Since chat is on the forum, it’s a bit strange to mix it with online indicators. I also have the who’s online plugin enabled. But configured it to only show a counter, no names. To not give anyone any expectations of replies. I prefer to keep this info from the community and not give people the feeling of disappointment or frustration if someone doesn’t reply “fast enough” while being online.
So as mentioned, I’ve disabled usernames for this.
But if someone opens the chat, then someone can see who’s online. That’s rather inconsistent. Please consider to add this global option to disable online indicators. I suppose it’s up to the communities to enable or disable them.
Completely hiding a user profile is then again a bit extreme. My profile is fine for others to see, just not my online presence, and that of others.