# "Out of office" user indicator

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/out-of-office-user-indicator/228096
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [May 25, 2022, 5:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/out-of-office-user-indicator/228096 "2022-05-25T17:22:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 3

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### Author: ![jimkleiber](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/jimkleiber/32/121814_2.png) [@jimkleiber](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jimkleiber)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2022, 8:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/out-of-office-user-indicator/228096/3 "2022-05-25T20:15:53Z")

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The most creative solution I’ve done on social networks in general is to replace my profile pic with a screenshot of a message saying something like:

```plaintext
Out of office until May 30...
If urgent, call 555-555-5555

```

The idea is that if people are going to interact with me, they almost always see the profile pic (in Discourse, `avatar`) first before starting the interaction.

So as a workaround that may work.

Other options include using the Calendar plugin:

> [@Discourse Calendar and Events](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-calendar-and-events/97376/1):
>
> ### Holiday Calendar
> 
> There is an optional, special “holiday calendar”, primarily intended to help manage site staff holidays.
> 
> This is controlled by the setting `holiday calendar topic id` . By setting `holiday_calendar_topic_id` to the ID of a topic which has a calendar in the top post, that calendar becomes special — instead of regular calendar entries, any replies will be taken as “vacation time” for that user. These entries will be automatically (and randomly) colored. (It is not possible to control the colors, nor to get colored entries in the normal type of calendar.)
> 
> Additionally, the emoji 🏝 will appear next to the names of people on vacation in their user cards, and a calendar icon next to their name when @username mentioned in a post.
> 
> Note that while any user with access to post in the topic can add an entry, these indicators are only visible to moderators and admins; this is not currently configurable.

Although those indicators may only show for moderator and admins.

Or using [PM autoresponder for admins](https://meta.discourse.org/t/pm-autoresponder-for-admins/107153), but that plugin only seems to work for private topics (private messages).

This topic talks about it a little more: [Vacation autoresponder for users who are away?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/vacation-autoresponder-for-users-who-are-away/107044/1)

Overall, I still think changing the avatar to a screenshot of a text message is the easiest way, and maybe a secondary way would be to create a theme component that allows people to add a particular type of flair to their avatar or some type of tooltip and icon to it to let people read the text.

EDIT: I like the above suggestion about an out-of-office group that people can join and leave at will:

> [@awesomerobot](#):
>
> The quickest way to do this with no additional customization would be to create a new group… you could call it “out of office” or whatever you need. The group can have a custom flair icon and user title… so you could do something like this:

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/out-of-office-user-indicator/228096)._