Presence Indicator?

Al Launier

Member
Messages
1,683
Location
Bedford, NH
Just curious. but when a person has the little circle next to his/her handle colored in solid green that indicates he/she is present. But what exactly does this presence mean?
  • Present for only that specific post?
  • Present only on the forum?
  • Present for both on the forum & post?
  • Present online regardless of what site?
 
I dunno, I can't see it when I'm off the forum. :) I think the active status will show for up to an hour after you leave the forum, it's just an indicator that you have been online recently.
 
  • OK, I don't know what the "other" circle is" - the uncolored circle, Yes/No?
  • But, if the green means that a person is active on the "forum" does that mean:
    • He/she would be shown as on active status on just the forum he/she is currently on, Yes/No?
    • Or on any thread within the forum, Yes/No?
    • Or just a specific thread? Yes/No?
 
I believe a green circle next to a name means that person is logged in to the forum, no color in the circle means they are logged out or gave gone invisible to the general membership, mods see a yellow circle for those who have chosen to be invisible.
 
So, if I log into a specific forum like Off Topic Discussion then go to another forum like New Tools, or go to Notifications, or go elsewhere, does the colored circle remain green aside the person's name or go colorless in the previous forums? Think I may be pushing the patience of others - hope not.

How about when I'm on a FWW forum & I then place my computer in "Sleep" for several hours? Does the circle retain its green color or go invisible? So many questions, so .....................
 
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I believe it is green when you log on to familywodworking.com, it shouldn't matter which forum within the forum as a whole, like mine is green right now but if I see someone's response in a thread and it has no color, they are either logged out or invisible. Sure hope I am giving you the answers you are looking for, if not, I will do my best to answer them:)
 
I believe it is green when you log on to familywodworking.com, it shouldn't matter which forum within the forum as a whole, like mine is green right now but if I see someone's response in a thread and it has no color, they are either logged out or invisible. Sure hope I am giving you the answers you are looking for, if not, I will do my best to answer them:)

Tom's right. When you log onto Familywoodworking.org, your circle will show up green, regardless of what subforum you are reading or posting in. The circle will remain green for an hour after you log off the forum or turn off your computer. I believe you stay logged on even when your computer goes into sleep mode, but I've not confirmed that yet.
 
Watch your language!

Short for refrigerator -- lots of people say it - even children.

I can understand to connotations to that particular word.
I was not even thinking that stuff when I typed it.

Seriously though -- is that a "bad" word - and do I need to be "that" careful??

I do hope I am NOT stirring the pot with this question - it this is a pot stirring question - admin's please eradicate any and all references to this - I will understand.
 
Explanation (though more detailed than you may be looking for):

On web sites, there actually is no such thing as "online" or "active" or "present" or whatever. It's fudged by the server and guesses get made.
When you hit the site (anywhere on within vBulletin, doesn't matter where), it starts what we web nerds call a "Session".
This session is just thing the web application conjures up for keeping track of the state of things.

Sessions have a lifespan - they usually last a few minutes after the last request by that user. If you hit another page on the site before that time, the application resets the timer on your existing session.

It assumes you've been there the whole time, though it can't know that. There is no constant connection kept open just because you have a FWW web page visible in your browser. If you don't make a request to the server before the session times out, the server will assume you're offline and reflect that accordingly. The concept of online just means the server answered a request you've made recently. That's all it means.


The best way i can think of to describe it is like a CB conversation where if you started talking to me, and I replied, you would assume i was actively engaged in the conversation unless i took a very long time to say something. Then you'd wait for so long before you would just assume i wasn't there anymore. If you were to click the logout button, that would be the equivalent of saying "Over and out".


Does that make sense? :)


(There ARE ways that a web app can be more "stateful" with a definitive 'online' status that uses things like webSockets and such. vBulletin doesn't do that. It's just a standard session timeout kind of app)
 
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