Results 1 to 7 of 7
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2009-06-03, 10:51 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
- Location
- Elemental Plane of Paper
- Gender
How does the forum know you're on?
I've been on many forums and this has bothered my curiosity for a while now. On many forums, you can see whether a person is online or not (see little green/black light thing below each person's avatar). On some of them, you can even see what page the person is looking at. But how does it do that?
Now, I'm not too familiar with the internal workings of the internets, but it seems to me that when you access a page with your browser, shouldn't it just retrieve information from the website one time? The browser certainly isn't refreshing that information unless I manually refresh it, so it shouldn't be constantly retrieving new information from the website. How then, does the forum know that you're still viewing it?Rogue Handbook | Warmage Rebuild | Diablo's Assassin | Revised Classes
Potpourri Creation Contest II Winner: Desert Martial Adept Substitution Levels
Potpourri Creation Contest III Best Characterization: Edward the Sly's Lucky Spells
Prestige Class Contest XXI Submission: Child of the Seelie Court
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2009-06-03, 10:55 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
- Location
- DC
- Gender
Re: How does the forum know you're on?
I believe when you sign on it tells the server you're online until you either sign off or time out.
To know that just one life has breathed easier because you have lived, that is to have succeeded.
Wonderful Faithatar by smuchmuch
My meager homebrew
SpoilerThe Cronens(Statue folk)
Castle in the Sky
Currently contributing to Codename: Swampgas
The Mirage [PrC]
The Opera Hall
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2009-06-03, 10:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
- Location
- Department of Smiting
- Gender
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2009-06-03, 10:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2006
- Gender
Re: How does the forum know you're on?
Generally speaking I think it simply makes some guestimates based on the last page you have requested from the server. I'm sure if you openned a page and then left it open but didn't do anything with it for 2 hours and were somehow able to check your own status it wouldn't show you as being there.
Also if you opened 4 pages in a row and had them all open it would probably only show you as active in the last page you opened, rather then all 4 of them.
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2009-06-03, 10:58 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2005
- Gender
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2009-06-03, 11:00 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
- Location
- Elemental Plane of Paper
- Gender
Re: How does the forum know you're on?
Rogue Handbook | Warmage Rebuild | Diablo's Assassin | Revised Classes
Potpourri Creation Contest II Winner: Desert Martial Adept Substitution Levels
Potpourri Creation Contest III Best Characterization: Edward the Sly's Lucky Spells
Prestige Class Contest XXI Submission: Child of the Seelie Court
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2009-06-04, 04:22 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2005
- Location
- Flawse Fell, Geordieland
Re: How does the forum know you're on?
The same way the radio station ident knows what you're listening to.