Forum:Request: Application so you can see who is online

I was wondering.

I'm assuming everyone has made friends on wikis, right? You like talking to them. In some cases, you'd trust them with stuff that you wouldn't tell anyone else.

I'm not going to extend on my last comment, but I was thinking. We have no way to tell if they're online unless you see an edit, which is very troublesome. What if they only go on to add a word to an article or something?

I was thinking, why don't you guys, techno people (filled with awesomeness, I might add), make an application to see what users are online. Not their IP address, please, sometimes brothers and sisters join the same wiki and it's confusing to see who it might be. But their username. (I, personally, I think I should mention, am Forestpaw13, a member of the Warriors Fanfiction Wiki, created by Eulalia459678.)

And if it's not too much trouble, maybe we could chat, directly in the wiki. Nobody can see that we're chatting, nobody can see what we're saying. Nobody can see how often we chat.

I realize that, yes, it makes us a bit more vulnerable, because in these private chats we are more likely to say something that we wouldn't normally. I also realize that, without the entire wiki watching people chatting, inappropriate things may be said. And there are other downfalls.

But, frankly, we're a community, and for a community to function properly we need to know personalities. How would one user respond to a situation, versus another member? How would this member be better-fit for a job than another?

I'll let you guys mull over this. Call me back if you need anything, by posting a message on my talk page. Or something.

Peace out. FP  Coolr than you  13:35, July 4, 2010 (UTC)
 * I'd prefer there was no such tool. If you want to see people who are online, and chat to them, I'd suggest your wiki create an IRC channel for itself, where members can join and chat (either privatly, or as a whole wiki). If you don't know how to create a channel, join the #wikia general support channel and ask, and someone will tell you how to make a channel. Yes, it may seem like a good idea, but people like their privicy, it'd be hard to implement on the current skins, and many people leave themselves AFK but logged onto a wiki (I've always got RC open to the wikis I use, but I may or may not be active on the wiki at that time, I might even be asleep). You can also exchange details with other users for use of another, conventinal chat program (such as AIM, Google talk, MSN, ICQ, Steam etc). -- Random Time  14:21, July 4, 2010 (UTC)
 * I see your point. *shrugs* FP   Coolr than you  14:24, July 4, 2010 (UTC)
 * It's always worth suggesting it. Best to send it to Wikia Staff using Special:Contact and they'll review it! Perhaps it will once be created! Mark  ( talk ) 14:34, July 4, 2010 (UTC)
 * Highly unlikely, as such a feature exists (probably not compatible with the shared user db) but a mediawiki extension nonetheless. It is far too server taxing to check the status a potentially limitless amount of users. -- 14:38, July 4, 2010 (UTC)
 * I wasn't even thinking about server load. That would certainly be resource intensive. -- Random Time  14:41, July 4, 2010 (UTC)
 * Facebook and MySpace manage to do it. Of course, they have more resources than Wikia. I think the IRC suggestion is pretty awful, personally. Might as well just use vanilla unformatted BBS for stuff than a wiki, if you're willing to drop down to IRC.
 * The real issue to me is that a built in chat feature has many UI development implications like needing to control whether others can see your online status, supporting away messages, moderation, private vs. public channels, how recently do you have to have edited to be considered "online", etc. It isn't a small thing to support, if you want to do it right. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 8:04 AM PST 4 Jul 2010
 * Facebook and MySpace do this, but they're built for a different purpose, they're not running mediawiki. You seem to have something against IRC, not sure why. -- Random Time  15:11, July 4, 2010 (UTC)
 * I was looking around and found this: Extension:WhosOnline. It looks promising.
 * As for IRC, it is by far the user-unfriendliest of the chat protocols mostly because it represents a certain subculture that seems incapable of producing a user friendly client UI. Trust me, I've tried alot of IRC clients. I'd much rather use something like Skype chat or even AIM. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 8:17 AM PST 4 Jul 2010
 * Charit's already mentioned that there's an extention that would do it, but due to Wikia's size, and shared user database, it would have too much server load, and may not even work -- Random Time  15:21, July 4, 2010 (UTC)
 * Likely the extension would have to be modified to filter only the active users on the specific wiki it is being used. If Special:ListUsers can do it, it probably isn't super difficult. The real issue may be latency. How accurate do you need the online status list to be? -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 8:29 AM PST 4 Jul 2010
 * With the IRC, anyway, it isn't even connected to the wiki. Okay, so there's specific channels, but people on the wiki don't necessarily have to get on the IRC.

The new chat method would also hide fights. I've seen plenty of 'em. And then they usually pull the rest of the community in, which then stunts the growth. FP  Coolr than you  15:58, July 5, 2010 (UTC)