how did you change the stats interval?  if you removed and then readded the stats cron with new interval, keep in mind it may only be temporary if simple press has to reload the cron… you would want to change the actual value for the stats cron on forum – options – display settings…

and yes, it will update all the stats…  is it a huge load?  not really, just another half dozen or so queries per page load when run… 

but afraid to tell you that the current users online is not part of the stats cron…  the stats update by themselves, not as part of any cron…  so you really shouldnt be seeing any difference…  if a user logs out, they will be moved from the currently online immediately… but if they just leave the site, they wont be removed until their current login times out, which I believe is 20 minutes…  you can adjust the track user timeout on forum – components – login and registration…

Thanks for the quick reply. I have had a look at those settings.

I had changed the cron timing in options > general display > Display Forum Stats to 0.02. It shows up in the cron Inspector as (72 sec). If it’s not going to affect the updating of Current Online list, then i will change it back to something longer.

if a user logs out, they will be moved from the currently online immediately… but if they just leave the site, they wont be removed until their current login times out

So  would they have to click the ‘Log out’ button on the forum to offically stop showing up immediately on leaving? I also have a Logout link (see attachment) which shows the same request address when I hover over each. So suspect this would do the same thing. However, if they just close the browser tab or browser, then SP will show them as online until the ‘default’ time elapses (currently 20 mins)?

you can adjust the track user timeout on forum – components – login and registration

What consitutes inactivity? If they are still logged to the forum area, though watching one of the videos in the membership area (accessible from that page) for over the set Tracking Timeout period, will the system show them as offline, even though they are logged in?
If yes, what type of activity will trigger to show them as back online again?

Thanks,
David

yes, any wp logout will trigger removal from being online…

simply going to another site or closing the browser will not log out a user so they will show online until they timeout…  they timeout after no activity for the time…  loading any page or simple press popup will restart the timeout countdown…  caution, dont set the timeout too short… if they are reading a long topic and it takes longer to read than the timeout, they “may” have to log back in…

Thanks. That clears it up at lot for me.

I guess a short Timeout setting would also be a problem if they are adding or replying to a post (or PM reply) and even though they are typing in the respective field, it takes them longer than the timeout setting before they either, upload an attachment, preview the post/PM or actually send it? I suspect typing in a field won’t register as ‘activity’?

Cheers
David

Correct, typing in a input field or textarea will not reset the timeout…. They may not get logged out (or may – wp is finicky) but just show up as not online until they do another page load…

Understood. Thanks for your prompt advice yet again.

The one thing Steve did not mention here is that the ‘online’ list only tracks people visiting the forum. It does not track people visiting the overall website. So if they hit the forum – they  get tracked and added to the list. This is immediate. As Steve said, if they log out of the site they get removed from the list – also immediate. But if they leave the site OR leave the forum pages to view other areas of the site, the timeout starts to tick down.

If you want to track who is visiting the site generally then there are WordPress plugins that can do this.

Yes, thank you for confirming that. I am only interested in listing people on forum pages. The others that are watching member videos will still show up in my Quick Chat ‘online’ list (which is embedded at the bottom of each Forum page), for at least an hour.

Cheers,
David

good deal…