Lack of interest [Suggestion] Time spent on the forum

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This is small, yet a very interesting feature. People lose track of time on forums... maybe something small to assist them.
Exactly. So why would I want my members to realize how much time they are spending on my forum? I believe the response would be less people on our site, at least for our site.
 
Exactly. So why would I want my members to realize how much time they are spending on my forum? I believe the response would be less people on our site, at least for our site.
Because you cannot deceive human behaviour... the moment you think you are tricking a person, you've already lost. Help your users moderate their time online and you will keep them coming back. If they become addicted to your site, then you will lose them completely... near guaranteed. People have partners, children, employment, friends, etc... they are far more over-powering forces than an admin trying to keep them on their website. By helping users manage their time you show them a level of trust, a degree of respect for their time. Psychology dictates the best things in life are those done in moderation. Moderation often helps a person to return... When you move into addictive behaviours, the person will at some point completely shift to the opposite end of the spectrum, being complete avoidance, hence you lose them.

Suggestions and tools such as this will only help those who chose to recognise and moderate their online time. Some will use it as a tool to actually compete for the longest time online, so as an admin you win by giving them the very tool to assist them to moderate their online time. There are usually more positives to such a feature than negatives when measured with human behavioural science.
 
I had the activity/time track mod for vB3 installed at one point; my members started comparing e-peen due to their activity.

Not everyone will spend less time, it usually depends on the target audience. 
 
A little trophy for this would be cool. I wouldn't go as far as displaying the time on the member page, though. :)
 
Because you cannot deceive human behaviour... the moment you think you are tricking a person, you've already lost. Help your users moderate their time online and you will keep them coming back. If they become addicted to your site, then you will lose them completely... near guaranteed. People have partners, children, employment, friends, etc... they are far more over-powering forces than an admin trying to keep them on their website. By helping users manage their time you show them a level of trust, a degree of respect for their time. Psychology dictates the best things in life are those done in moderation. Moderation often helps a person to return... When you move into addictive behaviours, the person will at some point completely shift to the opposite end of the spectrum, being complete avoidance, hence you lose them.

Suggestions and tools such as this will only help those who chose to recognise and moderate their online time. Some will use it as a tool to actually compete for the longest time online, so as an admin you win by giving them the very tool to assist them to moderate their online time. There are usually more positives to such a feature than negatives when measured with human behavioural science.

can you prove your statement with excerpt of scientific analyses ?
 
How exactly would it tell how much time you've spent on the forum is my question.

Some people never log out, and if it counts the 15 minutes of inactivity before automatically marking a user as offline then the time spent on the forum stats won't be accurate and will of course be much higher for users who never log out.
 
How exactly would it tell how much time you've spent on the forum is my question.

Some people never log out, and if it counts the 15 minutes of inactivity before automatically marking a user as offline then the time spent on the forum stats won't be accurate and will of course be much higher for users who never log out.
There's really no other way to do it (unless you used JavaScript polling and stuff, but yuck...). It could only be a fun little thing, because you really couldn't read too much into it. :)
 
we do have the trophies-systems which tells enough about your specific activity at a forum.
This is fun-stuff and something which users enjoy.

Of course you could tell the user: "you are here for 3 hours now, get a life and log-out !"
 
can you prove your statement with excerpt of scientific analyses ?
Google "internet human behaviours" or "internet human behaviour studies" and start reading. You may need to obtain access to some psychology sites to obtain. There is no shortage on studies upon human behaviour online... as marketing study is based on human behaviour measurement. If you learn a bit about marketing, you will see all the science behind it. Though I cannot honestly provide you the information and science contained in a marketing qualification / degree on this post, as there is a hell of a lot.
 
I have to agree with Anthony - we should not be trying to cover up or deceive users about how long they spend on our websites ala vegas (hide all the clocks) fashion.... Similarly though I don't think it should be a trophy either - competiting for trophies (especially around forum addiction) I fundamentally disagree with as it detracts from the nature of the site.

I share the opinion that this would be quite hard to implement with any accuracy - some websites use a long time out period - especially less established sites who want to appear busier. A brand new user who is in actual fact online for 30 minutes over 3 sessions could show up with a total activity of anywhere from 45 minutes to 90 minutes plus, depending on session timeouts. I don't think ajax polling is a wise use of bandwidth for a feature which is at best a gimmick and at worst a distraction.
 
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