Saying you're off-line should be seen as such

did you know that no matter how stealth you can be inworld, the "friends online" in the website will rat you out. unless they link the two, i don't see how anyone can hide, ultimately.

I am not sure that you should have to hide at all, though the option should work properly if it's offered. It might be better in the long run to simply tell people when you want to be alone or you are busy. It works for me, at least, and that way I do not have to rely on some buggy technical thingy.

So here's the thing: the cited jira should be pretty easy to implement, and makes the Friends List behave as desired. But fixing *everything* such that online status is truly invisible will break some content (Daisy's online indicator)--which *might* be okay, if that's really how we want online status to be represented (or, one could grant some special permission to make those things work, or something--which would still require a change to the scripts that need to request that permission)... but the real issue here is that making such a change is a Very Big Deal--there are dozens of places in code scattered all over the sims, the presence service, the client LSL compiler, the client itself, the web indicator... so this had d*mned well better be The Most Important Thing because it will delay dozens of other fixes to get this thing implemented. And with this big a change, the likelihood of it not breaking other stuff that's working now is vanishingly remote.

Really, aside from the Friends List jira, couldn't we all just use alts when we need to "hide"?

You can't really hide. Even without the IM trick, there is the fact that people can tell if you are grouped together whether people are online or not. Also doesn't the FL on the SL website ignore whether you have checked the box or not?

I honestly don't see what the big deal is, but that's just me. I trim my FL to people whom I *want* to know my online status, and if that changes, I just de-friend them. When I don't want to be around them, or I want my alone time, I don't log on. I don't feel the need to be completely private when I am in SL in that sense.

if someone is going so far as to buy third party items or scanning my status on the website , then i certainly will de-friend them . is it really asking too much for LL to fix an option that they offer ?

But how can you fault people for using the FL on the website? Many people use that to determine when to log in (ie, when their friends are online).

Why do you want so much privacy, huh?
What are you hiding?
Who's after you?

Here...step this way...and show me your papers.

Fix the thing back to the way it was? My understanding is that at the beginning everyone knew where everyone else was, no option to keep that information private, and everyone knew when someone was on or not. Back to that?

Fix the thing back to the way it was? My understanding is that at the beginning everyone knew where everyone else was, no option to keep that information private, and everyone knew when someone was on or not. Back to that?

I noticed this last night when one of my "friends" showed up as being inside on the website, but was not listed as being on-line on the internal Friends list. And, oddly, neither list was borked.

Yes, I use that website list to see if I might want to log in, or just go do something else (it is a help, not a determining factor).

No, but two things: You need consensus that the way you want it working is the way it should be "fixed"--keeping in mind that for some "fixes" there are users of scripted online status indicators who don't agree. And second, while SL may be fantasyland, LL very much lives in the Real World, with Real World constraints on resources. So I'm not anxious to have my tier increased so they can hire more developers, nor wait longer for fixes to the inventory issues, just so people can hide more effectively. Others may feel differently; that's why there's the option to vote on jiras.

I'm really reading this thread with my eyes popping out in disbelief. Here are people who use a social networking environment - to avoid people! And moreover - avoid their friends!

I have never heard anyone I know inworld complain that they can't hide their online status from their friends. On the other hand, I have heard NUMEROUS complaints about how they do NOT show online to their friends because of the FL being borked, showing only hippos, etc.

Maybe I just have friendlier friends, but I think that more people would support a return to the system where everyone's online status was always visible, rather than moving to a system where it was mostly completely hidden.

It would certainly put an end to the stream of IMs I find saved up every day that say "Are you online?" If people could tell that, they wouldn't need to ask. (Of course, they could tell if they thought a little more about how to do it.)

I have mixed feelings on this.

I totally understand the desire to want to be seen as offline and have that undetectable. My one concern has to do with how this might affect customer support (from creators, vendors, etc. ). If I need to send an IM to someone -- someone I don't know -- regarding a product, I much prefer to IM them when they're in-world to reduce the probability of sending when their IMs are capped (and thus having my request disappear into a black hole). Now if I truly cannot tell whether they're offline and their IMs are capped or not, all I can do is send AGAIN if I don't receive a timely response. "I'm sending this again because I didn't hear from you for the last two days and thought maybe your IMS are capped." So now they're just going to be basically getting more "are you there" IMs. (As well, they could choose to ignore the IM while online, and later state that they've been offline for long periods of time, although I think most owners/vendors/creators would prefer to offer better service.)

Edited to add: Okay I just tested out what many of you may already know.... an IM will go to email even if it's capped in SL... which I was never sure about. Well at least now I know the "My IMs were capped so I didn't get yours" can't be used as an excuse...

i definitely agree that this is something that is not aa deal breaker, and should not be taken over the many other real problems with the program. But it is a feature that would be nice to have for those that may want it, if it can be deployed without breaking stuff.

i'm really not hiding anything. i'm not partnered and would just like to be able (from log-in screen if i had my way) to be invisible to others ( even if its only my name lighting up in their friends list an announcing thats i'm on in text ). as far as the shop owneres wanting to get ahold of me , send me a notecard . what is so wrong with that ? its how it worked before the update and i would like to see it returned that way . now if anyone has the jira on it please post so i can go vote.

The usual reason why people want to appear offline is that they're busy doing something but don't want to offend people by turning down their invitations.

exactly yumi...thank-you

I still don't understand what you are asking here; is the inworld friends list not working for you? In other words, are online people showing up as bold, and offline people showing as un-bold? It's working for me.

Daisy,

You're making a lot of generalizations about people that are blatantly false. Please don't jump to the conclusion that those of us who want this feature to work are a bunch of crazy hermits who need to exist in isolation all the time with our 20 prim-cats.

I'm probably the most gabby, social, gossiping avatar on the whole grid. But I also manage hotels, which I build myself. I need to be able to spend a couple of hours building, and not with a freakin' alt (so please, people, stop offering that as the solution. All the builds need to have my name on them).

So sue me if I just want to take the phone off the hook for a little while, without a whole bunch of detailed honest responses about why I can't talk right now, so that I can get the hotel built and then get back to my socializing! If you don't want to use this feature, because your friends are so much friendlier than mine, then why do you even care if we crazy hermits want to use it?

Set to Busy Mode

O_O

I can see how that could be broadly offensive ^^ The feature should definitely work if it's offered. Hopefully beyond just an illusion too.

I'd crawl to california and kiss the feet of the Linden who makes it so that I am actually undetectable online.

I'm so sick of the assholes in the IMs when I come back from photoshop after 2 hours.

Hiding online status from your friends is, indeed... broke...

thx pale......anyone that wants this fixed , hop on that link , log in at that page , and click vote .

Having an alt is not the solution. Sometimes I want to be seen by everyone, sometimes I want to be seen by no one, sometimes I want to be seen by a group of people, sometimes I want to be seen by another group of people. I shouldn't have to have an alt for every situation.

Please LL make it so I can pick and choose who I want to see me and be truly invisible to the rest!

It's good practice for setting social boundaries in real life.