as part of that, i'm going to make it so that the chat client can remove the cookie jar from its user agent to go into 'lurk mode'.

The problem if you do this is that you cannot get personal messages until you go out of "lurk mode". What I would like to do is be able to leave the client running, and every once in a while check and see if there's anything interesting going on, or if I have any personal messages. The moment I post something, the posting script will see my cookie again and list me as logged in.

This can only be done if accessing the XML tickers (both for personal and general messages) does not update Other Users. I still think this could be a very cool feature. As long as you are participating in the chat, or browsing the web site, you'll be considered as logged in. But if you are just retrieving messages from the XML tickers, you'll be considered to be "lurking" and not show up in "Other users".

--ZZamboni