The discussion revolves around how the online presence indicator works in Discourse, particularly in chat channels. Simon Tomes asks about the functionality, such as when users are marked as online and whether it works across different platforms like the Discourse Hub and PWA. Maiki explains that users are shown as online if their browser is active and they’ve had activity in the last minute, applicable to all browser-based interfaces. Nathan Kershaw compares this to the @whos-online plugin, noting differences in where the online status appears, such as in topics versus chat. Merefield raises concerns about potential conflicts between the built-in chat system and the plugin. DanielABC asks about faking online numbers, but Jagster and Nathan Kershaw discourage this as unethical. Simon Tomes confirms the explanation was sufficient.
I like the online presence indicator. In our instance, it looks like a green border around the profile picture.
I find it particularly useful to see in Chat Channels.
I’m curious how it works and when it switches “on” and "off. What constitutes being online? Is there a time limit for inactivity or lack of focus? Does it work with the Discourse Hub and a PWA as well as on a desktop browser?
Thanks for the info.
I’d like to include more info about it as part of a guide for those who are new to using chat channels and personal chat.
I asked our chat team and they shared this note from the library that handles the user presence:
Which equates to: show online if…
browser is not in the background, and
there has been user activity in the last minute
Both are browsers, and allow user activity, so it will reflect it when the user is actually looking at the site (merely opening Discourse Hub app doesn’t constitute “viewing” the site in a browser, for instance).
Does that give you enough detail to share with your community?
Do you use the plugin currently? If your plugin setting timer is set to 60 seconds, there might not be any way to tell which system is setting the active border on the avatars.
Is there a way to put fake numbers of people online? I see that there is a site competing with mine that always lies about the number of people online to say that it is busier than mine! So I was wondering, is it possible to put 10 fake people online all the time + the real number of people online?
Of course it is, and quote easily, but… why? There is no more content anyway.
That sounds… really childish. As childish as those ads telling my neighbour, who has surprisingly foreign name, has bought right now gizmo X, or those hundreds girls living next door, and I live middle of nowhere, want closer interactions exactly with me. Really — who believes and the most important point of view: who even cares?
I fully support your views on this. It’s just sort of aggressively showing yourself to be ‘more’ than you ‘truly are’. And that most of us do all the time in our day to day life (even though we may pretend that we don’t). Don’t we?
