Viewing a thread

[osiris4isis]

The main page of gpspower.net already tell you who's online. Trying to know what a member is doing is spying* whether it's done in viewing a member page or adding this new function. But since that function is already available under a member page, it more of a conveniency than anything. Furthermore, just because someone is in a thread doesn't mean that he or she will be available to "chat." Feel free to add the new function, just allow users to disabled it.

* Catymag becomes "invisible" because too many members were "spying" on her. Unfortunately, only very high admin can becomes "invisible."

[chas521]

From what I'm reading, I'm sorry that I brought up the thread. I NEVER INTENDED TO START ANY HARD FEELINGS.

[osiris4isis]

@chas521 don't worry about it mate. All I asked if the ability is implemented, is to allow users to "opt out" or don't record presence. There was mentioning of "chat" which this forum doesn't have. It would be great if it does, I'm tire of PM'ing back and forth with limited storage.

[JmaCWQ]

You can also see if someone's online by the little circle thingo beside their username in the threads, green online, grey offline.
I'd like to be able to see who's viewing a thread also.

[G-ulash]

Dropping in

Chatting (at least in a public chat room) is not really what a forum is intended for. Besides, by the success of this forum, chat would be enormous and too much of a chaos of rubbish and serious talk that could be useful, if it could be dug up somehow.

When chatting is what you want, all sort of apps and programs do exactly what you want (but when you want it?)

And would chatting not be anything else but private help, just like help by PM? What a forum is not intended for either.

Or help by PM, or help by chat, quite contradictory to the repeated advise by the mods, not? "Read!". "What? Where? The solution was given privately" :D

My 2cts.


BTW, when a user asks a question and I can give help, I don't give a damn if he doesn't read it and thus doesn't get helped by me. Or doesn't come back.
His choice. I did my best.

[osiris4isis]

As I said, with chat you don't have to worry about your mailbox overflowing and needing constant maintenance.

[Magnetron]

it's easy to manage PM just delete every thing over a month old I do.


Spying huh you can read a members profile anytime and see what posts they have made and even send a PM from there whether their online or not.

[osiris4isis]

Unfortunately, some of us just can't "delete everything." I know it's a mailbox management issue and how much storage space will be enough; but the small amount this forum gives compare to others is ridiculous. And yes, there are already mechanism to "spy", as I said that it's just a convenient. Using PM to check if someone is online is like playing ping pong over long distances. And just because the "spying" mechanism is already there doesn't mean that everyone wants/uses it. I've been searching a way to turn it off or disabled it.
Having indication (green circle) for online around a user id of his/her post is also another way, this of course only works only if you see the user post. Again this is a convenient.
Having a "chat" capability as an alternative communication is nice. Consider when someone mailbox is full, how the hell you're going to tell them if you can't sent PM? There is no indication that's full until you enter your mailbox and check if it's full. Yea, posting telling them to clean it is NOT a solution to the problem, it's a solution to a symptom.

[G-ulash]

And how many chat lines in a public chatroom are you going to read before you find the one you are interested in? ("your PM box is full" )

[osiris4isis]

I think you misunderstood what I said, so I will restate
1. Chat is nice because it's real-time and doesn't required filling up mailbox. It has nothing to do with the philosophy of sharing (or not sharing) of info/content.
2. Chat is convenient because it provide another (better) way to tell someone to clean their full mailbox.
3. If the purpose is wanting to know know who is online, chat is another way of providing that.
4. Furthermore, as a software developer I know that chat is not resource intensive (no keeping track of data) and easier to implement (independent component)
The chat I'm talking about is peer to peer, there is no "chatroom."
If the purpose is to see if someone is online so you can communicates with them and not trying to find out what they are doing (aka spying), all you have to do is go to main page, click on person that is online and select chat.