/away CB command?

[BooK]

A lot of monks here are using various tools to stay connected to the CB without reloading, and a good number of them actually do not look at (this part of) the screen for a while... for example when another window pops up over it, or a colleague or a boss wonder "how is the job going?".

I think maybe a /away {on|off} command could be useful. It would just add a little text ("away", "¤", "A", whatever...) to the right of the nick, indicating that anybody wanting to talk to this person should use /msg...

Naturaaly, once you log on again, your status is *not* away.

[tye]

Note to the implementors: Change some/most of the xml tickers to not update the "Other Users" list. Ones to change include private message xml ticker, and XP xml ticker.

If you, for example, don't change chatterbox xml ticker, then chat clients could allow the user to toggle whether fetches of that page use the cookie or not: if such fetches don't use the cookie, then the user won't show unless they talk; if such fetches do use the cookie, then the user shows up constantly. Thus /away becomes a client problem^Wfeature to implement and not a server one.

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")

[mr.nick]

An excellent idea! In fact, I've just implemented it in my pmchat client (node has yet to be updated) :) If the user option of "away" is set, anonymous access (no cookies) is used to pull Chatterbox messages (and my client won't pull Private messages until you unset "away").

If we could then implement, as per Tye's suggestion, that the XP ticker and Private Message ticker don't update Other Users we can then have 24/7 clients that don't make people appear in the user's list all the time; which is one of the problems I have leaving a CB client running: I get messages (non-private) directed at me and I'm not even in front of my 'puter.

[ZZamboni]

This is a very good suggestion. Some time ago, I suggested that the "Other users" list only get updated when you post something, but not when you are only reading through the XML ticker, even if you use the cookie, precisely to deal with this problem. But this might be easier to implement, and as mr.nick has shown, it's a technique that can be used even now without modifications to the server (with some limitations with respect to getting private messages).

Goes into the TODO list for the Perlmonks modules :-)

--ZZamboni

[jynx]

Naturally, once you log on again, your status is *not* away

Unless of course god decides that there should be an option on users' home pages to allow users to automatically be logged on as "away" in the chatterbox. That way people like me (who rarely use the chatterbox) wouldn't have to specify that we're not going to be using the chatterbox today. We can just specify those days we will use it by setting /away off :-)

Good suggestion,
jynx

[Vynce]

i agree with jynx, but i'd like to take it a step farther. it would be nice if somehow people could mark themselves as "non-chatters" and have msgs to them give you a warning to that effect.

/msg Dominus Hey Yark! i'll be in your town tomorrow. want to get together and let me buy you lunch?

[_] root says you tried to say "Hey Yark! i'll be in your town tomorrow. want to get together and let me buy you lunch?" to Dominus, but Dominus doesn't chat. You may wish to try other methods.

update: BigJoe suggests that /ignore all and /chatterbox off do what i want, but i've seen nothing indicating that these will warn an errant sender that the target doesn't use the CB. if they do, then i withdraw the request.

[BigJoe]

Isn't that what "/ignore all" & "/chatteroff" is for?

--BigJoe

Learn patience, you must.
Young PerlMonk, craves Not these things.
Use the source Luke.

[John M. Dlugosz]

Automate it by showing not only who's logged on, but how long it's been since they submitted any data.

[zdog]

I was thinking of something similar recently. I thought that maybe users would have the option of whether they are displayed in the Other Users nodelet. An option like this can be used as a substitute for the /away method, and also, it provides a method for users using bots to not be displayed when they are not here.

Zenon Zabinski | zdog | [e-mail]