Should Fluther.com Make a counter that shows how many people are logged on (real time)?

It’d be interesting information but it wouldn’t change when I fluther…...currently it’s pretty much any time I’m not doing anything else.

I don’t think so. It’s not needed. If the question is interesting enough people will answer it no matter what time of day it was posted.

I think:

1. It wouldn’t really matter.
2. It might hurt them when discussing advertising deals. Monthly stats are often far more appealing than a realtime statistic.
3. It wouldn’t encourage anything, certainly not more people to log on. “Look at me! I’m a number!”

I like that idea, I think it would be fun to see

That would be an awesome idea. Richardhenry wake up and grow a pair, people need to know when others are available so that they have the right time to ask a question. And get enough help.

I think it would be interesting to know how many people have an “active” account on Fluther, but probably not the best idea for them to post a real-time number of how many people are logged on at that time, a la @richardhenry

@hgf: richardhenry already has a pair. They are easily tickled. (don’t ask how I know that)

I don’t think the frontpage really moves fast enough to need this. It only takes a couple of minutes to read all the new questions in the last 24 hours.

@ hgf ~ agree to disagree, but must you be crass?

sniff sniff sniff… smells like troll!

[Fluther Moderator:] If you were attacking anyone else, I would have removed it. The “mangina” comments can go. Lets be mature, please.

Don’t suppose there’s any points for guessing who this charmer, hgf, is…?

No wonder you act out so much, considering your named with the masculine form of “the” and the feminine form of “prostitute”.....it must be frustrating.

Wow! alot of action for this question. all valid points,

I think it would be a possibility once Fluther expands… but JP makes a pretty good point looking at the current levels of usage.

Didn’t think about it, It was (for me) an idea that would allow a better chance at getting a good answer. when its slow people tend to have conversations. Not that I am against that or anything. Fluther onwards people. Fluther onwards.

I’m sure once the API is out (a way for third party developers to access the Fluther database), some statistics fiend will pump out a graph of common usage times according to questions/responses. :)

Here’s the relative traffic for Fluther on a typical day (in Pacific time):
http://img.skitch.com/20080725-erb732582nch9mu9aux3wta9p3.jpg

Note that usage is pretty flat during US daylight hours.

ah, i’m a litte confused by the graph!
it looks like military time, but doesn’t 1:00 am usually correspond to 1:00, and 1:00 pm is 13:00? this looks like the lowest usage is at 3:00 am to me, but you said that it’s lowest in the day. so does that mean this graph starts with 0:00 being 12:00 noon?

@La_chica_gomela I didn’t say it was lowest during the day, I said it was flat during the day (i.e., there’s not a lot of fluctuation in the number of users, as long as there’s daylight in the US).

ok. i misunderstood! so it starts at midnight? is that right?

@La_chica_gomela Yes.