Re: Online Tracker

So, for awhile now I have been wondering if there were "trackers" available that let people know when a certain avatar, not on their friends list, has logged in. Why? Because atleast 10 times, in a short period, I was IMd the MOMENT I logged in SL by a solicitor. These were people who I had not even exchaged friendship with, people I had not even heard of/met before.

Now I see, this:

/198/25/215478/1.html#post1709828

Does this mean people, not on your frieds list, can track your inworld status the moment you come on or sign off?

That`s pretty disturbing. I understand our profiles say "Currently Online," but to me, that`s different. If this really does track, *shudders,* is there a way to "hide" from this?

I really don`t like the thought of strangers being notified of my inworld presence the momet I sign on, if I wanted them to know I would allow a friendship exchange and appear online to them.

These have been around a little while, especially with name-to-UUID databases being gathered (such as Moopf's at http://www.moopf.com/name2key.php).

The tool is pretty handy for several reasons. Ever had your Friends List fail to load or display only "hippos)"? Also, seeing when a shopkeeper or other contact comes online is handy for when you want to shoot them a question and need a live IM exchange.

Yes, its scary to think what stalkers can do with this, but hiding online presence has never been truly achievable. If you dont like the way these tools work, I'll bet someone can put in a JIRA request.

A friend makes one of these online trackers for free. Visit Natasha's Gear at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jeju/202/232/91 and look for "Natasha's Gear FL hud" on her freebie shelf. Can be worn as a hud or even dropped on the ground.

Thats very interesting, thanks for the info!

Unfortuately, though, I have to disagree with your shopkeeper perspective. Being a shop owner myself, and as I mentioned, being IMd by people i *dont* know right when I get online, is not only extremely rude and disrepectful, but I feel their instant knowledge of my being on/off is an invasion of privacy. I`m just glad to be aware of it now. At first I thought the random IMs from strangers the moment I logged in was a coincidence until it happened several more times, then I thought it must be something more. Well, now I know. =\

Well,I don't own a shop, but I do run a mainland rental business, so I know the feeling of getting IMs.

I happen to agree that if there is a setting called "Make my online status visible only to my Friends", it should do exactly that... hide you on your profile, group membership lists, trackers like this one.

I also think (like every other chat program) you should have the ability to log in invisibly, even from friends.

I'm just real casual and just don't feel too adamantly about any of it.

In complete agreement here. LL give us a set of Preferences. Someone creates something to override those preferences. I think that should be actionable.

Uh, that's where you're mistaken... No one is "overriding" ... this is how the system works, or fails to work, however you wanna look at it. No hacking, no mischief. Your preference setting does not prevent someone from seeing if you are online by any number of manual methods (checking group memebership lists being the most common one). These trackers use built-in functions, as far as I'm aware.

Hmm, then LL need to fix it. I also noticed that (that I was able to see if someone was online via a group even though they were appearing offline to me on sl, tested with my friend). If I recall, there was a time when the profiles did not read "currently online" and also the groups showed everyone as "offline". I personally do not mind my profile showig "Currently online"..if strangers want to check that THEN IM me, that`s fine. But LL should indeed impliment a setting where people can be anonymous..not just on a friends list, but on their public profile, groups, etc.

Maybe I am being over dramatic but it creeps me out to know that people are getting updates of my log ins/offs without my allowing of it by means of offering friendship requests.

Another issue, in his slex photos it shows "Philip Linden(Offline)" .. if this thing can track philip linden I wonder if he would mind.

I recall once I had a linden checking something on my sim after bad bad grid troubles. I mentioned I could see her name on my scanner and she immidiately responded "what scanner??? What is the scanner called???" I guess they are not supposed to be showing up on scanners and such.. I dunno, just a thought.

OK, overriding .. circumventing .. bye-passing? We are given options that are transparent, barely worth switching. If they aren't going to be implemented properly, why implement them at all?
I, personally am not that bothered. I cam through walls

The problem is that it's difficult to establish who should be deemed "responsible" for a scripted function call, and thus llRequestAgentData to find out if someone is online will work for pretty much anyone.

Anyone who spams me in-world goes instantly on my "do not trade with ever" list.

Yes that is how you can tell if one of your friends has put you on "appear offline" status.

Mmmhmmm.

And if this ever gets fixed someone will code a workaround.

People like to stalk, sadly.

Right, but that`s the thing..... if someoe is appearing offline to me, the system should respect that. I should not be able to use one of these tools, or look up a group and find that they really are online.


lol this is making me want to get an alt :|

Well it is an interesting feature of the groups panel I agree. I guess, though, my POV is that I don't think friends should be ghosting their presence to each other (even though the system provides for it), so the group setting has been helpful in letting me know who next to de-friend, if you know what I mean.

No wonder it's hard to ignore some people lol.

Sometimes, I'll be in photoshop WHEN I log on. I log on while finishing up my clothing item/texture, and normally won't even look at Second Life until about 15 minutes or so AFTER logging in. During these 15 minutes, I'll sometimes get IMs from people who seem to have this uncanny knowledge of my online presence, even though I don't know them and I have it marked to only show my friends my online status...and even most of them have that feature disabled. I hate being seen online unless I want to be. If I'm not in public, I want to be alone, damnit
The worst part of this is the names I get called during these IM sessions that I never take part in between random residents and me. By their definition, I'm at the least a horrible bitch.

Also consider calling cards. When you friend someone you get a calling card as well. Even if you toggle off the online friends list, the calling card will list you as online.

maybe you shouldnt take it so personally i someone prefers to kepp theyre logins silent.
every friend i have gets the invisible treatment. it has nothing to do with them personally, its just my desire. honestly if someone gets cut over something so minor, maybe they arent really the kind of person that will get on with me anyway.

A very popular brand of sunglasses offers that feature, as well as a few other handy gadgets (a sensor and flight assist). I have used it - and found out by accident that my ex-jerk was doing things without me, and making like he wasn't logged in. I was testing out the feature, and used his name to clear the other name I put in, and to my complete surprise, there he was. Long story short, that was the end of that.

No wonder I never see you online.......

I do the same thing. At logoff all my friends are of, and I turn them on again when I log back on as needed. If that offends anyone, so be it.

My preferences, not yours. And the next time I want your advice, Nina, I'll ask for it, ok?

From my own perspective, seeing online status is the main value of the friends list to begin with. If I do not want someone to know my status, I simply do not add them to my list, or I remove them from my list. I don't feel the need to hide myself from my friends, but as a result I do keep my friends list shorter than many I think.

Forgive me if you (and the other posters) are fully capable of recognizing the difference, but this sounds to me like the sudden display of IMs saved for you while you were offline. Are they recognizably different?

Definitely not this. I get all my offline IMs in email also.

The IMs ive been getting are people who i dont know but obviously know when I log in. So far they have mainly been iMs asking me to rent at their mall..so spam.

I suspect that any move to disable the LSL script function that detects whether someone is online or not would cause soooo many products to break ...

You'll have to live with this.