How can I tell who is online when looking at their avatar?

[Dean]

When viewing a thread, I see no difference between people online vs offline.

Clicking on the avatar does not seem to indicate that either.

What am I over looking?

?

 

[Brandon_R]

I heard there will be a place on the membership card for this from a post from mike.

 

[hIBEES]

cool smileys here too

 

[Dean]

I heard there will be a place on the membership card for this from a post from mike.

So, there is no way to tell from looking at the avatar, or anywhere else, while viewing a thread if people are online?

 

[Mike]

Is it really that generally useful? I never really thought it was important even to want to be able to glance at it, plus it tends to be inaccurate for at least 15 minutes.

 

[Paul B]

I find knowing who is online very useful, it gives you an idea of how busy the forum is.

 

[Jeremy P]

Well there's the online list on the homepage for that, can't say I consider viewing it in posts to be too useful.

 

[Umit]

I find knowing who is online very useful, it gives you an idea of how busy the forum is.

Or, how silent the forum is

 

[Brandon_R]

Yeah, just add extra bloat for me. The online list is pretty useful and the amount of messages being posting are both valid indicators.

 

[Cezz]

I can see some users finding it useful, I think the general populace wouldn't need it... really something for a plugin to create / add maybe a small image positioned over the bottom right-hand corner of the image with a red/green icon etc... Again more something for a mod though as it would only be useful for a small audience.

 

[Gill]

I've never liked the who's online thing - how reliant we've become on knowing what everyone is doing! Do we really need to see this on people's avatars? Surely, what matters on a forum is the quality of what's being written. It doesn't take much to establish how recently people have contributed. Most online statistics show how many people are viewing or lurking ... it means very little to me.

 

[Alex]

I must admit I find it useful on my forums so I can see when I'm replyng to a thread who is likely to read/respond to it. Tbh I don't mind if it's built in or a mod, although would prefer it to be a built in option even if it's disabled by default

 

[Sador]

A lot of people tend to set themselves to hidden anyway. It's okay to have, I guess.

 

[Paul B]

Well there's the online list on the homepage for that

Oh yeah, forgot about that.

Now that I understand what the OP is after, I agree, it's not that important.
In phpBB there's a little green dot next to the avatar to indicate who is online when reading a thread.

 

[Dean]

Is it really that generally useful? I never really thought it was important even to want to be able to glance at it, plus it tends to be inaccurate for at least 15 minutes.

Well, to me, yes.

If I know Joe is online I can reply to a post, or make a visitor message, or PM, and know within a timeout (15 minute) time frame if they will answer. Sometimes decisions need to be made and if Joe goes offline and does not respond then I can make the decision without their input.

I might have 5 moderators and quickly seeing their status being online, I can ask for input from the ones that are online, and not the ones offline.

In general, knowing who is online creates more posts being made and more information flowing, which makes our forum more 'alive' and interactive. And causes more people to hang out on the forum instead of popping in a few times a day to make a quick message.

 

[Paul B]

In general, knowing who is online creates more posts being made and more information flowing

Wouldn't you use this link for that? http://xenforo.com/community/online/

 

[Dean]

Wouldn't you use this link for that? http://xenforo.com/community/online/

No I would not because it would take too much time (unless I was desperate). Even if that was sortable by name or group so it was easier to find the people of interest online, my members would not bother.

If joe/jane/fred were engaged in a discussion, and joe could easily see jane online but not fred, then joe is far more tempted to make a reply with quote to jane then hang around for a few minutes to see if there was a reply. People hanging around forums, causes more people to hang out on forums, especially when they know specific persons of interest are online.

I realize that people can choose to be anonymous, or hide their status on various platforms, and they do so for a variety of reasons, but at least on our forum 98% show their status because they like to engage with each other. It makes things more like a chatbox verses more like an email or support ticket, where checking back every few hours is adequate.

 

[Dean]

I think what the thinking process might be at the current time on these forums, might be to hide the status of who is online so that everyone 'might' be online of interest. If that is indeed what the desired goal is, then removing who is online completely might be a better approach. Specifically: simply list the number of people online on the main page of forums, and not who is online at all.

But when I see Mike & Kier online, I tend to hang out and see what they might of typed instead of checking in every 3 hours.

 

[Kier]

I think what the thinking process might be at the current time on these forums, might be to hide the status of who is online so that everyone 'might' be online of interest. If that is indeed what the desired goal is, then removing who is online completely might be a better approach. Specifically: simply list the number of people online on the main page of forums, and not who is online at all.

But when I see Mike & Kier online, I tend to hang out and see what they might of typed instead of checking in every 3 hours.

Could always just follow us, and check back at your leisure looking through your news feed?

 

[Brandon_R]

Shouldn't that link be

http://xenforo.com/community/account/news-feed/

since it uses the account template etc?