No displays of who is online, nothing complex. Just something somewhere on the front page that discreetly tells you that there are X users online.
Like I said in the summary, this is because I want to know if theres even anyone around to potentially read a new idea I post.
-- kaz, Jun 28 2005

active users active_20users
by Boab Kiddley. Not the same. [calum, Jun 28 2005]

Hey, I can call my own ideas useless thank you very much. Have you never heard of a <plug>Time Blimp?</plug>
-- kaz, Jun 28 2005


I like the one with the Croissant Nunchuks, but I'm cheap like that.

This idea is a good one too[+]
-- zen_tom, Jun 28 2005


what UB said. always a pleasure to see kaz.
-- po, Jun 28 2005


I'm here now, but I don't have IM coz I'm at work. I do have IM at home, but it's not always on coz I forget. Anyway, my HB screen-name isn't the same as my IM name.
If I just annotated something, I'm probably online. Plus, I might be online even if I haven't just annotated something.
Does that help?
-- angel, Jun 28 2005


I'm pretty sure I'm online. Either that or you're all suffering from mass hallucination.
-- kaz, Jun 28 2005


spiritus mundi...

[Pa'va] what a dope!
-- daseva, Jun 28 2005


How many, I wonder, log in but are not active. With broadband connections I can't see much reason to log off (is that a mistaken idea?). Then the display of who is online becomes who hasn't logged off.
-- Ling, Jun 28 2005


I'll bet few log off. I don't.

Presence indication usually requires an IM like connection or, at the very least, logic that logs users off of a site after a set amount of inactivity so that the act of logging on can be used to indicate presence.
-- bristolz, Jun 28 2005


I log in about once a year, if I have to clear my cookies to make something work that's broken. No way do I want to log in everytime I take a look. But it can be done automatically; a news site I frequent occaisionally pops my user profile up on the online list after the first article I read, without my doing anything.
-- oxen crossing, Jun 28 2005


I'm not online right now, but I'll probably check in later.

//I think [kaz] has a pretty good idea how the place works. You might like to sneak a peek at [kaz]'s profile page. //

Heh... this was the person asking bakers to put more info on profile pages. Don't think it'll help much if you don't look.
-- waugsqueke, Jun 28 2005


Could you need more information that a halfbaker's geek code?
-- kaz, Jun 29 2005


Simple HTML-based websites like the halfbakery work based on individual requests, not based on steady connections. It's less like a phone call, more like passing notes in class. So, you'd have to come up with a pattern that means that someone is "reading the site," say, X accesses in Y minutes.

More philosophically, this would be a feature that enhances the social aspects of the halfbakery - makes it feel more like a place that people hang out at to socialize, less like a database. Basically, it would push us further on the way towards becoming a chat room. And I can't stand the bloody things.

In short, if you see me implement this, it would be safe to conclude that alien brain slugs have taken control of my body.
-- jutta, Jun 29 2005


And that is far worse than the domestic kind.
-- bristolz, Jun 29 2005


Thinking about it, I know that I'm logged on at a couple of different locations so really using my own idea, it would appear that I'd be highlighting the flaws in it. Ah well.
-- kaz, Jun 29 2005


fishin' supplies shops might have them.
-- po, Jun 29 2005


[UB] - parliament.
-- Detly, Jun 29 2005


I don't view animation so your drawings will never grace my lines of sight.
-- mensmaximus, Jun 29 2005


ALL HAIL THE HYPNO-TOAD!
-- kaz, Jun 29 2005



random, halfbakery