Official News Live Chat + Live Messenger

[Sophie 24,408]

Moderators can edit messages so it should be possible

[Rewdna 782]

The chat box seems to have disappeared.Is this something i missed? Anyone else noticed this?

[gldenwetgoose 21,486]

Just now, Rewdna said:

The chat box seems to have disappeared.Is this something i missed? Anyone else noticed this?

Yes - Guessing the site is having problems again, Members map also disappeared.  Hope it's not causing @Admin too much of a headache...

I closed down my own website when I chose to wind up my part time business a year ago.  Whilst the site was up though, the admin back end was constantly notifying me of the hacking and malicious login attempts. I imagine this site would attract them tenfold.

[Admin 14,788]

Yeah, a few things have been temporarily disabled in order to try and fix an issue the site's currently having, they should hopefully be back soon. 🙂 

[gldenwetgoose 21,486]

I'm curious....   (no complaint, not saying there's a problem)...

Now we have the 'new' chat, there is the list of online chatters / chatterers / chattees that appears alongside.  On the homepage though, just above is the list of users online and often there are differences between the two.

I know that both lists can include 'stale' names, where 'xyz last visited 10 minutes ago' but just now for example there was a user on the online list browsing the site but not showing in chat.  Is that because the chat list is only users with the chat window visible on screen, or is there another reason?

As I say, just curious...

[Admin 14,788]

1 hour ago, gldenwetgoose said:

I'm curious....   (no complaint, not saying there's a problem)...

Now we have the 'new' chat, there is the list of online chatters / chatterers / chattees that appears alongside.  On the homepage though, just above is the list of users online and often there are differences between the two.

I know that both lists can include 'stale' names, where 'xyz last visited 10 minutes ago' but just now for example there was a user on the online list browsing the site but not showing in chat.  Is that because the chat list is only users with the chat window visible on screen, or is there another reason?

As I say, just curious...

You are spot on. 

The general 'who is online' list shows any logged in user who has switched page on the site within the last 30 mins.  This is because someone could still be online even if they havent switched page recently (I.e. writing a thread, reading a story etc). However this does mean there are some stale usernames too (but after 30 mins without switching page, they're marked as fully offline). However, the list SHOULD be in order, so you can see who is only very recently (and if you hover over their username, it should tell you exactly how many mins ago they were active). So the first half of the list will be the people actively browsing right this minute. (Of course, this only includes logged in users, the majority of people browsing the site are not logged in / registered).

But as you correctly pointed out, there's a specific list of who is online in the chatbox. This was added to give a more accurate representation of the chat. Once again, the most active will be at the top of the list.  And you also correctly pointed out that people only show in the chat list if they have had the chat window open very recently. I am not sure of the exact time, but we are talking a couple of minutes. (Now bear in mind they may have scrolled past chat or opened it accidentally, they may not be reading it, but the list is a much more accurate representation of who has been looking at the chat specifically).

So the 'chat' online list should always be shorter, as there'll be plenty of people online who haven't opened/looked at the chat within the last few minutes.

Hope that helps.