Online Members: How Does It Work?

[gracy]

Are members who have internet access at the moment categorized as online members?or is just not about having internet access one should have PF window open in order to be online member!I just want to know how it works?

 

[mfb]

Physicsforums is not the internet, it is just a website - if someone does not visit it, the server has no idea if the user is online or not. All the server sees are requests for pages in this forum from users.

 

[Evo]

There are members and members online, online meaning they are on the internet and have PF open in a device that can read the PF pages., computer, phone, etc... It does not necessarily mean that they are actually looking at PF.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Users are counted as "Online" if they have visited PF within the past 10 minutes.

 

[Evo]

Users are counted as "Online" if they have visited PF within the past 10 minutes.

Wow, that times out quickly.

 

[Drakkith]

Users are counted as "Online" if they have visited PF within the past 10 minutes.

So if I sit here on the same page for longer than that, does it show me as offline?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

So if I sit here on the same page for longer than that, does it show me as offline?

After 10 minutes of inaction it would

 

[mfb]

What about the alert checking feature for gold members? Does that count as "activity"?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

What about the alert checking feature for gold members? Does that count as "activity"?

Good question, I don't know :)

 

[ShayanJ]

Good question, I don't know :)

After checking alerts, the red marking goes away. That means there was an interaction between the user and the server. It seems reasonable that the server counts that as activity.

 

[DrGreg]

After checking alerts, the red marking goes away. That means there was an interaction between the user and the server. It seems reasonable that the server counts that as activity.

I suspect mfb meant the invisible mechanism that decides whether the red marking should appear in the first place (without user interaction).

 

[mfb]

I suspect mfb meant the invisible mechanism that decides whether the red marking should appear in the first place (without user interaction).

Right. I can test it tomorrow if I don't forget.

 

[mfb]

If I leave a forum tab open for 18 minutes without activity (but with automatic alert checking), PF opened on a different computer doesn't show me as logged in any more.