# Is this "online" green light new?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-online-green-light-new/351654>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [April 7, 2006, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-online-green-light-new/351654 "2006-04-07T00:42:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2006, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-online-green-light-new/351654/1 "2006-04-07T00:42:51Z")

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Either I have had terribly poor attention to detail, or the green light next to a person’s username (or lack thereof) indicating whether they are currently online is a new feature.

Tell me, which is it?

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**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2006, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-online-green-light-new/351654/2 "2006-04-07T00:43:42Z")

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IIRC, it came with the last software upgrade.

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**Author:** ![Santos\_L\_Halper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/santos_l_halper/32/1_2.png) [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2006, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-online-green-light-new/351654/3 "2006-04-07T01:14:28Z")

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> [@Rigamarole](#):
>
> Tell me, which is it?

You have had terribly poor attention to detail. It’s been around for quite a while. 🙂

And as I recall, before that it was a check mark that would change color to indicate the member was online.

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**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-online-green-light-new/351654/4 "2006-04-08T19:00:49Z")

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I was about to post a new thread, but I think I’ll hijack this one a bit, if I may.

How does the board know I’m not here anymore? When I open the boards, I’m automatically logged in. I understand that. But if I click away to a different site, I assume my little green light turns off. But how did the board know I clicked away?

What if I just close my browser window? How does the board know I did that? Is some sort of “logout” command being sent?

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**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-online-green-light-new/351654/5 "2006-04-08T19:02:58Z")

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I would imagine it’s based on when you were last active on this message board website, i.e. when you last clicked somewhere here. It probably has a 10 or 15 minute timeframe after which it will change your status to offline if you haven’t clicked. Just a guess. 🙂