Also a major mitigation would be if it redirected you to the page you were on, ideally with what you had written already filled in, after you log back in.

Better yet: if logging in was just a detour to submitting a comment or post. So if you try to post something and you're not logged in, you get presented with the login screen, put in your login information, send, and the post you were trying to make gets posted.

I have a solid repro:

1. Sit on a page for a long period of time without other activity (for example, minimized web browser for 30-45 minutes)

2. Interact with a post by hitting the upvote or downvote button

I'd imagine some session token is expiring and when you send the request for the upvote/downvote it rejects the call due to an expired token. Then the page refreshes and logs you out. Pressing the home page again will auto-log you back in.

I'm on Chrome on two different desktops with most recent windows; I'm getting booted out every 5 - 15 minutes. I had assumed it was deliberate and was eventually going to ask if maybe the timer could be made a little longer.

Generally speaking, the logout timer is shorter than it takes to read the comments section and write anything longer than a paragraph.

It seems connected to "idle" time - I've never been booted out while browsing, but if I pause or do something else I will generally come back to having been logged off. That said, I don't generally browse for 15+ minutes straight, so much as in couple-minute sprints between tasks at work.

For instance, it happened in between logging in to load this thread, reading what everyone else had to say, and posting this comment.

If it helps, I'm on Firefox desktop (Linux).