I had a conversation with a friend today who gave some feedback that he didn’t like everyone knowing that he was online because he felt obligated to participate even if he was just in a mood browse. So what do you think about the feature that shows who is online? I thought it was a neat feature, but I can easily remove it.
0 voters
I think it’s cool. From a practical standpoint, I might want to send a PM to a member who is currently online.
-p
Honestly, I’m indifferent about it, but agree with Preston’s thought. Personally, I don’t really examine the list, although I’m beginning to become familiar with the avatars to know without hovering over… But I also don’t place any value or have any expectations because someone is online. For those seeing me online, one may come to the conclusion that I’m always here and never leave - like I don’t have a life… 
Reality is, I sign in and never sign out - But I can tell you I most certainly don’t spend any more time here than most members… I just happen to be signed in all the time…
Preston and Lon expressed my thoughts exactly.
Many sites have an option whether to show one is online or not. That would give people a choice.
I personally don’t care - I’m online mostly in the middle of the night, when few others are around.
I have not tested it yet, but I hope the PM and email functions on this site work - on the previous NPN, emails to a member thru NPN never went through.
I also stay signed in, so I may or may not actually BE online.
sandy
It would be nice to have the option to choose if you want to be available to chat or not. I have to make hay while online with several social media situations as well as my own website. There are many times when I swoop in and swoop back out.
But in the grand scheme of things I guess it causes no harm. I’d just hate to have someone think that I’m ignoring them.
I’ve been using it to see how much traffic the website is getting but I guess the number of views accomplishes that, although I often don’t know how I got to the view stats.
I can see pros and cons. I agree there are times when it might be nice to have an online discussion with a member but if you can live without instant gratification, you can always contact that person. But there are more times when I just wish to look without an obvious digital presence.
Put me firmly in the indifferent category. 
I don’t feel obligated to be active when I’m browsing, but the quick contact aspect might be useful.
I like the feature and agree with Mark’s comment regarding obligation and contact information.
I personally do not care for it, however I agree that the feature can be useful for some, but only as long as we have the option to keep the avatar from being visible.
EDIT: I do like the idea of being able to see how many users are on the site. Seems to me that a larger number can be an incentive for members to read the more current comments, which can be helpful to encourage the learning experience.
I felt obligated to vote since it showed I was online.
But in all seriousness… I think the suggestions to have it optional would be great, but I do feel that it causes incentive… not pressure to participate when you see there’s a decent amount of people online.
Like if you walk into a party and there are 5 people there you’re likely to leave. But if there are 50 people then you’ll probably stay. Except for me. I don’t go to parties. NPN is the closest I’ll get.
Just thought I would add a note about the private message (PM) feature.
When you send a PM, the addressee is notified that there is a PM waiting for them in their Inbox. You can also know if you have a PM in your Inbox if there is a green dot next to your profile icon at the top right of the page.
To read or reply, click the green dot. The latest PM will be at the top of the list.
Note that you can reply whenever you want to. The feature is not like online chat.
-P
I think Lon made an excellent point. In the past at the old site I remained logged in all the time both PC & iPhone. Easy to dart in and out. However, as of late I’ve signed out when not here as it leaves the icon up all the time. With that said I do like the feature but obviously it can be misleading on folks who do not sign off when exiting the site.
You do not need to sign out, your avatar stays up for 5 minutes after you either close the site, or even if you leave it open and inactive, I can change this to a shorter period, but there is absolutely no need to sign out.
That works for me just fine…thanks for the update.