Fixing "Hide Online Status" Feature

[RetroX]

SMF's "hide online status" feature isn't entirely foolproof, and for me specifically, this is a bit of a problem.  I have a forum in which various forum games are hosted, and the visibility of online statuses can be a game-breaking thing.

Basically, my proposal would turn the "hide online status" feature into a full stealth mode, in which regular users would never know if you are online unless you post. (which is the point of the feature, although, it hasn't been fully successful at it)

To start, there are times when you can't truly hide your status when you log in initially.  For example, let's say that I forgot to change my settings to say that I'm hidden.  I have to log in, go to my profile, and change this setting in order to fix this.  Meanwhile, for that brief moment that I was changing the setting, everyone could see that I was online.  In most cases, this isn't a big deal, but I don't understand why we can't choose to hide our online status when we log in by default.  To this point, I've been using this mod to fix that, but the functionality should be default: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2165

Additionally, there are loads of ways to get around the online status, and the largest one is the fact that the "Last Active" field in your profile is always visible, no matter what.  Even if you've hidden your online status, I can still go to your profile and find that you last refreshed the page four minutes ago.  Granted, you have to explicitly look at someone's profile, but it's still a problem.  I've been using this mod to fix that: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2394

You can also refresh the "members with the most time spent online" statistic and look for changes.  Under a user's profile, the "total time spent online" can also be checked.  This should be hidden for members that have hidden online statuses, or at least to members that don't have the proper permissions.

[Suki]

I believe once you select the hidden status this will not change if you log out or leave the forum, so you only need to select the hidden status just once and it will stay like that until you change it back again.

I do believe this whole system needs some twist here and there to truly offer a "hidden mode".

[RetroX]

I believe once you select the hidden status this will not change if you log out or leave the forum, so you only need to select the hidden status just once and it will stay like that until you change it back again.

Well, that is true, but there are also cases in which you might want to change it for various reasons.  It still makes sense to be able to choose it on login, and most other forum systems have this by default.

[Suki]

When you start talking a bout "cases"  then the feature request becomes "mod request". A feature is a thing most (as in a mayority) users will use.  One can argue that in some cases you don't logout/login that often.

To be honest I see this as a mod request (the ask the user on login part)

What I do see as a request or more like an overhauling is making the hidden mode a truly hidden mode, with no trace of your existence in the forum, at least from other regular users.

[RetroX]

What I meant, essentially, was the latter; I think that many people would benefit to having a more secure hidden mode.  The use of the word "cases" was just to indicate that there are many cases in which there would be benefits from having a hidden mode, not to imply that there's a limited audience for this kind of thing.

I also have already made a mod for this, but posting it here would require modifying the parts that are specific to my forum to be more general.  I'll probably post an updated version to the mod site once I actually fix those parts.

This isn't necessarily a "security issue" in the fact that compromising online status doesn't equate to taking the entire forum down, but it's really a matter of personal privacy.  It doesn't seem like something that's hard to implement, and I think that the idea of forcing users install a mod to fix what is essentially a bug is kind of silly.

EDIT: In hindsight, my wording is really bad and sounds slightly rude, so, sorry for that.  What I meant was that not fixing it would be understandable, but explicitly leaving a fix to mods is kind of silly in this case.

[Suki]

and I think that the idea of forcing users install a mod to fix what is essentially a bug is kind of silly.

See, it's all relative, I don't see this as a bug since it doesn't claim to do x feature and fails to do so, the hidden mode it's just basic, that is all, as far as I know there are not reported bugs for the hidden mode feature.

We aren't forcing anything on anyone, if you don't want to use X mod you don't need to install X mod.

If you want to customize your forum with an specific request then a mod its the way to go since it's a request that will only benefit you.

[Illori]

also since 2.0 is feature locked even if the developers wanted to add this it would not be part of 2.0, so you would need to use a mod anyway.

[RetroX]

What I meant was that it's an enhancement of an existing feature.  The "hide online status" feature doesn't fully hide your online status.  I'm proposing that it should by default.

And this really wasn't a request for 2.0 specifically; I just knew that the developers were taking suggestions for future SMF versions, and such, I made this topic.

[Kindred]

Honestly, as has already been said, this s a very specific request that is nusual, which makes it mod material.

The ways to check if someone I online hat you list are time consuming and bothersome. I can't see anyone actually doing that in the normal case of things.