I've Always Wondered About This

[Raineypark]

When you're looking at the Home page, at the "Cousins Online" section, you see the names of the 'visible' listed.

If you click on Home,  and refresh the page, the order of the names frequently changes....even though no one has left or joined in the meantime.

If there are more or less names, I can understand the order changing...but what makes it change when it's still the same group of names?  What determines the order in which the names appear?

Yes....I have too much time on my hands. 

[dom]

I've noticed and wondered too.

[Patti Feinberg]

I've noticed and wondered too.

Rainey (and others)...have you ever noticed how dom never seems to know the 'technical answers'?

DOM...FESS UP...WE KNOW YOU'RE REALLY BILL GATES TWIN SISTER-IN-LAW

I love you honey

Patti

[Midnite]

What determines the order in which the names appear?

I think the most recent additions are added to the left side, but I noticed that after a member has left the forums without logging out their name just hangs in a spot for a while.  The same goes for the order in Who's Online.  In other words, they're not really here but their name continues to appear while other member names start moving over it.  It might have to do with the default/session length setting from the last time they logged in, but that's just a guess.  Or I could be completely wrong about the order.

But some members do leave the forum and return again shortly.

NOW who has too much time on her hands?!

[Patti Feinberg]

Rainey...now that there's "Who's Online", I usually use this (instead of Home, then bottom).
But I did "Who's Online" then "Home", scrolled to bottom to see visible cousins, and it was the same 4.

Patti

[Raineypark]

But generally, doesn't one's own name usually appear first in line?  I'm almost always first on MY screen so I'm assuming everyone else is usually first on their own.

But even THAT isn't absolute because every once in a while somone else's name will suddenly appear before mine!

I think this should be looked into by a team of experts in the subject.....let's get to the bottom of this very important and fascinating topic....

[Midnite]

But generally, doesn't one's own name usually appear first in line?  I'm almost always first on MY screen so I'm assuming everyone else is usually first on their own.

But even THAT isn't absolute because every once in a while somone else's name will suddenly appear before mine!

I think this should be looked into by a team of experts in the subject.....let's get to the bottom of this very important and fascinating topic....

I'm not usually visible, but since you asked I changed my preference to see what happens.  The ordering I saw was the same as I described before, except my name started out on the far left.  Each time a visitor showed up they started out on my left but the next time I checked they had moved over me, with my name back on the far left, but they remained in the order of their appearance here (with the oldest on the right).  But one cousin's name was still showing up though s/he had left the forums already, so that name stayed on my right the whole time with the others moving over it until it eventually disappeared.

That's my hypothesis for the ordering of visible names.  I nominate you to make yourself visible in order to test it.

[jennifer]

Rainey guess in the million or so times i've been on this forum
never even noticed the order but i have seen someone's name
on the list  and the post will say they are off line must be [ghost]s

jennifer
i have little time as i'm sure you all do too but this forum
beats valium or worse

[Raineypark]

Okay Midnite.....I'm officially visible.  Now watch...not one person will join or leave for as long as I sit here! 

[Raineypark]

Okay....from one click to the next (probably not more than a couple of minutes) the order of names went from this:

Raineypark...Ben...Gerard...Bob The Bartender

to this.....

Raineypark...Crazy Jenny...Bob The Bartender...Gerard...
...Ben!!

Now what is the pattern in this?  Crazy Jenny is added and the three guys reverse order?

I suggest a blue-ribbon panel of the most senior experts in this field should convene to study the phenomenon and deliver a paper on their findings at the next meeting.

(WAYYYYYYYYYY to much time on her hands! )

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Now what is the pattern in this?  Crazy Jenny is added and the three guys reverse order?

I suggest a blue-ribbon panel of the most senior experts in this field should convene to study the phenomenon and deliver a paper on their findings at the next meeting.

No need for either a blue-ribbon panel or senior experts. The explanation for the pattern is quite simple. So simple, in fact, that its explanation will hold off so that you all might ponder it for a while longer.

[Raineypark]

Could you, perhaps, give us some indication just how much pondering on our part is required before you JUST EXPLAIN IT FOR PETE'S SAKE?!!!!! 

[Patti Feinberg]

Well...I've tried the Sherlock Holmes approach...

It's NOT by how many posts, NOT alphabetical, NOT date person registered....let's try curses/cures

Patti

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Could you, perhaps, give us some indication just how much pondering on our part is required before you JUST EXPLAIN IT FOR PETE'S SAKE?!!!!! 

I was away from my computer all day, just got home a short while ago, and I'm just glancing over the forum before I go to bed. An explanation will have to wait until sometime on Saturday.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Well...I've tried the Sherlock Holmes approach...

It's NOT by how many posts, NOT alphabetical, NOT date person registered....let's try curses/cures

Sherlock is looking in all the wrong places.

Here's a BIG clue: think about what most people use in their right hand (left, if they're left handed) when they're using their computers...