OFFLINE... while I'm ON?!

I've noticed for the past couple of days now, that on EVERYONE's sidebar (including mine), it says that we're OFFLINE. That's GOTTA be a mistake because I can't be offline while I'm looking at a post I JUST MADE while I'm logged in!

This has to be a technical glitch, and I hope it can be fixed soon, as I can guess it's reaking havoc on people who want to talk or U2U people in real-time.

Ok. That's it.

[STAY COOL)
-prophetmike

There's been a change in the way we track online users, the new more efficient code does not compare your online status in the threads. The line is removed.

Nevermind...skeptic beat me to it, and I wasnt correct.

[Edited on 28-1-2004 by smirkley]

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
There's been a change in the way we track online users, the new more efficient code does not compare your online status in the threads.

The line is removed.

Thanks for removing the dead code, that was actually really quick. Less than a half an hour after my post, the line was removed. WHAT GREAT SERVICE!

Anyway, I was curious... what is this "new way" that you track online users? AND... how can we see if OTHER users are on? Let's say I wanna chat with... I dunno... let's jusy say Lysergic. How will I know if he's on?

The old code was actually good in that sort of way... maybe this new code could ALSO be used in that way?

Just wondering.

[STAY COOL)
-prophetmike

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
There's been a change in the way we track online users, the new more efficient code does not compare your online status in the threads.

The line is removed.

No william!! Please don't get rid of my favorite stat!!!

Originally posted by prophetmike what is this "new way" that you track online users?

Actually, the new way is just more efficiently using the existing code. In addition to updating your profile every page load with a time-stamp of your "last active" time, it also used to update an additional database table for who's online (in addition to exactly what page you're looking at). The overhead of doing this twice, (three times for buddy lists) for every member and guest was getting to be a problem. The new code relies on querying the member database for all members active in the previous 10 minutes (which is half of a normal "default" session of 20 minutes). Also, I have a smaller more efficient database table that tracks unique guest IP's, that's the guest number at the bottom of the forum home. So, the new stats at the bottom of the forum home reflect the actual members online. Since the old code used unique IP's, and several of our members come in through AOL and their proxy servers, this code is more accurate because it looks at actual members, rather than IP's. The draw-back is no buddy lists under the new scheme.

I understand, now. Thanks for the explanation, Skeptic.

By the way... YOU ARE THE MAN!!!

I love the work you've put into ATS/BTS. It takes A LOT of time to do everything you do and I personally want to congratulate you.

JOB WELL DONE, SkepticOverlord!

[STAY COOL)
-prophetmike