up should be useful for certain topics from time to time.

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by KeysCapt