Temporary MEMBER / GUEST listing changes

[beemaster]

To all members:

I have increased the list of members online to reflect activity over the last 24 hour period whenever you refresh to the home page of the forum - this is primarily for statistical reasons to show actual member activity to help us best see how we are doing now that we are into year 7 of the Beekeeping Forum.

NOTE: there will be no duplicate user-names nor will the VISITOR count be inaccurate - it will show (according to unique IP) the number of visitors per day. Any discrepancies in visitors cn only occur if dialup users return within the 24 hour period.

In reality, we have short changed ourselves for many years by only showing people online for the last 20 minutes previously:

* If you are looking to see if a friend was on, if they were but just 20 minutes earlier, you wouldn't have known it by the list, now if they were on the last 24 hours, you will see their names.

* Now we will see how many visitors and hopefully add techniques to have them join our forum rather than just read posts.

* Showing how active we really are is a good way to show anyone who is interested in our forum that we are a very busy group, always ready to help, share stories and make friends.

So nothing is fluffed up, all numbers are accurate and it enables members to see who else has been on recently. I think it is a win win way in order aid the growth and statistics of our group.

[annette]

The only problem I am experiencing with this is it shows all these people online that are not online.  When I see that green box filled in I get all excited thinking that beekeeper is now on line and I can send a PM and get a reply back right away.

Like right now I think that you are online and it makes me happy to see that green box lit up.

But I understand what you mean that now we can see all these members listed that we never knew about before.  Wow many people just reading and never saying anything.

[Shawn]

Everytime I get on the site I scroll down to see who is on. The first day of the change I saw hundreds of people on, well maybe not hundreds. I was surprised and then saw Beemaster's post. I see the point of Beemaster because a website is just like anything else. When you are driving through a town you have never been and loking for a place to eat most people look for where all the cars are parked at. If you see two seafood places to stop at side by side and one has 50 cars and the other only has 2 cars where are you going to stop. Annette I do the same as you and have coresponded with others the same way when they are on, kind of fun. I wonder if the names of people that were currently online could be colored different than those that viewed in the time period but were not online.

[beemaster]

Both valid points!

We've never had a way to tell who all is really coming in and NOT EVEN posting - this is a social experiment for just awhile and not meant to mess up any PMing to current online users. I just want to collect some data here and this is the only way I know how.

If we have 160 members log in every day, why then only do 10/15% post - I'm wondering if that is typical to forums and assume it is. But in the same respect, it is great to know 160 members are coming in daily, I sure didn't know.

We've caught as many as 59 people in that 20 minute online setting, but that never reflected a full days worth.

The busy dinner theory is true I imagine, I have never felt the forum a competition with any other forum, nor would want that, I do though think it interesting to see names of members who I can't think I've seen post before, and doing this and clicking on their name allows me to see how active they have been posting.

Hopefully, after a few more days of trial, I'll have a good average daily count and lower the number back - and remember Annette, even when it was set to 20 minutes, it didn't mean that the green-light people were actually still on, only that they had been the last 20 minutes. That's why the WHO'S ONLINE list generated can still be helpful, make sure it is sorted by DATE with the ARROW POINTING DOWN next to it, that show most resent online - you should not see a date, only a time if the sorting is listed proper, if you see a date too, then the list is showing who was on 24 hours ago and sooner in that order.

Hang in there. Not to take away from PMing members, but there are many other more INSTANT MESSAGING OPTIONS out there like AIM and others - coordinating people there (as in our voice chat) is a sure fired way to communicated fast and efficiently.

The worse case missing someone online is having them PM you next time they log back in - I understand "that" isn't the same as getting written right back, so I totally understand your point. I'll likely end this poll of active members at the end of the month, giving me about 10 days of data. Then things will be back to normal. I will likely reset the clock to 30 minutes (instead of 20) not a huge difference I think.

[buzzbee]

The only problem I am experiencing with this is it shows all these people online that are not online.  When I see that green box filled in I get all excited thinking that beekeeper is now on line and I can send a PM and get a reply back right away.

Like right now I think that you are online and it makes me happy to see that green box lit up.

But I understand what you mean that now we can see all these members listed that we never knew about before.  Wow many people just reading and never saying anything.

Well,being online doesn't necessarily mean you'll get an instant answer. Some lazy bums like me forget to check P ;)M's sometimes. I usually get caught with the notification of a PM in my regular e=mail.

[kathyp]

i forget to close tabs