Online/Offline note above a user's avatar?

[Marcato 2,143]

So an idea recently came to mind that I feel would be a handy little thing to have in the forums, and that is something like an Online/Offline message by a user's avatar in their posts. Many forums already have this, and currently the only way to check if a user is online or not would be to scroll over their name and let the tab of info load.

 

I think a way this could be done, is having an overlapping green light or red light go on top of a users avatar. Green symbolizing online, and red symbolizing offline. Just in the corner so as not to obscure the actual avatar.

 

I just think it'd be nice for a quicker and more convenient way to check a users online status. Thoughts?

Edited January 27, 2013 by Silver Marcato

[NavelColt 22,881]

The hovering tab is fairly convenient as-is. Outside this, I'm not seeing a reason for further crowding the avatar area. It's not that hard to hover over someone's name or go to their profile. Implementing a permanent button, even a small one, doesn't seem like it's worth the trouble.

[Kapi 215]

Actually, I've also seen a border around the avatar (a green border around the avatar for online) and one forum actually changed the color of your name to show your online status. Actually, this would be a great idea for the mobile view, since there's no way to access the info tab thingy, the only way to see if a user is online is to go into their profile, and if a person has limited bandwidth, its a bit of a hassle.

[---------------------- 1,645]

Actually, I've also seen a border around the avatar (a green border around the avatar for online) and one forum actually changed the color of your name to show your online status. Actually, this would be a great idea for the mobile view, since there's no way to access the info tab thingy, the only way to see if a user is online is to go into their profile, and if a person has limited bandwidth, its a bit of a hassle.

perhaps doing something for an offline view would be pretty ideal, hoever I am not sure how much control feld0/scoots have over the mobile interface.

 

In terms of general use though, I think there is no real gain to adding such a feature. It's not that big of a hassle to just mouse over someones name and check there status.

[Kapi 215]

perhaps doing something for an offline view would be pretty ideal, hoever I am not sure how much control feld0/scoots have over the mobile interface.

I'm not sure myself, I should clarify that I'm just talking about the Mobile Skin, I know IPS offers an app for iPhone/iPod users, but I'm on Android, so I only get the Mobile Skin. I'm not sure how the iPhone app works...

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,527]

I can't imagine doing something to indicate a user's online status directly in the topic view would be too difficult; I'm sure it can be accomplished with a rather simple conditional template statement or two. But in principle, how would it be beneficial to the day-to-day functioning of MLP Forums?

 

Forums are not chatrooms, and one of their greatest strengths is that their non-realtime nature is not dependent on users being online simultaneously to hold a discussion. I'm not a big fan of making a user's online status too immediately obvious because, in principle, that information should be irrelevant to how you respond to a thread. How, exactly, would knowing whether a participant in a topic is currently online or not be a useful piece of information to know in the context of a topic?

 

perhaps doing something for an offline view would be pretty ideal, hoever I am not sure how much control feld0/scoots have over the mobile interface.

 

We do have full control over the HTML, CSS, and JS of the mobile skin; however, we prefer not to tweak it too much because we simply do not have the financial resources to extensively test changes to it across a broad range of mobile devices with varying capabilities.