Is there a way to know who is currently subscribed, or "watching" a particular thread? Something like a list of people that are receiving alerts for the thread in question.

 

ET Online does have a notice below the name for whomever is online in any particular thread.
They seem to use the same software as this forum, so I would think it should be possible to do here also.
I, for one, would also like that info.

 

EEVblog has that same "feature."

Personally, I don't consider it a particularly attractive feature. Why would one want to know that? Is it to promote a culture like Family Feud to see who can hit the answer button first when you know others are reading the post?

We know who is online, and that is all the detail about what I am doing that I prefer to share.

John

 

Knowing who's watching the thread could make it easier for you to address a person in particular when making a comment, without having to tag him/her. That way (at least in my case) you would feel more a ease, knowing that you're not intruding on, or spamming that person with unwanted information.

 

Isn't that what chat rooms are for? Apparently AAC does not have that at present. The advantage of a chat is that participation is opt in and voluntary.

John

 

EEVblog has that same "feature."

Personally, I don't consider it a particularly attractive feature. Why would one want to know that? Is it to promote a culture like Family Feud to see who can hit the answer button first when you know others are reading the post?

We know who is online, and that is all the detail about what I am doing that I prefer to share.

John

And even that is more than what some people want to share. When we were under vBulletin, members had the ability to no show when they were online or even when the last time they were seen. Most people, of course, never even knew that ability existed, but even so there were a surprising number of people that had opted to enable it. So I would expect that quite a few of those people would just as soon NOT have other people be able to view which threads they were watching.

 

The only reason I like it is that, if I'm replying to a posted question, I have an idea whether the person is likely to reply soon or not.
But I understand than many are paranoid about such info, so it could certainly be an option.

 

Not precisely to fit your interest but the closest is when you open enyone's profile you can see what the member is doing. Yes, impractical for what you want.

 

The only reason I like it is that, if I'm replying to a posted question, I have an idea whether the person is likely to reply soon or not.
But I understand than many are paranoid about such info, so it could certainly be an option.

Yes, making it optional is definitely an option (no pun intended)
Just like allowing people to contact you via private messaging in this place is also an option.

What I mean is that privacy does not necessarily need to be compromised for this feature to be implemented.

 

The only reason I like it is that, if I'm replying to a posted question, I have an idea whether the person is likely to reply soon or not.
But I understand than many are paranoid about such info, so it could certainly be an option.

Keep in mind that you can look at the Forums page to see who is presently online. There are seldom more than a couple dozen members. But just because someone is online doesn't mean they are active. For instance, I never log out, so I don't know what criteria is used to decide whether to include me in the list. I assume it is something like members that are not logged out and have interacted with the server within the previous so many minutes. But you can probably expect a significant legacy between when a member actually stops doing anything with the forums and when their name is removed from the list of members currently online.

 

The only reason I like it is that, if I'm replying to a posted question, I have an idea whether the person is likely to reply soon or not.

I thought that was why there is a little green triangle when someone is on-line.

John

 

I thought that was why there is a little green triangle when someone is on-line.
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John

Interesting.
I never noticed that before, but it does seem to indicate who's on-line.

 

Hello,

The green edge only works when the user did not remove the tick at "show online status" in the options on the preferences in the profile.



Bertus

PS the moderators and administrators can always see the online status, also when the tick is removed.

 

I never noticed the triangle, either. Learn something new every day.

 

But I understand that many are paranoid...

Especially on this site!

 

Shame on me... now I've subscribed to watching a thread that I don't want anyone to know that I'm watching! I guess that I now understand better other people's privacy concerns.

So maybe this "watchers" thing could be made optional, to be set in the thread's options, like "Let other people know you're watching this thread"

 

I just accidentally found the sentence, "This person is not following you." in a profile page.
I don't think you will find a similar sentence about following Threads.

On a personal level, I disagree with your feeling that you should know who else is paying attention to a Thread. I scan dozens of Threads in a day, and some I follow closely because they are teaching me (without knowing about it), but that's nobodies business but my own.
Respect, but disagree.

 

I don't know... I guess that the old saying of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" does apply in this case.

My purpose here is to try to make this site more attractive to people, so as to increase its number of participants and enrich its content.

But as @JohnInTX sometimes likes to point out before closing a toxic thread: "This ain't facebook" ... and I have to say that I do agree with him ...