Can I answer a question that has a lot of answers and will the questioner care?

I’ve been puzzled about the questions I see when I click the General tab or the Social tab, etc. I see that there is the Filter option and could choose Everything or Active or Orphans. When I select Active I get a list of questions that I presume to be in the process of receiving answers. Since there are no time stamps, I’m puzzled as to when these answers are in time-relation to the preceding answers and to the question. The ones that receive answers in just minutes are understandable, the questions that are from a week ago, not so much. Does the questioner get anything out of it if someone new pipes in after a week, after 4 weeks? Does the questioner note when they’ve stopped following their own question? Is there some de facto standard practiced by the heaviest users?