E-R.org sets a new record

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by clifp The #1 poster is REWahoo and with Nords posting infrequently I think his position is pretty safe for 2014.

I used to wish that there was a utility or app to track a poster's totals across all of their forums... but it's a lot easier to just stop counting.

[sengsational]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 I've often wondered what it means to 'be on-line'. I tend to keep a dozen or so browser windows open at a time, and many tabs in each window. Does just having a tab open, or being logged in, even if I'm not actually on that tab count? What if the computer is sleeping (I sometimes go weeks w/o a reboot/shutdown - I'm at 10 days at the moment)? OK, I just experimented - viewed the site from another computer w/o loging in there. It showed me as on-line. It still showed on-line when I moved to another window, when I moved to another program, even when my computer was sleeping. So I guess being 'on-line' is pretty loose - if you logged in and didn't log out, I guess you are 'on-line', even when you are sleeping, showering, etc. But it's still a record, but maybe affected by people with tablets, phones, etc, creating more opportunities to be logged in and 'on-line'? -ERD50

Every time you request a page from the site while logged in, a small elf resets a stop watch to zero. If his little stopwatch ever gets to a threshold (usually something like 30 minutes), he marks you as no longer logged in. That's the best we can do with the stateless arrangement between a browser and a web app.

There will be one elf per browser, so that's not double counting, but if you pull out your phone and log on while also on your computer, that's 2 elves (sessions)

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sengsational Every time you request a page from the site while logged in, a small elf resets a stop watch to zero. If his little stopwatch ever gets to a threshold (usually something like 30 minutes), he marks you as no longer logged in. That's the best we can do with the stateless arrangement between a browser and a web app. There will be one elf per browser, so that's not double counting, but if you pull out your phone and log on while also on your computer, that's 2 elves (sessions)

Thanks, that makes sense. Follow up question - what does it take to wake up the elf to reset the clock? I'm guessing just viewing doesn't do it (no activity back to the server?), I would actually need to click or refresh or something? OTOH, sites like google news auto-refresh every 5 minutes or so (they 'know' you are still viewing), so maybe that isn't a limitation?

Side note - I'd like to turn off the auto-refresh on google news. There's been times that I'm looking at a headline, ready to click on it, and it refreshes and gets replaced just as I'm ready to click! How rude! Really isn't a hardship for me to hit refresh when I want new news, and I'd prefer that.

-ERD50

[sengsational]

The sites you visit, like google news have a timer in javascript. So there's a little programable timer that counts-down and interacts with the server (at the most inopportune moment, hehe)!

To reset the session timer, you need to ask the site to serve you something. Usually that would manifest in the browser's "spinny thing/I'm thinking about it" icon coming to life. So things that happen real quick (like menus and stuff) don't count. Those happen right there in your browser, so the elf never knows about them.

[clifp]

With some many toys made in China, I am so happy that elves have found employment working on the internet, punching stopwatches

[Meadbh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by clifp With some many toys made in China, I am so happy that elves have found employment working on the internet, punching stopwatches

Of course they are all reassigned in December.

[Redbugdave]

I guess in about nine months a lot of the younger ER posters will be putting off ERing...

[Chuckanut]

Glad the elves found work. They have been unemployed since Lewis Rukeyser left the air waves.

[veremchuka]

I never log off, I've had to login to my account only if you do something that forces my userid to be logged out and I bet that's once every year or two. Last time I had to log in I had no idea what my password was and had to go look it up. I close all tabs/windows in ER when done here but never log off.