Ok I will try to make this suggestion clear.
In the main profile would it be possible to have something like an online time? Like how many minutes/hours/days you spend on the forum?
Like for example
Average Online Time - 2 days 1 hour 20 minutes
Or for another example
Average Online Time - 5 minutes (for lets say a new users)
Then each day (for 2 days only)
Yesterday - 5 hours
Today - 40 minutes
and of course a user could opt-in/out on it.
Put simply, it's not a feasible suggestion. And I think the easiest way to show why is with an example:
User 1 loads a topic.
User 1 reads the entire page.
User 1 writes a long, thoughtful reply.
User 1 posts it.
User 2 loads a topic.
User 2 goes to get lunch
User 2 returns 15 minutes later, reads the topic and posts a reply.
So in that example, user 1 was online for 10 minutes. User 2 on the other hand was only looking at the forum for a couple of minutes but the time between their page loads was 20 minutes. So does user 2 spend more time online? No. But there's no way of telling between page loads if a user is still viewing the page or not.
(Yes, some kind of JavaScript could pick up on mouse movements or key presses but that would slow down the page loads and put unnecessary strain on the server).
Oh I see, so the time could be in-accurate?
What about from when they log on until they log off? or is that the same?
Oh I see, so the time could be in-accurate?
What about from when they log on until they log off? or is that the same?
You have no accurate way of telling when a user leaves the site or even just leaves their PC, which is the problem I just explained. Hardly any users use the "logout" feature, most would just stay logged in forever or wait for the cookies to expire.
It's currently exam week for me, but after that I'll be back on here quite a bit. When I get the chance I'll see about making this a server-side code for the database.
Ok cool.It's currently exam week for me, but after that I'll be back on here quite a bit. When I get the chance I'll see about making this a server-side code for the database.
ahh ok, I see phpBB has it.. at least I think it does? I can't find it in my profile on there. o_OOh I see, so the time could be in-accurate?
What about from when they log on until they log off? or is that the same?
You have no accurate way of telling when a user leaves the site or even just leaves their PC, which is the problem I just explained. Hardly any users use the "logout" feature, most would just stay logged in forever or wait for the cookies to expire.