Current Users

Dave or Terry,

Some of the message boards I've participated in have a feature that shows "Members Currently Logged in", or something to that effect, and allowed for private messages between users, that popped up to them. The feature could be turned off or on by the user.

I ask because some threads take a left turn for a bit on personal info, and individual conversations (Count me as guilty), before returning to the topic at hand. This could reduce some of it.

Additionally, what about an auto-refresh on the forums? When I'm on-line, DG is open. If it had an auto-refresh, I would see "watched" messages that have had responses immediately instead of going back to the page each time.

Just a couple of thoughts that came up tonight.

Thanks,

Chris

Chris,

The subject of "who's on" has come up before. In fact, I think we tried it for a day or two. The memebership at large voted against it, as some felt that it violated some privacy.

Many members are on some IM programs, so you may want to look into that.

As for the auto-refresh option- that has also been brought up to Dave before. However, the answer was basically a "maybe someday, but not anytime soon". He'll correct me if he's changed his mind on that one :)

I'm not Dave or Terry......but, hey- I still answer questions every now and then :)

Trish

Yes, I remember that, too; most folks didn't want to be shown.

And Trish is still really good at fielding questions :o)

I'm not sure that I'd say most folks disliked it (and we were a teensy tiny town back then compared to now); but those who were opposed were very vocal in articulating their dislike of the "who's on" feature. It lasted for less than a week as best I recall.

Personally, I kind of like having an idea of who's on. Although since I almost never log off, I'd appear as "on" all the time (I've run into this with other message boards - makes me look like I'm some kind of sleep-deprived 'net addict, lolol.)

Chris, I think what you're asking for is a combination of "who's on" and IM, which is beyond what we had before?

As to the auto-refresh, I find I do pretty good just hitting the DG logo each time I want to navigate. Not perfect in displaying real-time data, but close 'nuff for me :)

Thanks Trish and Terry.

I certainly understand that not everything will be agreed upon by the majority.

These were just a couple of things that I noticed tonight while checking out other boards, and thought "Man. That would be cool on Dave's."

Each board I'm a member of, there are likes and dislikes. If I wanted the perfect one I'd create my own. :-)

Thanks for this one.

Chris

Missed part of yours Terry, but yes, that was kind of what I was looking at. The ability to see whos on and IM them personally. A couple of the boards I participate in are original or remnants of old O'Reilly WebBoards. This was one of the better out of the box programs.

You could opt out of being viewed, settling the privacy issue, but you could also be viewed as on, but opt out of being paged (IM'd).

The auto refrsh is just a bonus for the lazy that leave a lot of pages open (me)

I remember one thing being, some of us don't ever log off, but are not really here. It appeared to others that we were here ALL the time, or they got upset at being ignored because it looked like we we were here. I don't really care who knows when I am on or not, but I did feel bad if people THOUGHT I was here and just not answering THEM. :(

A bunch of us are on MSN which will pop up and tell you no matter which site you visit if you have it turned on. I think others use the AOL and Yahoo ones. So far as I know, ICQ kind of lost popularity.

What about a list that people can add themselves to voluntarily, sorta like the address list, that gives their ICQ, YAHOO, AIM or MSN name?

That might be a good compromise?

On the DG address list which Flowox began and I maintained in her abscence, there was a field for IM handles. People could always put them in the Interests field on the current incarnation of that list.

HEY GW IF YOU DON'T MIND CHECK IT OUT MY POST AT COMPUTER TALK FROUM PLEASE TO SEE IF YOU CAN HELP ME WITH MY COMPUTER PROBELM

In the family site that I belong to we have the option of showing ourselves on line or not. We can activate it any time we wish to...that way those not wishing to show themselves on line can just decline to use it...can't we do something like that?? Jo

LOL, I found ya, Redrose! :)

I'm not opposed to having that feature. If I have the option to show myself online or not, then I guess all I have to do is click if I want to be shown online or not? I think it would be a great way for others who are 'online' to chat with each other if they wish to. I would think it would be a good addition to Dave's Garden if Dave thinks so too! :-D