From Newsgroup: alt.english.usage

Ruud Harmsen:

In April 2007, I wrote about the Esperanto suffix -int-:
"forms an active past particle". https://rudhar.com/lingtics/eomech/eomechen.htm
That is clearly wrong: particle should be participle.

So I corrected it today, and added an internal comment
describing the correction. Now my question is, what is correct
English for this comment:
1) The error remained unnoticed for over 18 years!
or:
2) The error has remained unnoticed for over 18 years!

Do I use the simple past, because my correction abruptly ends
the period in which it was wrong, so that period is now
closed?

Or do I use the present perfect because there is still a
connection with the present, as we are now talking about the
issue? (Or I am, anyway.)

It is a very good question[1]: it has bothered me on and off for
years, and remains one a grey area of my English. Ever so
slightly, I gravidate towards the Past Simple, however, and am
listening forward to the opinion of an educated native speaker. ____________________
1. A standard opening for an LLM.
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