Ive been messing around with the chat for SnG ($hits and giggles)

ive noticed something..

phantoms.. people who are shown logged in but a "billybob Logged in" message never appear

these people dont seem to actually exist in the chat..

even though the chat counter sees them. and sometimes when they disappear it will say they logged off... sometimes not..

Ben, I noticed the same thing on several occassions. The third time it occurred I took a look at "Users Online" and discovered that two of the "phantoms" were actually browsing other areas of the site.

Apparently, when we enter the Chat Room we are automatically logged in - even if we only look for two or three seconds. If we go to another area of the site WITHOUT ACTIVELY LOGGING OUT of the Chat Room, we still show up as being in the room until (A) we actually log out of the Room, or (B) we are automatically logged out after a preset period of inactivity ("idle time"). The "Idle" seems to be about five minutes.

Hope this helps.

John

PS - glad to see somebody else who the S&G line. I've gotten alot of mileage out of it over the years - constantly amazed at how many have never heard it before.

|UPDATED|5/29/2004 6:29:37 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

If you set up your browser to 'open links in a new window', the chat room will pop up in a new window and stay there. Automagic logs you in and you can keep the chat room open no matter where else you browse. You can even close all the other windows and you are still in the chat room. When all the windows of your browser are closed, you will be logged out.