Just wondering if this is and AF thing or something on vB that I've never noticed before. Got to admit it's an excellent little tool allow so far I've only seen Ryan using it, so I'm also wondering how widely known it is.

If you don't know what I'm talking about then check out the what's going on section at the bottom of the index page. There is a link where it says Currently Active users that takes you to a nice page where you can have a real good nosey at what everyone is up to

It's always been there, its vBulletins Whose Online function. Pretty dandy tool of vB's too, I use it on my vB forum to see where everyone is, what they are doing.
I used it to catch a spammer red handed once. Abotu 20 seconds after posting his spam about Nokia phones, it was deleted, and i was on my way to banning.

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"Currently Active Users" (also known as "Who's Online") is a feature that comes standard with vBulletin.

Chris

Thought it might be something like that, but only noticed it a day or two ago. Really handu toll for seeing where everyone one is at the same time. Like how The Webinator was in at my profile 3 time in the last 20-30 minutes,

Damn, you caught me! I was just looking for you're website's URL. I agree with you, though; it is a damn handy tool, especially from an administration standpoint. Plus, you can keep tab's on who's viewing this and that.

Chris

Hi Chris

Not much to see in there, I don't have a forum due to extreme laziness although I do have 4 or 5 blogs now (it can change several times a day) that I rarely post to for the reason above.

Ah yes, the dreaded case of "extreme laziness". As an avid blogger, it's actually pretty tough to come up with creative + unique content. Sometimes, I post random thoughts, while other times, I post long, rant-like reviews with lot's of detail. It varies, all of the time, and you know what? That's what makes a successful blog (and, of course, many happy readers).

Back on topic:

It's pretty fun to watch what all of the members are doing on my forum via "Who's Online". I've caught multiple spammer's in action, and put a stop to their work before they could say "Oh no!". It's fun, yet exhilarating at the same time!

Chris

I don't use it much at other forums, but you'll always see me using it here. The reason is because it auto-refreshes every 30 seconds...I can just leave up a tab of me in Who's Online and I stay logged into AF all day long.

This creates the illusion that I am always on the forums

Not only does it look good because staff presence is good, but it deters spammers and hackers...if they know or think that an administrator is present, they're not as likely to cause trouble. The other fun thing is that since it's in a separate tab, it refreshes while I'm doing other stuff...In other words, I can hide

If you go to Who's Online right now (as I am typing this), it will say I'm viewing Who's Online...which is not actually true....in reality, I'm replying to a thread ...this means that most of the time you really have no clue what I am doing.

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...some super-sweet signature

Yeah, i noticed you've not moved from there since I've been here. I'd just thought you'd feel asleep on your keyboard

Well, there is about a 25 second period where Ryan can be seen on a different area of the forum, before it refreshes and puts him back on Whose Online.

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