Currently Active Users

rhorstkoetter · August 8, 2009, 12:13pm

Forums team,

I’d suggest to enable vBulletin’s (to my knowledge) builtin functionality to show the “Currently Active Users” along with the “Forums Statistics” at the very bottom of the page. I’ve seen this in numerous vBulletin boards already and I’m wondering why it’s disabled at the openSUSE forums. Could you give me some insight here please?

Thanks!

hcvv · August 8, 2009, 1:13pm

I am a bit sceptic about these sort of features. What is an ‘active user’? Is he/she loged in? Sits he/she looking at the monitor with keyboard/mouse at hand or is she/he gone to the bathroom. Is the openSUSE Forums window active or iconised?

I am loged in for part of the day, but I only look for new threads at the RSS feeds in Kontact from time to time. For threads I am subscribed to, I do get e-mails when new posts arive, so I look to my Kmail applet from every now and then. Do you rate this as an active user?

In other words, I do not see any use for it, but As it would not irritate me, I will not object against it.

And IMHO you should come with stronger Pro arguments, then that you have seen it elsewhere. I have seen a lot of things elsewhere that I never would like to have myself .

user · August 8, 2009, 1:17pm

lots of it on this page http://forums.opensuse.org/

–
goldie

rhorstkoetter · August 8, 2009, 3:39pm

I am a bit sceptic about these sort of features. What is an ‘active user’? Is he/she loged in? Sits he/she looking at the monitor with keyboard/mouse at hand or is she/he gone to the bathroom. Is the openSUSE Forums window active or iconised?

I am loged in for part of the day, but I only look for new threads at the RSS feeds in Kontact from time to time. For threads I am subscribed to, I do get e-mails when new posts arive, so I look to my Kmail applet from every now and then. Do you rate this as an active user?

I clearly see where you’re coming from. Seeing it from your perspective it certainly provides not that much of an advantage, but I think your specific behaviour doesn’t apply to the common user. Does it? In general one would have a better understanding who’s online currently and who’s not (at least with a delay of, let’s say, 5 minutes or so)

And IMHO you should come with stronger Pro arguments, then that you have seen it elsewhere. I have seen a lot of things elsewhere that I never would like to have myself

Aligned What about the opportunity to have a faster overview if my buddy oldcpu is sitting in front of his desk or not? Does this count as an argument? Btw, just out of curiousity: Do you have any arguments against the availability of the “Currently Active Users” view?

Prexy · August 8, 2009, 3:47pm

I’d REALLY like to have an easier login procedure; much more than a currently active list.

I hate not having the login persistent. I’d even settle for having the login always autofill from my home pc. >:(

FeatherMonkey · August 8, 2009, 3:48pm

This has been had out before here was the answer I was given.

Demon Typers - openSUSE Forums

You have quick links, but like you I liked the in forum view as if one of the demon typers was involved I would leave it alone, rather than duplicating a response.

hcvv · August 8, 2009, 4:40pm

Starting with your last questin. I thought I answered that already in my post (the part that you did not quote, but I hope you read it) where it says " but As it would not irritate me, I will not object against it". In other words, when it does not realy clutter the view of the posts, I do not mind, have no arguments gainst it.

As you saw, I did try to explain as good as possible how I work with the forums (no idea how big the percentage of users is who do about the same) because in the back of my mind I already had the idea that you do different. But you did not explain how and I think that is a big part of why you want the feature.

I was simply curious because, first out of lack of imagination, I could not understand what an ‘active user’ is. And then, in a jump, I saw a lot of defintions about such a person. As I never looked at such a feature in ‘other forums that have it’, I tried to get info from you about:
a) what you think an active person is;
b) what the technical solutions are used by those other forums to make a list of those.
Now as you talk about “if my buddy oldcpu is sitting in front of his desk or not”, that needs at least a webcam IMHO (and knowledge about his facial features).

And do not let my stupid questions spoil you quest for this feaure.

rhorstkoetter · August 8, 2009, 4:51pm

I already had the idea that you do different. But you did not explain how and I think that is a big part of why you want the feature.

Pretty simple actually. I login to the forums, use them and then I logout.

a) what you think an active person is;
b) what the technical solutions are used by those other forums to make a list of those.

From my perspective an active user is a currently logged in user. That might count YOU out due to your specific behaviour, but I guess it applies to the majority of users (obviously I’m unable to prove it). Technical solutions? My understanding is that the forums software (in our case vBulletin) keeps track of the login status of a specific user and updates that information every 5 minutes or so.

hcvv · August 8, 2009, 10:07pm

So for this purpose an active user is one that is loged in (so why not call it “logged in users”?). Thanks for the answer

user · August 8, 2009, 11:20pm

rhorstkoetter wrote:
>> I am a bit sceptic about these sort of features. What is an ‘active
>> user’? Is he/she loged in? Sits he/she looking at the monitor with
>> keyboard/mouse at hand or is she/he gone to the bathroom. Is the
>> openSUSE Forums window active or iconised?
>>
>> I am loged in for part of the day, but I only look for new threads at
>> the RSS feeds in Kontact from time to time. For threads I am subscribed
>> to, I do get e-mails when new posts arive, so I look to my Kmail applet
>> from every now and then. Do you rate this as an active user?
> I clearly see where you’re coming from. Seeing it from your perspective
> it certainly provides not that much of an advantage, but I think your
> specific behaviour doesn’t apply to the common user. Does it? In general
> one would have a better understanding who’s online currently and who’s
> not (at least with a delay of, let’s say, 5 minutes or so)
>> And IMHO you should come with stronger Pro arguments, then that you have
>> seen it elsewhere. I have seen a lot of things elsewhere that I never
>> would like to have myself
> Aligned What about the opportunity to have a faster overview if my
> buddy oldcpu is sitting in front of his desk or not? Does this count as
> an argument? Btw, just out of curiousity: Do you have any arguments
> against the availability of the “Currently Active Users” view?
>
>
Those statistics would be skewed though because there are users
reading/writing via NNTP which the forum software would not see as being
logged in. I would agree with you more if there was no NNTP option but
with it I’m not sure how much it would help.

malcolmlewis · August 9, 2009, 3:53am

69_rs_ss:

rhorstkoetter wrote:
>> I am a bit sceptic about these sort of features. What is an ‘active
>> user’? Is he/she loged in? Sits he/she looking at the monitor with
>> keyboard/mouse at hand or is she/he gone to the bathroom. Is the
>> openSUSE Forums window active or iconised?
>>
>> I am loged in for part of the day, but I only look for new threads at
>> the RSS feeds in Kontact from time to time. For threads I am
>> subscribed to, I do get e-mails when new posts arive, so I look to
>> my Kmail applet from every now and then. Do you rate this as an
>> active user?
> I clearly see where you’re coming from. Seeing it from your
> perspective it certainly provides not that much of an advantage, but
> I think your specific behaviour doesn’t apply to the common user.
> Does it? In general one would have a better understanding who’s
> online currently and who’s not (at least with a delay of, let’s say,
> 5 minutes or so)
>> And IMHO you should come with stronger Pro arguments, then that you
>> have seen it elsewhere. I have seen a lot of things elsewhere that I
>> never would like to have myself
> Aligned What about the opportunity to have a faster overview if my
> buddy oldcpu is sitting in front of his desk or not? Does this count
> as an argument? Btw, just out of curiousity: Do you have any arguments
> against the availability of the “Currently Active Users” view?
>
>
Those statistics would be skewed though because there are users
reading/writing via NNTP which the forum software would not see as
being logged in. I would agree with you more if there was no NNTP
option but with it I’m not sure how much it would help.

Hi
Maybe the results would also get skewed by the single login feature.
For example I login the the build service, yet it shows me online in
the forum… likewise for suse studio.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 5 (i586) Kernel 2.6.31-rc4-1-desktop
up 0:47, 2 users, load average: 0.18, 0.14, 0.10
ASUS eeePC 1000HE ATOM N280 1.66GHz | GPU Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME

rhorstkoetter · August 9, 2009, 11:40am

Those statistics would be skewed though because there are users
reading/writing via NNTP which the forum software would not see as being
logged in. I would agree with you more if there was no NNTP option but
with it I’m not sure how much it would help.

You’re right! That’s something I completely missed at this point. Do we have any statistics about the NNTP usage - I mean e.g. the number of posts submitted via NNTP compared to the regular web interface?

Maybe the results would also get skewed by the single login feature.
For example I login the the build service, yet it shows me online in
the forum… likewise for suse studio.

That’s a good argument against the counter indeed. I’m not sure though if that’s really the case. As the former project manager of the OSF I happen to have some insight about the login mechanism (I think this shouldn’t be discussed in the public) and I’m not sure if the user would be shown active before he actually uses the forums, i.e. I think vBulletin would recognize its own database instead of the single-sign-on to openSUSE websites - a bit hard to explain if you cannot explain the login details publicly
As of SUSE studio: afaik, this has nothing to do with the single-sign-on feature to openSUSE websites (e.g. the wiki, OBS, forums) - it’s to my knowledge a seperate openID login. Isn’t it?

buckesfeld · August 9, 2009, 11:51am

69_rs_ss wrote, On 08/08/2009 11:20 PM:

> Those statistics would be skewed though because there are users
> reading/writing via NNTP which the forum software would not see as being
> logged in. I would agree with you more if there was no NNTP option but
> with it I’m not sure how much it would help.

There aren’t that many NNTP users at the moment.
I also see the currently active users as an interesting indicator for the success of a forum.

Uwe

baskitcaise · August 9, 2009, 12:14pm

Uwe Buckesfeld adjusted his/her AFDB on Sunday 09 Aug 2009 10:51 to write:

> There aren’t that many NNTP users at the moment.
> I also see the currently active users as an interesting indicator for the
> success of a forum.

Just to add to Uwe the nntp users stats are monitored and counted as long as
they log-in with their email addy that they signed up with on the
OpenSuSE/Novell site.

However if I go to the web site I still need to log-in to set the cookie in
my browser before I can post under my ID and be counted.

HTH

–
Mark
Caveat emptor
Nullus in verba
Nil illegitimi carborundum

malcolmlewis · August 9, 2009, 2:20pm

rhorstkoetter:

> Those statistics would be skewed though because there are users
> reading/writing via NNTP which the forum software would not see as
> being
> logged in. I would agree with you more if there was no NNTP option but
> with it I’m not sure how much it would help.
You’re right! That’s something I completely missed at this point. Do we
have any statistics about the NNTP usage - I mean e.g. the number of
posts submitted via NNTP compared to the regular web interface?
> Maybe the results would also get skewed by the single login feature.
> For example I login the the build service, yet it shows me online in
> the forum… likewise for suse studio.
That’s a good argument against the counter indeed. I’m not sure though
if that’s really the case. As the former project manager of the OSF I
happen to have some insight about the login mechanism (I think this
shouldn’t be discussed in the public) and I’m not sure if the user would
be shown active before he actually uses the forums, i.e. I think
vBulletin would recognize its own database instead of the single-sign-on
to openSUSE websites - a bit hard to explain if you cannot explain the
login details publicly
As of SUSE studio: afaik, this has nothing to do with the
single-sign-on feature to openSUSE websites (e.g. the wiki, OBS, forums)

it’s to my knowledge a seperate openID login. Isn’t it?

Hi
I use my novell login on susestudio as well, don’t have an openid
account

I’m sure that’s the case, just noticed it because have hit the wrong
bookmark at times heading to software search

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 5 (i586) Kernel 2.6.31-rc4-1-desktop
up 11:08, 2 users, load average: 0.26, 0.26, 0.11
ASUS eeePC 1000HE ATOM N280 1.66GHz | GPU Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME

malcolmlewis · August 9, 2009, 2:30pm

Malcolm:

rhorstkoetter:

That’s a good argument against the counter indeed. I’m not sure though
if that’s really the case. As the former project manager of the OSF I
happen to have some insight about the login mechanism (I think this
shouldn’t be discussed in the public) and I’m not sure if the user would
be shown active before he actually uses the forums, i.e. I think
vBulletin would recognize its own database instead of the single-sign-on
to openSUSE websites - a bit hard to explain if you cannot explain the
login details publicly
As of SUSE studio: afaik, this has nothing to do with the
single-sign-on feature to openSUSE websites (e.g. the wiki, OBS, forums)

it’s to my knowledge a seperate openID login. Isn’t it?

Hi
I use my novell login on susestudio as well, don’t have an openid
account

I’m sure that’s the case, just noticed it because have hit the wrong
bookmark at times heading to software search

OK, so it doesn’t use ichains for susestudio, just the standard
novel login so it’s just the build service login then

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 5 (i586) Kernel 2.6.31-rc4-1-desktop
up 11:24, 2 users, load average: 0.11, 0.08, 0.07
ASUS eeePC 1000HE ATOM N280 1.66GHz | GPU Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME

user · August 9, 2009, 3:06pm

Uwe Buckesfeld wrote:
> * 69_rs_ss wrote, On 08/08/2009 11:20 PM:
>
>> Those statistics would be skewed though because there are users
>> reading/writing via NNTP which the forum software would not see as being
>> logged in. I would agree with you more if there was no NNTP option but
>> with it I’m not sure how much it would help.
>
> There aren’t that many NNTP users at the moment.
> I also see the currently active users as an interesting indicator for the success of a forum.
>
> Uwe
Why would it indicate any success of the forum? All I believe it would
really show is how many people are logged in versus who is lurking at
any given time.

user · August 9, 2009, 3:07pm

rhorstkoetter wrote:
> Forums team,
>
> I’d suggest to enable vBulletin’s (to my knowledge) builtin
> functionality to show the “Currently Active Users” along with the
> “Forums Statistics” at the very bottom of the page. I’ve seen this in
> numerous vBulletin boards already and I’m wondering why it’s disabled at
> the openSUSE forums. Could you give me some insight here please?
>
> Thanks!
>
>
Have you checked Quick Links -> Who’s Online? Looks like that may be at
least partially what you are looking for.

buckesfeld · August 9, 2009, 6:41pm

69_rs_ss wrote, On 08/09/2009 03:06 PM:

> Why would it indicate any success of the forum? All I believe it would
> really show is how many people are logged in versus who is lurking at
> any given time.

A logged in user is an active participant.

Uwe

conram · August 10, 2009, 8:05am

For us lurkers (not login users) Who’s
online feature is unfriendly, it is hidden when your not login.This opensuse forum feature is not so open.:rolleyes: Not that it matters to me!